Jeff Bingaman: “I feel very honored today to rise with my colleague, Senator Domenici, to introduce legislation to honor Representative…”

“I feel very honored today to rise with my colleague, Senator Domenici, to introduce legislation to honor Representative Steven H. Schiff, who died last month. This bill names the Auditorium in the Technology Transfer Center at Sandia National Laboratories as the Steven H. Schiff Auditorium. I have visited Sandia's Technology Transfer Center (TTC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is a beautiful building dedicated to furthering collaborations between the fine staff of scientists and engineers at Sandia and their counterparts in American universities and industry. It is altogether fitting that we dedicate the TTC Auditorium to the memory of Steven Schiff. Steve was a strong champion of collaborations and making the resources of our national laboratories available to US industry to help us compete in the global economy. Mr. President, Sandia National Laboratories has 6,000 employees. The lab is one of the nation's premier national security facilities with major responsibilities for our nation's energy research and development projects. Part of Sandia's mission includes technology transfer. The emphasis is on partnerships between industry and the lab to collaborate on emerging new technologies. Today, Sandia's vast technical expertise is being applied to solve a variety of technical problems that will benefit working Americans. A number of exciting collaborations between Sandia's engineers and private industry have come about as a direct result of Steve's efforts.”