Ranking Member Stevens' Opening Statement for Hearing on NSF's Priorities for 2025 and Beyond
(WASHINGTON, DC) – Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittee on Research and Technology held a hearing titled, Oversight and Examination of the National Science Foundation's Priorities for 2025 and Beyond.
Ranking Member Haley Stevens' opening statement for the record is below:
Thank you, Chairman Collins, for hosting this hearing, and to our witnesses Dr. Panchanathan and Dr. Reed, for being with us today. Good morning and welcome to today’s hearing focused on the National Science Foundation’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2025.
NSF is vital for supporting the transformational science and technology that expands our minds, strengthens our economic and national security, and promotes the wellbeing of our citizens. NSF is also critical for building a STEM workforce that represents the full demographic and geographic diversity of this country. These missions are intertwined- one cannot not exist without the other.
Take for example my home state of Michigan. Over $262 million of federal funds from NSF flowed into Michigan in FY23, with nearly $49 million in STEM Education. Like our former esteemed Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson knew, ensuring our next generation can achieve their dreams isn’t just a moral imperative but an economic and national security imperative.
We cannot continue to thrive and excel as a nation if we do not tap into all of our nation’s brainpower, no matter if they are in Southeastern Michigan when I represent or northern Georgia where our Subcommittee Chairman represents – we need all Americans, every member of the missing millions, to win.
As many of you know, I am also a Member on the Select Committee on Strategic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party. China is investing heavily in critical emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum, and biotechnology.
China is expected to increase their science and technology funding by 10% this year alone. And yet our federal research agencies are suffering significant cuts, specifically, NSF received an 8% cut in FY24 from the enacted FY23 budget, an unacceptable failure on our part in Congress. To win this race, this critical moment in our history, we must invest in science.
Luckily, this Committee laid the groundwork for our success with the landmark CHIPS and Science Act. The passage of CHIPS and Science Act last Congress bolstered our nation’s research enterprise to even greater heights by authorizing regional innovation programs, strengthening the lab-to-market pipeline, increasing funding for research and development, and diversifying our STEM workforce.
But for us to realize this promise, Congress needs to fully invest in CHIPS and Science, or we are in danger of losing our global STEM leadership to international actors. Unfortunately, Congress failed to meet the moment in the FY 2024 funding bill. I will continue to advocate that our Congressional appropriations match our rhetoric to win this moment by fully funding our sciences.
While below the CHIPS and Science authorization, President Biden’s FY25 budget for NSF represents a historic investment into our nation’s research ecosystem. A key piece of this proposal is funding NSF’s new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships.
The TIP program will be essential to continuing to develop and diversify the U.S. innovation base, including through public-private partnerships. TIP programs, such as the ENGINES program, will ensure we can build regional innovation ecosystem for manufacturing, agriculture, bioeconomy, and technology, like artificial intelligence. The TIP Directorate represents the next frontier for NSF, ensuring that our researchers can commercialize their groundbreaking innovations, which have been funded by NSF for decades, right here in the United States.
The CHIPS and Science Act was a historic investment into our economic competitiveness in science and technology leadership and I look forward to hearing about the amazing work that NSF is doing in standing up these programs, including its efforts to train the vitally needed semiconductor workforce. I also look forward to hearing more specifics about this historic budget proposal, NSF’s efforts to ensure that the agency is protecting taxpayer dollars through robust security and oversight efforts, and ensuring our researchers are in a safe working environment – no matter where they are.
I look forward to the discussion. Thank you again to our witnesses for joining us today. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Next Article Previous Article