Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 1119, the Research and Development Efficiency Act. I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this bill, and I want to thank Congresswoman Comstock and Ranking Member Johnson for their leadership in introducing the bill. Mr. Speaker, we all agree that administrative requirements serve an important purpose. They ensure transparency, the protection of human and animal subjects, and the wise use of Federal resources. But sometimes they go too far, so we need to find a much better balance than we currently have. The statistic often cited is that federally funded researchers spend an average of 42 percent of their time on administrative tasks. That is time and money spent not doing science. It is not an efficient use of some of our Nation's greatest scientific brain power, nor is it an efficient use of Federal research funds, especially as Federal spending for R&D continues to decline as a share of the overall budget. Back in the 112th Congress, the Research Subcommittee, which I served on as ranking member and which was led by then-Chairman Mo Brooks, held an important hearing on this matter to help get the ball rolling, which eventually led to this bill. H.R. 1119 requires the Office of Science and Technology Policy to convene an interagency working group to review the requirements governing the conduct of federally funded R&D at our Nation's research institutions.…”