Political Quotes

“I thank the good gentleman from Colorado for yielding. Mr. Speaker, prior to coming to Congress, I worked at the Economic Development Board for Tacoma, and in my office, I had a sign that said: ``We are competing with everyone, everywhere, every day, forever.'' That sentiment was echoed in a report by the National Academies last decade called, ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm,'' which was the main influence behind the bipartisan America COMPETES Act. The report provided us with a pathway on how to increase American competitiveness so that we don't fall behind our global competitors. Its finding were stark. The report told us that, if we are going to compete as a nation, if we want innovation to happen here in America, if we want jobs to be created here in America, we need to make significant investments in basic research and double the funding dedicated toward research and development. That is from that report. That is not what we are doing here today. In fact, funding for basic research in the bill that we are currently debating fails to keep up with the rate of inflation. It fails to live up to the standards set forth in that bipartisan report. When this bill was first considered in the Science, Space, and Technology Committee last Congress, a group of my fellow members of the New Democratic Coalition developed a set of principles we thought should guide a reauthorization of America COMPETES legislation.…”