Political Quotes

“sometime last year, word was received that Senators Bingaman and Alexander had an idea. The idea was to do something about our country's educational slide the wrong way. I spoke to them on several occasions. They wanted to see what we could do to increase our competitiveness internationally. Their suggestion was, first, let's do a study and find out how bad it is; is it as bad as we think it is. These two fine Senators got other Senators to join with them in the idea. They received a study from the National Academy of Sciences to find out where we were internationally with our science programs. The information was not good. As a result of that, we have the legislation now before the Senate. This legislation is not the know-all and cure-all, but it is certainly a major step forward, if we can do this, and there is no reason we cannot. I am happy and pleased to speak about the America COMPETES legislation. America COMPETES comes from the words ``creating opportunities to meaningfully promote excellence in technology, education, and science,'' COMPETES. This is something we should do and are doing on a bipartisan basis. The bill is sponsored by both leaders and 50 Senators. That is a step in the right direction. Frankly, this is the way we used to do legislation here. There was so much that was done on a bipartisan basis.”