Byron Dorgan: “I commend Chairman Mikulski and Ranking Member Bond for their foresight and leadership in providing a $256 million, or 6…”

“I commend Chairman Mikulski and Ranking Member Bond for their foresight and leadership in providing a $256 million, or 6 percent, increase for the National Science Foundation. I also appreciate their willingness to provide $85 million for the NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, EPSCoR, program. EPSCoR is a proven program that is helping researchers in historically underfunded States to improve their competitiveness for federal R&D. The managers of this bill have been gracious enough to accept an amendment from me that increases the EPSCoR funding in the Senate bill to $90 million in fiscal year 2002. This modest $5 million increase does not need to be offset because it comes out of the amount already appropriated through the NSF Education and Human Resources line-item. EPSCoR helps these States to build infrastructure and expertise in areas of scientific importance to the States and the Nation by providing seed money that allows smaller research universities to hire faculty, obtain equipment, support the development of young faculty members, and other vital tasks that the Stanfords and MITs of the world take for granted. While I am glad that the EPSCoR level in the Senate bill is $10 million above the current level and the President's budget request, we are still falling woefully short of the level needed to help under- funded States.”