Ranking Member Johnson Circulates America Competes Discussion Draft
(Washington, DC) – Today, Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) began circulating a Democratic discussion draft of the America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2013. In 2007, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology passed bipartisan, landmark legislation based on recommendations from the 2005 National Academies’ report Rising Above the Gathering Storm. The report found that the scientific and technological building blocks critical to our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gaining strength. The America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2010 continued the Committee’s commitment to strengthen American competitiveness through sustained investments in science, innovation, and education. The America Competes Act is up for reauthorization this year.
Ranking Member Johnson made the following statement.
“Our nation’s competitiveness continues to be compromised by significant and arbitrary cuts across our discretionary budget and by year-to-year, sometimes month-to-month uncertainty in the budget. Now is not the time to let up on our shared efforts to shore up and even grow our science and innovation capacity to build a better future for our children and grandchildren. The message we risk sending to the nation and the world by not reauthorizing the America Competes Act is a message of defeat. That is not a risk that I or other Democratic Members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee want to take. The America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2013 renews our commitment to ensure scientific and technological leadership now and long into the future. I know that the Chairman is hard at work on Competes-related legislation as well. I look forward to working with him and all the Members of the Committee to make sure that at the end of the legislative process we have a good, bipartisan bill.”
To see the Democratic discussion draft of the America Competes Reauthorization Act click here.
To see a fact sheet on the American Competes Reauthorization Act click here.
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