Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman I yield myself such time as I may consume. This amendment would strike from the bill two provisions that would limit the amount of money available for a very important activity at our national laboratories, laboratory-directed research and development, or LDRD, as it is known. I first want to thank the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Water Subcommittee for his willingness to work with me on this issue. While I have agreed to withdraw the amendment if the chairman agrees to work with me in the future on refining the execution of the LDRD efforts, I want to take this opportunity to address the merits of LDRD. As the Chair of the Science Subcommittee on Energy, I am a strong supporter of LDRD. In my experience, LDRD has been well managed, is important for both scientific discovery and scientific recruiting, and has a record of producing interesting and innovative ideas. The history of science abounds with examples of discoveries that came about while a scientist was attempting to answer a totally different question. LDRD provides funds to laboratory directors to pursue new ideas and give scientists the resources to go where the discoveries lead them. So what are some of these new ideas that have emerged from LDRD work? Well, what has LDRD done for us? To cite just two examples, LDRD projects led to a discovery that allows geologists to model ore deposits in three dimensions.…”