Political Quotes

“CONNECT, which is out of the University of California, is another important player in this particular field, and Dawnbreaker, a commercialization company. They were part of helping us forge this important compromise. I also note that the guidelines of the awards have been raised in the first stage from $100,000 to $150,000 and from $750,000 to $1 million for phase II and allows for sequential phase II awards--another important change. I particularly thank Senator Coburn for agreeing to an 8-year extension. We think, for a program such as this which is dealing with technologies that sometimes take years to develop, that can be very promising, but it takes some planning, it takes patience. This is not a program that lends itself readily to 2- to 4-year reauthorizations. That is too much uncertainty for a program such as this. Maybe other programs in the Federal Government should go through 4-year and 5-year authorizations. Both Senator Snowe and I pressed for a longer time. Senator Coburn is somewhat reluctant, but we are very grateful that he and others stepped up and said 8 years would be a good compromise in that way. We are grateful. This will be a very important authorization because it will set the direction for the next 8 years for our Federal agencies.”