[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 67 (Friday, May 22, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5466-S5468]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TO AMERICA'S FUTURE

 Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as a physician and surgeon, I've had 
the opportunity to witness everyday the remarkable difference that 
medical science and technology have made in people's lives.
  In just the short space of time that I've been practicing medicine--
less than 20 years--I've seen how the products of medical research and 
development--lasers, mechanical cardiac assist devices, mechanical 
valves, automatic internal defibrillators--have not only saved but 
vastly improved the quality of hundreds of thousands of lives every 
year.
  And as a physician, I can envision a future in which science and 
technology will roll back the current frontiers of medical knowledge, 
identify the causes, and eliminate most of the effects of the diseases 
that now plague mankind. It's absolutely astounding to contemplate.
  However, as a Senator, I've been afforded a different opportunity. 
And that's the opportunity to see, and learn, and understand -- not 
just medicine--but America. And, as a Senator, I can envision the 
difference that science and technology will make in the life of our 
Nation.
  Mr. President, as a country of immigrants we are a people drawn from 
diverse backgrounds and ideas. And there is no doubt that this unique 
amalgamation is one source of our remarkable strength and resiliency. 
But as diverse as our individual heritages are, a common thread runs 
through all of us. That thread is our common heritage as Americans, and 
it unites and strengthens us as well.
  Our forefathers came to this land to build a new life. Not 
surprisingly, they in turn created a nation of builders. We build 
homes. We build communities. We build factories and businesses. But 
most of all, Mr. President, we build futures--because we also build 
hope.
  As a people, Americans rise to a challenge. And as a nation --to 
every challenge we've ever faced. At no time was this more apparent 
than during World War II when we were forced to make drastic sacrifices 
to survive. The legacy of those choices has driven our economy and our 
policies ever since, and one of those legacies is the federal 
investment in science and technology.
  Science and technology have shaped our world in ways both grand and 
small. We've put men into space and looked into the farthest corners of 
the known universe. We've broken the code of the human genome and begun 
to dismantle previously incurable disease. We've created a virtual 
world and a whole new realm called cyberspace. Yet, technology also 
surrounds us in millions of little ways we no longer even notice: the 
computers that run our cars; the cellular phones that keep us in touch; 
the stop lights, the grocery store checkouts, the microwaves that help 
our lives run smoother and faster.
  In my Senate office alone, technology has made a tremendous 
difference--both in terms of helping me keep in touch with the people 
of Tennessee, and by helping them access important information.
  For example, while in the past Senators kept in touch by phone, 
letter, and trips to the state, today I regularly schedule video 
conferences with Tennessee schools--from the elementary to the 
university level. In March I spoke to the entire student body of George 
Washington Elementary School in Kingsport. Certain students were 
selected by their teachers to ask questions, and the rest watched on 
closed-circuit television. In April, I visited with students from 
Austin Peay State University in Clarksville. So, it no longer takes a 
week-end to speak with my constitutents face-to-face. At 11:50 that 
morning I was voting on the floor of the United States Senate; at noon, 
I was having a conversation with students in Tennessee.
  And thanks to the Internet--another remarkable product of federal 
research funds--this one funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research 
Projects Agency)--my Senate Website not only allows me to share my 
voting record, press releases, and speeches with constituents, it 
allows them to voice their opinions and concerns and ask questions 
about issues before the Senate.
  Our office also uses a digital camera--which allows photographs to be 
downloaded, printed, and disseminated almost instantly. On a recent 
trip to Bosnia, for instance, I took pictures of our troops from 
Tennessee, downloaded them into my laptop, e-mailed them to local 
newspapers in Tennessee, as well as to my Washington office where they 
were posted on the Web for all to see. The whole process took only a 
few minutes.
  As we can see, today's world runs on technology, and through its 
investment in research and development, the federal government has 
played a significant role in creating it. In fact, more than 56 percent 
of all basic research is produced with federal funds.
  Much of our economy runs on technology as well. Half of all U.S. 
economic growth is the result of our technical progress. Technology 
helps provide new goods and services, new jobs and new capital, even 
whole new industries.
  Developments in chemicals technology, for example, have lead to the 
production of new petrochemicals,

[[Page S5467]]

agrochemicals, food and pharmaceuticals, and advanced health care 
materials such as those used in skin grafts.
  Information technologies have spawned whole new industry segments in 
cellular communications, electronic commerce, and global information 
access.
  The space imaging and remote sensing technology that produced the 
U.S. Global Positioning System, has in turn become a core technology in 
several industries key to the U.S. economy, including agriculture, 
aviation, construction, land use, transportation, and mining. And those 
industries have themselves produced dramatic advancements. In 
agriculture alone, GPS- enabled precision farming has allowed more 
limited applications of pesticides and fertilizers, which in turn have 
resulted in less environmental damage at lower costs with more precise 
crop yield determinations.
  Without a doubt, technology is the principal driving force behind our 
long-term economic growth and our rising standard of living. In fact, 
according to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), 
technology is the single most important factor in sustained economic 
growth. Not only is the performance of U.S. businesses and their 
contributions to economic growth directly linked to their use of 
technology, but as cited in a study conducted by the Department of 
Commerce, manufacturing businesses that used eight or more advanced 
technologies grew 14.4 percent more than plants that used none--and, 
production wages were more than 14 percent higher.
  For any who might still remain unconvinced that our federal 
investment in science and technology has not produced phenomenal 
returns, let me give just two quick examples.
  Over the last three decades, the Department of Defense has funded $5 
billion in university research in information technology. Those 
programs alone created one-third to one-half of all major breakthroughs 
in the computer and communications industries. Today, those businesses 
account for $500 billion of GDP--a return on our investment of 3,000 
percent! In fact, studies of just one university alone--MIT--found that 
in Massachusetts MIT grads and faculty founded over 600 companies that 
produced 300,000 jobs and $40 billion in sales. In Silicon Valley, MIT 
grads founded 225 companies which produced 150,000 jobs and more than 
$22 billion in sales.
  In one industry alone--biotechnology--government's $43 million annual 
investment has not only produced the human capital of the biotech 
industry--scientists, engineers, managers--and new knowledge that's led 
to an understanding of the molecular basis of disease, but also new 
companies and new wealth. To, again, use MIT as an example, in 
Massachusetts alone, MIT-related companies have produced 10,000 new 
jobs, $3 billion in annual revenues, and 100 new biotech patents 
licensed the U.S. companies that have induced investment of $650 
million. Those companies now produce nine of the 10 FDA-approved 
biotech drugs that stop heart attacks and treat cancer, cystic fibrosis 
and diabetes, and we've only just begun to tap the potential returns of 
this rapidly advancing new field.
  But universities are not just the fountainhead of innovation. The are 
the wellsprings that provide the intellectual underpinning of future 
progress. They train the people who will translate new discoveries into 
new products and processes and industries.
  For example, Jennifer Mills, a physics undergraduate from Portland, 
Oregon, wrote much of the computer code responsible for the remarkable 
images sent back to Earth by the Hubble telescope. James McLurkin, an 
undergrad engineer, created a tiny robot that may well revolutionize 
certain kinds of surgery--enabling surgeons to operate inside the body 
without ever touching the patient!


      america's investment in science and technology must continue

  Clearly, America's investment in science and technology must 
continue. The two central questions that Congress must ask and answer, 
however, are: (1) Will science and technology continue to be as great a 
Congressional priority in the future as it has been in the past; and 
(2) Will the kind of financial investment necessary to sustain future 
progress ever be possible in light of our other growing financial 
commitments?
  Mr. President, the history of the last five decades has shown us that 
there is a federal role in the creation and nurturing of science and 
technology, and that--even in times of fiscal austerity--that 
commitment has been relatively consistent.
  However, the last three decades have also shown us something else: 
fiscal reality. The simple truth is there's just not enough money to do 
everything we'd like to do.
  It took some time for us to realize that, and by the time we did, we 
found ourselves in a fiscal situation that is only now being addressed. 
And--budget surpluses notwithstanding--discretionary spending is under 
immense fiscal pressure.
  One only has to look back over the last 30 years to confirm the 
trend. In 1965, mandatory federal spending on entitlements and interest 
on the debt accounted for 30 percent of the federal budget. Fully 70 
percent went toward discretionary programs--research, education, roads, 
bridges, national parks, and national defense.
  Today-- just 30 years later-- that ratio has been almost completely 
reversed: 67 percent of the budget is spent on mandatory programs and 
interest on the debt; leaving only 33 percent for everything else, 
including research. In fact, total R&D spending today as a percentage 
of GDP is just .75 percent--as compared to 2.2 percent in the mid-1960s 
when superpower rivalry and the race to space fueled a national 
commitment to science and technology. As the BabyBoom generation begins 
to retire and the discretionary portion of the budget shrinks even 
further, this situation will only grow worse.
  Thus, Mr. President, we have both a long-term problem: addressing the 
ever-increasing level of mandatory spending; and a near-term challenge: 
apportioning the ever-dwindling amount of discretionary funding.
  The confluence of this increased dependency on technology and 
decreased fiscal flexibility has created a problem too obvious to 
ignore: Not all deserving programs can be funded; Not all authorized 
programs can be fully implemented.
  In other words, Mr. President, the luxury of fully funding science 
and technology programs across the board has long since passed. We must 
set priorities.


frist vision for the future: how we ensure federal support for science 
                             and technology

  Mr. President, I commend my colleagues, Senators Gramm, Lieberman, 
Domenici, and Bingaman, for commencing a debate on funding for science 
and technology that is long overdue. I firmly believe that Congress 
must reaffirm our national commitment to science and technology, and 
redouble its efforts to ensure that funding is not only maintained but 
increased. However, I also believe that funding levels alone are not 
the answer.
  What we really need, Mr. President, is a strategy for the future--a 
vision that not only provides adequate levels of funding, but ensures 
that that funding is both responsible and sustainable over the long 
term.
  I believe we do it by establishing and applying a set of first or 
guiding principles that will enable us to consistently ask the right 
questions about each competing technology program; focus on that 
program's effectiveness and appropriateness for federal funding; and 
most importantly, make the hard choices about which programs deserve to 
be funded and which do not. Only then can Congress be assured that it 
has invested wisely and well.
  What are these first principles? There are four:
  First, federal R&D programs must be good science. They must be 
focused, not duplicative, and peer-reviewed.
  Because there is strength in diversity, they must support both 
knowledge-driven science--which broadens our base of knowledge and 
advances the frontiers of science; and mission-driven science 
requirements--which push the state-of-the-art in specific technology 
fields.
  Second, programs must be fiscally accountable. Especially in today's 
fiscal environment, wasteful administrative habits can't be tolerated.

[[Page S5468]]

  Third, they must have measurable results. Programs must achieve their 
aims. Their effectiveness must be evaluated-- not on the basis of 
individual projects which can have varying rates of success -- but on 
basis of the entire program.
  Fourth, they must employ a consistent approach. Federal policy must 
be applied consistently across the entire spectrum of federal research 
agencies. High quality, productive research programs must be encouraged 
regardless of where they are located.
  Accompanying the four first principles, are four corollaries:

       (1) Flow of Technology. The process of creating technology 
     involves many steps. However, the current federal structure 
     clearly reinforces increasingly artificial distinctions 
     across the spectrum of research and development activities. 
     The result is a set of programs which each support a narrow 
     phase of research and development, but are not coordinated 
     with one another.

  Government should maximize its investment by encouraging the 
progression of a technology from the earliest stages of research up to 
commercialization, through funding agencies and vehicles appropriate 
for each stage. This creates a flow of technology, subject to merit at 
each stage, so that promising technology is not lost in a bureaucratic 
maze.

       (2) Excellence in the American Research Infrastructure. We 
     must foster a close relationship between research and 
     education. Our investment at the university level creates 
     more than simply world class research. It creates world class 
     researchers as well. We must continue this strong to a 
     research infrastructure, and find ways to extend the 
     excellence of our university system to primary and secondary 
     educational institutions.
       (3) Commitment to a Broad Range of Research Initiatives. 
     Revolutionary innovation is taking place at the overlap of 
     research disciplines. We must continue to encourage this by 
     providing opportunities for interdisciplinary projects and 
     fostering collaboration across fields of research.
       (4) Partnerships among Industry, Universities, and Federal 
     Labs. Each of these has special talents and abilities that 
     complement the other. Our federal dollars are wisely spent by 
     facilitating the creation of partnerships, in effect creating 
     a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

  These first principles and their four corollaries, Mr. President, 
provide a framework that will not only guide the creation of new, 
federally funded research and development programs, but validate 
existing ones. Taken together, they create a powerful method for 
elevating the debate by increasing Congress' ability to focus on the 
important issues; decreasing the likelihood that it will get 
sidetracked on politically-charged technicalities; and ensuring that 
federal R&D programs are consistent and effective. They will also help 
us establish both a consistent set of national goals, and a vision for 
the future.


                         looking to the future

  However, Mr. President, even if we are to accomplish all that we 
hope-- in terms of setting and fully funding our current science and 
technology priorities, creating a vision for the future, and developing 
a strategy for attaining it--our work will still be incomplete if we 
fail to accomplish one more thing: We must prepare the next generation 
for the century to come.
  We must create a scientifically-literate work force capable of 
prospering in a world not only driven by a science and technology 
economy, but dependent upon science and technology excellence.
  Yet as evidenced by the results of the latest TIMSS (Third 
International Math and Science Study) study, America's high school 
seniors are among the industrial world's least prepared in math and 
science. And in math and physics, no nation performed more poorly than 
the United States.
  Why? Part of the reason is teacher qualification--28 percent of all 
high school math teachers, and 55 percent of all physics teachers 
neither majored nor minored in these subjects.
  Part of the reason is unrealistic curricula--which forces teachers to 
teach a little bit of everything, but nothing in depth.
  Part of it has to do with textbook publishers who seem to be more 
concerned with continually adding new material than with advancing 
students' skills.
  And part of it, no doubt, has to do with the fact that, in many 
cases, we simply have not fostered in our children the same spirit of 
wonder that was fostered in us.
  Mr. President, it's time to, once again, get America excited about 
science.
  It's time we recovered our heritage, and became again a nation of 
people who build the future--a future filled with hope and promise.
  And it's time we inspired the next generation to continue the process 
of exploration and innovation that made America possible in the first 
place, and that will take her into a 21st century future brighter than 
any point in her past.
  Mr. President, as a physician, as a scientist, as a Senator, those 
are my goals. I hope they are the goals as well of every Member of this 
body. For whether we, as a nation, use and develop the knowledge we 
gain to its highest potential for the benefit of ourselves, our Nation, 
and our fellow man depends, in large measure, on whether we are able to 
achieve them.
  Mr. President, I thank the chair.

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