[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 64 (Monday, May 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             INNOVATION CRISIS IS A HOMELAND SECURITY ISSUE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, this week we are considering legislation to 
fund the Department of Homeland Security. These are necessary, 
important pieces of legislation, two bills we are taking up, that will 
help protect our homeland from terrorist threats and make the type of 
investments we need to make in areas of our airports, ports, roads, 
chemical facilities and nuclear facilities. Overall the homeland 
security bill funding will increase by 4 percent.
  But while we are focused on defending ourselves from terrorists here 
in the United States and fighting terrorists in Iraq, one has to wonder 
whether we are not missing some other threats that are looming on the 
horizon that America must protect themselves. Friday in the New York 
Times, Tom Friedman mentioned that the University of Illinois recently 
tied for 17th place in the world finals of a major computer 
competition. That is the university that also helped develop the 
Internet.
  Seventeenth was the best of any U.S. university and the worst we have 
done in 29 years of the competition. Who was number one? Shanghai, 
China. Second place and third place were won, respectively, by Moscow 
State University and St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and 
Optics. The last time an American university won the competition was 
1997. I do not think I have to remind anyone here that the modern 
computer and the field of computer science was invented here in the 
United States, and yet the best we can do is 17th. But it is not just 
in computers and the computer competition that America's place in the 
world has fallen.
  Last year, the Chinese produced 160,000 more engineers than we did. 
Nearly 40 percent of all the U.S. jobs in a science or technology field 
that require a Ph.D. are filled by foreigners, up from 25 percent in 
just 15 years. We now rank below 13 other countries, including Japan, 
South Korea and Germany, in the percentage of 24-year-olds with a 
college degree in science and engineering. That is down from third 
place just 25 years ago.
  And according to the National Science Teachers Association, just 26 
percent of recent high school graduates scored high enough on their ACT 
science test to have a good chance of completing a first-year college 
science course.
  I say all this because it is about the foundation and this 
competition and this area that is going to lay the groundwork for 
whether America keeps its economic and competitive edge with the rest 
of the world. What would you think if that was the type of threat that 
you saw coming to the United States? What type of preparation would you 
do? We know what we are doing on homeland security. We created a new 
department. We are increasing its funding. What do we do as it relates 
to this type of falling down and declining percentages of Americans 
leading in the area of science and technology?
  The recent budget we passed here cuts basic research by 13 percent. 
It cuts applied research by 15 percent. Investments in research 
facilities and equipment are cut by 68 percent. We have to rely on 
Russians to service the International Space Station because we are 
cutting basic research funding at NASA by 7 percent. We are cutting the 
funding for the Department of Education. State grants for innovative 
education programs were cut by $100 million. Funding for the 
improvement of postsecondary education was gutted by $140 million.
  These are not the type of priorities that understand the threat to 
the United States economic future and the type of global economy and 
global competition this country is facing. We are living on past times 
and on borrowed time in the area of science and technology, but that is 
not how the Chinese, Indians, Japanese, Germans and others across 
Europe are facing this competition.
  America did well in 17th place. It can do better. The way it does 
better is it makes the type of investments in our universities. It 
allows the people in our high schools and in our colleges to understand 
the priorities. Unfortunately the budget we voted on did not reflect 
America's future and investment in its future. What it says is that as 
we deal with the terrorist threat of homeland security and increasing 
the funding by 4 percent, increasing our defense budget, making cuts in 
basic research and basic funding, and I did not add into that area, in 
the National Institutes of Health for the first time in over 15 years 
that budget was held without an increase, which basically means a cut.
  These are not the type of investments of a major economy, the leader 
in the global economy, that builds and plans for the future. These are 
the cuts of an economy and an administration that does not see its 
vision for America's future as bright and as strong as the past and it 
is clearly not putting its money toward that investment. It is high 
time that we understand that as we take up these two pieces of 
legislation this week on homeland security, we understand there are 
other threats to the United States, ones that are looming on the 
horizon and coming to shore, and that is in the area of technology and 
competing against the Chinese and the Indians and we are not having a 
budget that reflects the types of investments we need to do.

                          ____________________