Jay Rockefeller: “what the Senator from Missouri has just done is very gracious. He knows I have a 4 o'clock appointment that I have to…”

“what the Senator from Missouri has just done is very gracious. He knows I have a 4 o'clock appointment that I have to keep, and he is allowing me to speak. I want to say to those who might be watching and listening to this debate that it is an extremely important debate and that I will be back, hopefully, at about 5:15. I hope this debate is still going on so I can continue, because I strongly believe in this amendment. Mr. President, I want to respond to some of the issues that the distinguished Senator from Missouri has already raised, and speak in anticipation to other points. We are talking about a venture capital financing initiative. The opposition seems to have a concern about putting the Government in the business of assisting in the financing of particular ventures. They have chosen a pilot program, which is what is in S. 4--a pilot program--that lasts 2 years and then stops unless continued, and is called Civilian Technologies Investment Program. They have chosen this to make their point. Critical technologies are about the 25 most important aspects of advanced manufacturing--lasers, optic fibers, ceramics, composites, computer chips, et cetera--that if we do not have and are not manufacturing in the 21st century, we are going nowhere economically as a country.”