Ron Kind: “As one of the co-chairs of the New Democratic Coalition, I rise in strong support of the reauthorization of the America…”

“As one of the co-chairs of the New Democratic Coalition, I rise in strong support of the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act and commend the chairman of the Science Committee, our good friend and colleague, Mr. Gordon, for his tenacious focus on making sure that America COMPETES gets reauthorized in this session of Congress and working with the Senate in the waning days of this session to get it done. And we're sorely going to miss his leadership on this subject, as well as the leadership of our colleague from the State of Michigan (Mr. Ehlers), who has given tremendous guidance on what it means for the United States to remain the most innovative and creative Nation in the world. And that's what America COMPETES is all about. It's answering the question of whether or not we will remain the most innovative and on the cutting edge of scientific, medical, technological, and manufacturing discoveries and breakthroughs or whether we will continue our slide in second-rate status compared to other nations in the investments that we are seeing taking place overseas.”