Political Quotes

“I offer an amendment on behalf of me and my colleague, Congressman Scott Garrett, who is my Republican co-chair of the Payer State Caucus, which is a group of Members opposed to the massive transfer of wealth between one set of States to another. This amendment is a very simple one that would prohibit any of the funds in this bill from being used in the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, otherwise known as EPSCoR. EPSCoR was started in 1978 as an experimental program in the hopes of strengthening research infrastructure in areas of the country that receive less than their fair share, however defined. As a scientist and as an American, I think this goal is commendable, but the implementation of this program--and, in particular, the formulas used to earmark grants to a specific set of States--is absurd. The ability to participate in EPSCoR opportunities is based solely on whether or not a State has received less than 0.75 percent of the NSF research funding in the previous 3 years. Let me reiterate that. The Department of Energy's EPSCoR eligibility is determined by how much NSF research funding a given State has received in the previous 3 years. There is no rational basis for earmarking a grant program in one area of spending based on the spending in another unrelated program.…”