Dan Lipinski

Prize challenges inspire and help spur technological advancement by tapping into the strength of American ingenuity.

I want to especially mention the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, which is the bill that I have done with Congressman McCaul.

Simply put, cybercrime threatens businesses of all sizes and every single American.

It has been a difficulty because to some extent our committee is separated into subcommittees that look at single modes, that we have not done enough to really look at it comprehensively.

We need more Federal investments to help complete these projects.

We need to see real leadership on this.

We need to get this done. We need to be serious about it.

It is time that we finally do something here.

When we lose an undergraduate student from a STEM field, we lose a scientist or engineer who could potentially pursue a career in teaching the next generation.

For example, less than 2.4 percent of college students graduate with a degree in computer science, despite tremendous demand for these skills.

I am constantly hearing from manufacturing companies in my district that they have a hard time finding employees who have even basic math and science skills.

The federal government cannot begin to solve our STEM education challenges alone, we would be remiss to ignore the important role the government does play.

That's why partnerships between the private sector, Federal and state governments, colleges, universities, local school districts, national labs, science museums, zoos and aquaria, and all types of nonprofits are more important than ever.

We see the problems at all job levels. I constantly hear from manufacturers back home that they have a hard time finding employees who have even basic math and science skills.

I am very aware of how important it is that we do a good job of engaging and educating our students at all levels in STEM fields.

As manufacturing leaves this country, that is the great fear, that innovation will also leave the country

We have great R&D that goes on in this county, and, unfortunately, so much of it does not get deployed into innovation.

If we want to create the environment that will produce the high-paying jobs of the future and help this country keep its competitive edge, then we need to do more to support and expand advanced manufacturing.

Although we have heard time and time again about the crucial link between economic growth and a vibrant U.S. manufacturing sector, I think these facts bear repeating.

We have to take note of countries such as Korea, Japan, and Germany that have a larger share of the advanced manufacturing sector than the United States.

We have all seen the headlines about how our competitors are pouring resources into R&D.

I have concerns with language in the bill that would make changes to the way that NSF conducts merit review of research proposals.

I believe any reauthorization of NSF should provide sustainable funding to all scientific disciplines and not impose any unique restrictions or conditions on any specific type of research.

If this trend continues, the long term effects on our scientific competitiveness will be catastrophic.

I look forward to hearing from the witnesses and hope that the testimony can get us thinking about how research can help us better tackle the increasing meth addiction problem plaguing our communities.