On the recordMarch 22, 2016
I want to thank my friends, Congressman Blum and the future Senator DeSantis, for great words and great insights. Mr. Speaker, I first want to answer a couple of questions that people have had about a couple of votes that my friends, Justin Amash and Thomas Massie, and I had. One is on H.R. 4742. It is described to authorize the National Science Foundation to support entrepreneurial programs for women. Since my wife and I have been blessed with three beautiful daughters, inside and out, all three of them absolutely brilliant--these type of things are important to me--but I note that it says, ``studies have shown that technology and commercialization ventures are successful when women are in top management positions.'' It also puts into law that the requirement that, under the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunities Act, it is required that the National Science Foundation encourage its entrepreneurial programs to recruit and support women to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and into the commercial world. Now, it just seems like--and I know these are incredibly well intended. Both H.R. 4742 and H.R. 4745 are very, very well intended. Wonderful people put them forward. I understand that. But just from my experience and from the common sense I hear as I get all over east Texas, it just seems like Washington is always a step behind or--an old saying--a day late and a dollar short. Now we are $19 trillion short.…
