[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 159 (Tuesday, December 13, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13486-S13488]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       A NEW AMERICAN RENAISSANCE

  Mr. BAUCUS. Toward the end of the 14th century, Emperor Manuel II 
Palaeologus ruled a waning Byzantine Empire. Looking across the 
Bosporus, he saw a growing threat from the Moslem Ottoman Turks. In 
1390, he sent an embassy up the Adriatic Sea to Venice to build 
alliances. And to head the mission, he named the 35-year-old Manuel 
Chrysoloras.
  Although his embassy to Venice did not prosper, Chrysoloras' 
reputation did. And in 1396, the chancellor of the University of 
Florence invited him there to teach Greek. The chancellor wrote: ``[W]e 
firmly believe that both Greeks and Latins have always taken learning 
to a higher level by extending it to each other's literature.'' 
Chrysoloras accepted.
  But no one in Italy had studied Greek for 700 years. Chrysoloras 
began. He taught Greek in Florence, Bologna, Venice, and Rome. He 
translated Homer and Plato. He wrote the first basic Greek grammar in 
Western Europe.
  As the early renaissance poet Dante Alighieri wrote in The Divine 
Comedy, ``A great flame follows a little spark.'' The flame of learning 
spread through the rest of Europe, reconnecting the West with classical 
antiquity, experimentalism, and the desire to live well.
  Chrysoloras and scholars like him helped to begin the scientific 
revolution and artistic transformation that would become known as the 
Italian Renaissance. Europe emerged from the backwater. Commerce and 
exploration burst forth. The Modern Age began.
  Renaissance historian Matteo Palmieri exhorted a fellow Italian of 
the mid 15th century to ``[t]hank God that it has been permitted to him 
to be born in this new age, so full of hope and promise, which already 
rejoices in a greater array of nobly-gifted souls than the world has 
seen in the thousand years that have preceded it,''
  With the Renaissance, Western Europe began its domination of the 
world economy. The West has held this power so long that it is easy--
especially for us here in the West--to take it for granted. But it need 
not have been so.
  In the century leading up to the year 1000, Moorish Spain could claim 
a far more advanced civilization than that of Christian Italy. 
Cordoba's streets were paved and lit. Cordoba had 300 public baths and 
70 libraries. Cordoba's great central library alone held 400,000 
books--more than all of France. The Arab postal service delivered 
regular mail as far as India. Arab civilization was internally 
creative. And Arab thinkers of the time were open to Persian and Indian 
science, as well.
  In the 12th century, an English scholar named Adelard of Bath 
traveled through the Islamic lands of Spain, North Africa, and Asia 
Minor. Adelard reported: ``The further south you go, the more they 
know. They know how to think.''
  And Adelard carried back from the south a way of thinking. He said: 
``Although man is not armed by nature, nor is naturally swiftest in 
flight, yet

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he has something better by far--reason.''
  The advanced Moorish state suffered civil conflict and fell to the 
less-developed Christian states of Europe. Finally, on January 2, 1492, 
the leader of the last Muslim stronghold in Granada surrendered to 
armies of a resurgent, newly-united Christian Spain. The remaining 
Spanish Muslims were forced to leave Spain or convert to Christianity.
  At the end of the first millennium, Arab Spain had the most advanced 
science and economy of its day. But in the centuries that followed, it 
fell to a newly-emergent Western Europe.
  At the end of the first millennium, Western Europe slumbered in its 
Dark Ages. But in the next centuries, it emerged into the Renaissance.
  We here today inherit the legacy of the Italian Renaissance. We have 
absorbed the learning of the Arab Caliphates. And we inhabit the land 
made known to Europeans by another voyage of 1492.
  At the end of the second millennium, America has the most advanced 
science and economy of our day. But we cannot take that leadership for 
granted.
  In the centuries ahead, if America wishes to remain the most advanced 
economy of our day, we will need to create a new American renaissance.
  We need this new American renaissance, because leadership does not 
come from continuing to do what we do already. Smart people in China 
and India and around the globe are quickly learning how to do what we 
do now. And people in China and India and around the globe will be able 
to do it more cheaply.
  Instead, leadership comes from constant innovation. Leadership comes 
from rapidly adjusting what we do to what the market demands. And 
leadership comes from serving the customer. Fortunately, these are 
characteristics at which Americans excel.
  This is my eighth Senate floor statement this year on 
competitiveness. I began in June with a general statement on 
competitiveness and America's place in the world. In June, I also spoke 
of education and competitiveness. In July, I spoke of trade 
and competitiveness and health care and competitiveness. In September, 
I spoke of savings and competitiveness. In October, I spoke of energy 
and competitiveness. In November, I spoke of immigration and 
competitiveness. And today, I conclude this series of addresses with 
this discussion of the need for the new American renaissance.

  My message is this: To foster this continuing American renaissance, 
American government cannot stand idly by. Remaining economically 
competitive will require action. Let me summarize my six-step agenda 
for action. This is what we need to do:
  First, we must improve education. The Italian Renaissance relied on 
the learning of the Greeks that Manuel Chrysoloras helped to spread. 
The new American renaissance will rely on our having the best educated 
workforce of the centuries to come.
  We need to ensure that children come to school ready to learn. We 
need to ensure that children have modern and well-equipped schools. And 
we need to ensure that children have small classes.
  We should raise salaries for teachers in poor schools by 50 percent. 
We should raise the salaries of top-performing teachers and teachers in 
math, science, and languages by another 50 percent.
  We can ensure quality afterschool programs. We can lengthen the 
school year.
  We must support community colleges and link them more strongly to 
workforce opportunities. We must expand Pell Grants. We must improve, 
consolidate, and expand education tax incentives. We must expand and 
extend the deduction for tuition expenses. We must increase 
scholarships and loan forgiveness for science and engineering students. 
We must expand the Hope and Lifetime Learning credits.
  We need to make it possible for non-traditional students to obtain an 
education. We need to retrain workers whose jobs are lost to trade and 
help them reenter the workforce.
  We should make it easier, consistent with the requirements of 
national security, for foreign students to study in America.
  We should make visa renewals during multiyear studies routine. And we 
should change visa renewal requirements policies that are now 
contingent on students' return to their home countries.
  Second, we must foster research. For it was discovery that helped 
bring about the renaissance.
  We need to reward innovation and risk-taking. We need to fully fund 
research support organizations like the- National Science Foundation, 
the National Institutes of Health, and the Office of Science at the 
Department of Energy. We need to simplify and make permanent the R&D 
tax credit.
  We should encourage talented foreign students to study, research, and 
innovate at American universities and research institutions. And we 
should simplify the permanent residence process for exceptional foreign 
students with advanced science degrees from American universities.
  Third, we have to advance international trade. Insularity 
characterized the Dark Ages. The Renaissance spread from an 
international spark. And the ensuing blaze of international commerce 
brought on the Modern Age.
  We must open new markets for American exports worldwide. We must 
improve enforcement of existing trade agreements. We must do more to 
defend American intellectual property rights. And we must prompt China 
to further loosen its currency.
  We should look more to Asia for bilateral agreements. We should 
advance regional trade agreements in Asia. We should seek out further 
sectoral agreements such as the WTO's Information Technology Agreement. 
And we should launch an initiative in the advanced medical equipment 
sector.
  We need to expand trade adjustment assistance to service workers. And 
we need to expand wage insurance.
  We can make it easier for major American companies to employ and 
train their overseas employees. And we can facilitate international 
participation in meetings and conferences and travel to trade shows.
  Fourth, we must address the burden that high health care costs place 
on American business. And we must help provide health insurance to 
those who do not have it.
  We can provide health insurance tax credits to small employers. We 
can fund employer-based group-purchasing pools. We can increase funding 
for high-risk pools. We can expand Medicaid and the State Children's 
Health Insurance Program. We can permit a Medicare buy-in for the near-
elderly.
  We need to facilitate the use of health information technology. We 
need to use health IT to link medication administration to a patient's 
clinical information. We need to foster standards for the 
interoperability of health IT systems. We need to improve healthcare 
providers' ability to exchange clinical data. And we need to provide 
loans and grants to encourage the use of health IT. The Senate has 
passed legislation this session to further many of these health IT 
goals. The House must do it, too, and move quickly to provide higher 
Medicare reimbursements and work to improve quality of care, known as 
``pay-for-performance.''
  We should provide higher Medicare reimbursements to providers working 
to improve the quality of delivered care. And we should coordinate 
senior care to ensure adequate preventive care and chronic condition 
management. This year's Senate-passed spending reconciliation bill took 
the first steps toward pay-for-performance. Although there is much in 
that bill that gives me pause, we should enact those pay-for-
performance changes.
  Fifth, we must increase national savings to finance the investment 
and innovation of the next renaissance.
  We need to plug the biggest leak in our national savings pool: the 
federal budget deficit. We need to truthfully report current and future 
Federal Government spending needs. We need to restore pay-as-you-go 
rules for both entitlement spending and tax cuts.
  We should reduce the annual tax gap. We should eliminate wasteful and 
unnecessary spending. We should eliminate wasteful and unfair tax 
breaks, such as abusive tax shelters and corporate tax loopholes. And 
we should slow the growth in healthcare costs.
  We can increase private savings. We can improve financial education. 
We can encourage automatic enrollment of

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eligible workers in retirement savings plans. We can bring payroll-
deduction retirement savings to private sector workers lacking 401(k)s 
or similar plans. We can make incentives for saving more progressive. 
And we can extend the Savers' Credit and expand it to Americans with no 
income tax liability.
  Sixth, for a modern renaissance, we must address the need for 
sustainable and environmentally compatible sources of energy.
  We can launch a new ``Manhattan Project'' to develop clean 
alternative energies. We can foster the use of hydrogen and fuel cells. 
We can foster wind energy. We can make a clear commitment to the 
development of biomass and ethanol-based fuels.
  We should encourage energy R&D through research grants to industry 
and educational institutions and tax incentives for R&D. We should 
offer prizes to spur innovation.
  We need an investment tax credit for coal gasification technology. We 
need a tax credit for companies that generate fuel using an updated 
version of the F-T process. And we need a Federal loan guarantee so 
that companies can finance these capital investments. This year's 
energy and highway bills addressed some of these needs.
  Taken together, these policies form a bold agenda to advance American 
competitiveness. They can help maintain American economic leadership in 
the world. And they can help to preserve high-wage American jobs here 
at home.
  Beginning next month, I will introduce a comprehensive 2006 
legislative package to strengthen America's competitiveness in a 
changing world. This package will encompass several bills that cover 
the many aspects of competitiveness. I invite my colleagues to join me 
in this effort.
  The early Renaissance poet, Dante Alighieri, embodied the spirit of 
his times when he wrote in The Divine Comedy that people ``were not 
born to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.''
  And from that grounding of virtue and knowledge flowed naturally 
Dante's description: ``And thence we came forth, to see again the 
stars.''
  Let us follow virtue and knowledge and foster a new American 
renaissance. Let us strengthen America's competitiveness in a changing 
world. And let America again go forth, toward the stars.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Allen). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from North Dakota is recognized.

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