Chris Coons: “as we await a 12:15 p.m. vote, I want to urge my colleagues to support the first amendment that we will be voting on…”

“as we await a 12:15 p.m. vote, I want to urge my colleagues to support the first amendment that we will be voting on today--the Gardner-Coons sense-of-the-Senate resolution, a resolution that focuses on the importance of federally sponsored research for the advancement of scientific innovation. There are many great things to like about the program that is funded in this Energy and Water appropriations bill that is about to be before us, especially the work funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Our bipartisan resolution reinforces that message by acknowledging that the United States has long been a leader in innovation, in large part because of a critical role played by Federal funding for both basic and applied research. For decades, we have made investments that have led to incredible breakthroughs instrumental to our current prosperity, economy, and jobs. The Department of Energy National Labs--the 17 labs across 11 States--have been at the forefront through that process since their founding. It is the creative, generative, innovative partnership among these federally funded national labs, our network of universities and colleges that conduct federally funded and privately funded research, and the entrepreneurs and companies that take, through applied research, their innovations and inventions to the marketplace that in combination have created one of the most innovative, most competitive economies in global history.…”