[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 72 (Thursday, May 3, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5558-S5559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          AMERICA COMPETES ACT

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I would like to speak for a brief moment 
about recent Senate approval of the America COMPETES Act.
  This legislation is the product of several years of work by many 
individuals here in the Senate and it was immensely gratifying to see 
this bill pass the Senate. For the last 3 years Senators from numerous 
committees, Republicans and Democrats, have worked together on this 
legislation. They saw America falling behind the rest of the world in 
math and science and realized the need to do something. Well I believe 
this bill is going to do that something. It will double spending on 
physical science research, provide money to recruit 10,000 new math and 
science teachers and retrain hundreds of thousands of our existing 
ones. This bill is a huge step in the right direction for our country, 
a step that could not have been taken by just one Senator or one party. 
In these often partisan times, the America COMPETES Act is a fine 
example of what this body can accomplish when it works together in a 
bipartisan manner.
  I am very proud of the work my colleague from New Mexico Senator 
Bingaman, Senator Alexander and I put into this legislation. I am proud 
that the members of our committee, Energy and Natural Resources, 
continue to work in this bipartisan way.
  Additionally, I ask unanimous consent that two articles concerning 
the America COMPETES Act, one from the

[[Page S5559]]

Santa Fe New Mexican, the West's oldest newspaper, and one by David 
Broder of the Washington Post be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From the Santa Fe New Mexican, May 3, 2007]

           Jeff, Pete Provide Boost For Scientific Resurgence

       David Broder's right: Senate approval of the America 
     COMPETES Act, he notes in today's column, is big news. This 
     nation lurched from lethargy to the moon during the dozen 
     exciting years that followed Russia's launch of a man-made 
     earth satellite--then most of us went back to our beer and 
     barbecues, leaving all too few dedicated individuals fighting 
     to keep us in the big leagues of pure science and high 
     technology. Thus this act.
       It might have gotten short shrift from the national press, 
     but the importance of this bill wasn't lost on The New 
     Mexican's Andy Lenderman: He reported, on the front page of 
     our local news section Saturday that this was overdue action 
     on the math-and-science front.
       The measure, the full name of which is America Creating 
     Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Education 
     and Science Act of 2007--an aggravating cuteness whose 
     creator should be banished to Madison Avenue--features a 
     four-year, $16-billion authorization of new money to invest 
     heavily in physical-sciences research, recruitment of new 
     math and science teachers nationwide, while updating those in 
     the field. It would be part of a $60 billion campaign to put 
     America back--and in some areas keep it--at the cutting edge 
     of theoretical and applied science.
       Lenderman noticed that the bill, with Majority Leader Harry 
     Reid's sponsorship, was approved by an 88-8 tally. But at 
     least as important as the political weight was the groundwork 
     laid by New Mexico's senators:
       Jeff Bingaman, who has spent so much of his Capitol Hill 
     career urging his colleagues to support the sciences and 
     academics in general, sponsored a 2005 study--the report of 
     which carried a title both ominous and promising: ``Rising 
     Above the Gathering Storm.'' It told our nation of the 
     challenge from China, India and other nations in science and 
     technology--which could cost our country its competitiveness 
     in world markets.
       If evidence were needed to support that concern, we need 
     only look at our schools: Only 29 percent of eighth-graders 
     nationwide tested proficient in science. In New Mexico, only 
     18 percent did.
       This isn't a Sputnik situation of 50 years ago, where 
     within four months America had its own satellite in orbit 
     while back on earth science fairs were the rage; this is a 
     case of math-dedicated cultures creeping past one of B.A. 
     generalists dedicated to fun, comfort and prestige predicated 
     on material goods.
       It'll take more than money to rebuild momentum: Some of 
     America's many Renaissance-person scientists must be 
     persuaded to sing the glories of research--or at least the 
     joys and rewards of what sometimes results from it. Computers 
     as tools and toys, too, should help.
       What's great is that Bingaman and fellow Sen. Pete 
     Domenici, so often teammates in bipartisan congressional 
     initiatives, have put their skills and influence together for 
     this push. They're their parties' highest-ranking members of 
     the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Domenici 
     still is influential on the budget and appropriations 
     committees.
       New Mexico, with its national scientific laboratories, 
     stands to benefit from this initiative--which comes, we hope, 
     en buena hora for the people of our region: Just last week, 
     contractors at Los Alamos National Laboratory laid off scores 
     more of the workforce.
       The construction and maintenance people there have always 
     been at the mercy of LANL's whims, and those of its academic 
     and technical allies. But some of their children are seeing 
     the need for higher education to provide them more steady 
     work. The America COMPETES Act could raise awareness of, and 
     provide support for, generations of homegrown scientific and 
     technical people.
       The bill still must make it through the House of 
     Representatives--and as Broder implies, our nation's news 
     media could and should help the effort along.
                                  ____


                       [From the Washington Post]

                 COMPETES Act Is Real Boost, Real News

                           (By David Broder)

       On Monday, with few of his colleagues present and the 
     Senate press galleries largely unoccupied, Sen. Lamar 
     Alexander of Tennessee took the floor to make one of those 
     personal statements that fill the Congressional Record, but 
     rarely go any further.
       ``Last week,'' he said, ``while the media covered Iraq and 
     U.S. attorneys, the Senate spent three days debating and 
     passing perhaps the most important piece of legislation of 
     this two-year session. Almost no one noticed.''
       Alexander has a point. The bill, boldly named ``the America 
     COMPETES Act,'' authorized an additional $16 billion over 
     four years as part of a $60 billion effort to ``double 
     spending for physical sciences research, recruit 10,000 new 
     math and science teachers and retrain 250,000 more, provide 
     grants to researchers and invest more in high-risk, high-
     payoff research.''
       As Alexander noted, ``these were recommendations of a 
     National Academy of Sciences task force'' that he and others 
     had asked to tell Congress the 10 things it most urgently 
     needs to do ``to help America keep its brainpower advantage 
     so we can keep our jobs from going to China and India.''
       Back in December 2005, I wrote about the report that 
     Alexander, and Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, both of 
     New Mexico, had requested--and about the bipartisan support 
     that seemed to be available for this ``competitiveness'' 
     agenda. I even suggested that it was a natural topic for 
     President Bush's 2006 State of the Union address, if he 
     wanted to break through the growing partisan roadblocks on 
     Capitol Hill.
       The President included these ideas in his message, but did 
     little to build public support or press Congress for action. 
     Nonetheless, major elements of the bill passed the Senate 
     last year, only to bog down in the bitterly divided House.
       But persistence paid off. As Alexander said, ``Senators and 
     their staffs worked across party lines for two years. Senior 
     committee members, chairmen and ranking members, waived 
     jurisdictional prerogatives. The administration participated 
     in extensive `homework sessions' with senators and outside 
     experts. The effort was so bipartisan that when the Senate 
     shifted to the Democrats in January, the new majority leader 
     and minority leader introduced the same bill their 
     predecessors had in the last Congress. Seventy senators co-
     sponsored the legislation. . . . The final vote was 88-8.''
       The fight is far from over.
       The House has yet to act on most of the provisions, and 
     finding the money to carry it out will not be easy. Alexander 
     and Bingaman added an amendment to the budget resolution, 
     allowing $1 billion of extra spending for the first-year 
     costs of the program.
       Domenici and other appropriators will try to steer funds in 
     that direction, Alexander said.
       The Tennessee Republican's larger point is that this is the 
     model that Congress and the president need to follow--if any 
     of the major challenges facing the country are to be met.
       ``There are issues that are too big for either party to 
     solve by itself,'' Alexander told me. ``Globalization and 
     competitiveness are two of them. Immigration is the next one 
     on the agenda. And then there is health care.''
       He pointed out that the bipartisan breakfast sessions he 
     and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut have been hosting 
     regularly this year have included discussions of health 
     policy.
       As a byproduct of the breakfasts, ``10 of us, five 
     Republicans and five Democrats, have written the President 
     saying that we are ready to work with him on a bill that has 
     two principles--universal coverage and private markets. We 
     hope he responds.''
       Iraq looms as the supreme test, of course, and Alexander, a 
     Bush supporter, nonetheless says ``it was a mistake'' for the 
     president not to seize on the Baker-Hamilton commission 
     recommendations as the basis for a bipartisan answer to the 
     dilemma of the war.
       ``It's still sitting there on the shelf,'' he said, 
     implying that Bush will have to come back to Baker-Hamilton 
     at some point.
       Meantime, Alexander has a gentle reminder for the press 
     that our mind-set means that ``unfortunately, bipartisan 
     success, even on the biggest, most complex issues, has an 
     excellent chance of remaining a secret.
       ``Despite the size of the accomplishment, the passage of 
     the 208-page America COMPETES Act was barely noticed by the 
     major media.
       This is not a complaint, merely an observation. More than 
     ever, the media, outside interest groups, and party 
     structures reward conflict and the taking of irreconcilable 
     positions. There is little reward for reconciling principled 
     positions into legislation.''
       Sadly, I think he is right.

                          ____________________