Steven Holt: “That is right. The President embraced much of this. This need not be, should not be, a partisan matter. We are…”

“That is right. The President embraced much of this. This need not be, should not be, a partisan matter. We are presenting tonight something we call the Democratic Innovative Agenda. It doesn't have to be the Democratic Innovative Agenda. We are presenting it because for 5 years it hasn't been presented. It is because these things need to be done. These entrepreneurs, these venture capitalists, these researchers that we have been meeting with said, please do it; it is not getting done. So we are presenting it, and I guess I would even challenge the majority to take this issue away from us if they only would. But in fact we have the budget in front of us. The President's budget, as I say, not only reduces research and development spending in total, the NIH budget in real terms will decline for the third year in a row, and math-science partnerships at the National Science Foundation zeroed, zeroed out. How in the world are we going to grow the kind of innovative economy that we want, that we need, that we used to have, if we are cutting the National Science Foundation?”