September 29, 2010
Further Investments in Science and Technology Vital to National Economic Competitiveness, Distinguished Panel Tells Committee
(Washington, DC) – Today, the House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing to discuss findings and recommendations from the recently released report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5. The updated report highlights progress that has been made in the past five years, including enactment of the America COMPETES Act, but underscores that America’s competitive position in the world now faces greater challenges and that research investments are even more critical today. The report urges reauthorization of COMPETES.
“Our marching orders are clear. We must continue what we started and recommit ourselves to the ideals we laid out in the original COMPETES Act. If this report tells us anything, it tells us that the worst thing we can do is let our efforts at reauthorization languish. Unfortunately, despite our best laid plans, the America COMPETES Act is set to expire tomorrow. However, because of the wide breadth of support, I am hopeful that the COMPETES reauthorization bill will be enacted by the end of the year, and that Congress will have once again answered this call to action,” stated Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN).
The witnesses were part of the distinguished panel that authored the original 2005 Rising Above the Gathering Storm report. Each of them also participated in a recent review of the 2005 report and produced the updated report. Witnesses found that the circumstances of today provide an even more compelling argument for research investments than the time they were initially proposed in the original 2005 Gathering Storm report. Witnesses offered recommendations to the Committee and to Congress on how to maintain U.S. competitiveness and economic security for the long-term.
“For many years, I worked as an aircraft engineer and we often dealt with the dilemma of trying to make an overweight aircraft fly. We never solved the problem by removing an engine. Science funding is the engine of a thought-based economy. We cannot simply remove it,” said Norm Augustine, chairman of the Gathering Storm Committee and former Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin.
“The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has challenged innovators to come up with truly novel ideas and “game changers.” The program has high potential for long-term success, but only if it is given the autonomy, budget, and clear signals of support to implement needed projects,” stated Charles Holliday, member of the Gathering Storm Committee and Chairman of the Board of Bank of America.
Witness Craig Barrett, also a member of the Gathering Storm and retired Chairman and CEO of Intel Corporation, put the issue simply, “America has an innovation problem. And we need to solve it.”
“If we do not recognize the significance of the declining course of U.S. competitiveness in S&T and innovation to our future prosperity and national security, we will not change the culture necessary to make S&T a higher priority,” stated Dan Mote, Jr., member of the Gathering Storm Committee and President Emeritus of the University of Maryland.
The report highlights many of the challenges we still face. It finds that:
· Sixty-nine percent of United States public school students in fifth through eighth grade are taught mathematics by a teacher without a degree or certificate in mathematics.
· Only four of the top ten companies receiving United States patents last year were United States companies.
· United States consumers spend significantly more on potato chips than the government devotes to energy R&D.
· China has now replaced the United States as the world’s number one high-technologyexporter.
Witnesses and Members agreed that the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act will play a significant role in securing both U.S. competitiveness and economic security.
The House passed a five-year reauthorization of the America COMPETES Actin May of 2010. The House bill makes investments in science, innovation, and education to support employers today while strengthening the U.S. scientific and economic leadership to grow new industries of tomorrow, and the jobs that come with them. The bill puts basic research programs on a path to doubling authorized funding levels over ten years at: the Department of Energy Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology labs. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation reported out its own reauthorization bill in July. To date, the Senate has not taken any further action on COMPETES reauthorization.
About the Chairman:
This was the 234th hearing of the Science and Technology Committee since Chairman Gordon assumed leadership at the start of the 110th Congress in January 2007. Under his leadership, the Committee has held 52 markups and passed 146 pieces of legislation through the House, nearly all with bipartisan support. Chairman Gordon's commitment to responsible, bipartisan efforts to advance science, technology, education and competitiveness has been the hallmark of his service on the Committee. He has worked diligently for this to be the Committee of “good ideas and consensus.” Chairman Gordon will retire from Congress at the end of this term.
For more information on the Committee’s work on The America COMPETES Act, visit the Committee’s website.
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