Jim Baird: “Mr. Chairman, we have been over the basics. Let me just reiterate, this proposal for the increase in the National…”

“Mr. Chairman, we have been over the basics. Let me just reiterate, this proposal for the increase in the National Science Foundation is thoroughly consistent with President Bush's own agenda. The competitiveness initiative calls for these kinds of increases. That is point one. Point two: If we hope to maintain our competitiveness, if you look at the proportion of our economy today that is the direct result, and Dr. Ehlers illustrated a number of examples, but the direct result of research and inventions that have come out of funding by the National Science Foundation, a tremendous amount of our economic prosperity today came from those investigations. As Dr. Ehlers so eloquently said, we don't know, 'we' generally, not just we in the Congress, but especially we in the Congress, don't necessarily know which particular investigation, which particular study, is going to yield those profound results. But some will. I will tell you, I just spoke to a scientist in my district last week and he said to me, Congressman, the pipeline of U.S. scientists is drying up. You just really have to understand this. The pipeline of U.S.-based scientists is drying up, because the research funding is not adequate to meet the demand.”