Vernon Ehlers: “I encourage this body to vote for this amendment to indicate that our priority is to make certain that these patents are…”

“I encourage this body to vote for this amendment to indicate that our priority is to make certain that these patents are processed in due time, and that they are handled rapidly enough to help the economy continue to grow. I do this with the recognition that this will hurt other segments of the budget that also need funding; but I am confident that, as the process goes on, the Senate and the House will recognize the importance of both of these areas and that the funding will be increased to accommodate the needs in both areas. Mr. Chairman, we are not robbing Peter to pay Paul, as the gentleman from Maryland said earlier. We are in a sense robbing Peter to pay Paul in that we are taking the money out of the fees paid to the PTO and saving them for later use simply because using them now would cause the subcommittee allocation to be exceeded. Mr. Chairman, I urge adoption of the Coble amendment so that we can in fact continue the rapid processing of the patents in the Patent Office.”