Ranking Member Lofgren Opening Statement for Hearing on Biotechnology
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittees on Research & Technology and Energy are holding a joint hearing titled, "Pursuing the Golden Age of Innovation: Strategic Priorities in Biotechnology"
Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren's (D-CA) opening statement as prepared for the record is below.
Good morning. Thank you to Chairmen Obernolte and Weber for holding this hearing and thank you to the distinguished panel of witnesses for joining us this morning.
As with most of the hearings our Committee has held these last few months, we have an excellent panel of witnesses here to discuss an important topic for the future of our nation. And like most of those hearings, I anticipate the discussion remaining substantive, engaging, and bipartisan.
I am genuinely excited about this topic of biotechnology. I recognize it not just as central to the future economy of my own district in California, from agriculture to pharmaceuticals, but central to the future of our nation’s entire economy. And it is here in the Science Committee that we help map out the future of our country.
So I want to note my appreciation for Chairman Babin and his colleagues for continuing this substantive, bipartisan approach to the issues at hand in the Science Committee. It is in the best interests of our constituents and the nation, as well as the best use of the time of these eminent scientists and leaders we ask to appear before us – scientist who otherwise would be in the lab directing their critical research.
At the same time, as anyone who has paid attention to our hearings would note, my colleagues and I on this side of the aisle are increasingly frustrated that we seem to be holding these hearings as if all is okay in science outside the four walls of this room, when that could not be further from the truth.
The Trump Administration, aided by DOGE, has been on the warpath against U.S. science. They cynically throw around excuses, playing on both imagined and real challenges in the research enterprise, to take a slash and burn approach to our scientific enterprise. The consequences are already rippling across the nation: abrupt funding cancelations to ongoing research and STEM workforce development programs, reduced graduate student admissions in STEM departments for the coming year, brain drain of top U.S. talent to other nations or outside of STEM careers altogether, a chill across the entire enterprise that is leaving young students asking why bother pursuing STEM.
We are holding this hearing embracing the future of U.S. biotechnology leadership, but there will be no such future if the President’s attacks on science isn’t stopped.
My intent is not to minimize the importance of this hearing. To the panel of experts before us, I am grateful to you for taking the time to appear before us today to share your expertise and insights, and I look forward to the discussion.
I yield back.
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