Vernon Ehlers: “very often from this podium we hear criticism of our Government and of our Nation, and rightfully so, because we…”

“very often from this podium we hear criticism of our Government and of our Nation, and rightfully so, because we exercise an oversight role. But I believe we have an obligation also to point out when the Government does something good and something right. I would like to mention two such items that have happened recently. First of all, Dr. William Phillips, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, recently shared a Nobel Prize for physics for research that he had done on cooling atoms. This is a very esoteric field of research, and it has real promise for the future, particularly for precise timekeeping, and will improve our time-standard accuracy by a factor of 100. In a recent science magazine I noticed also that William H.F. Smith from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and David Sandwell from Scripps Institution have succeeded in mapping the world, including the ocean floors, from satellites. What I am displaying here is a remarkable map, obtained for the first time in history, showing all the topographical details of the land and undersea surfaces. This will be extremely useful in analyzing effects such as El Nino and determining how to improve our fisheries. I commend these scientists as well as Dr. Phillips for the good work they have done. We are proud of them, and proud to have them as Government employees.”