[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 126 (Thursday, August 2, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10764-S10772]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AMERICA COMPETES ACT
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, this evening the Senate unanimously
passed a piece of legislation which we call the America COMPETES Act.
Earlier today, the House of Representatives passed it by a vote of 367
to 57. So anyone watching the work of the U.S. Congress must think:
Well, that must either be not very important or not very hard to do.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I would suggest that the
America COMPETES Act will be as important as any piece of legislation
the Congress passes in this session, and it has taken as much work as
any piece of legislation that has been passed in this session.
I would like to spend a few minutes acknowledging the work and
describing the importance of the bill, but I think the first thing to
do is to say actually what the bill does. The point of the America
COMPETES Act is very simple. It helps America keep its brainpower
advantage so we can keep our jobs from going overseas to China and
India and other countries.
The Presiding Officer is from a State that has benefitted greatly
from America's brainpower advantage. There is a great deal of higher
education and research in his State, and, as a result of that, a number
of jobs. I have been in the Edison Museum in New Jersey, which is a
good reminder of exactly what we are talking about.
Thomas Edison used to say he failed 10,000 times until he succeeded
once. That one success was the lightbulb, and then a number of other
inventions, which created millions of jobs in the United States.
The United States, this year, is producing about a third of all the
money in the world. The International Monetary Fund says that almost 30
percent of all the wealth in the world is produced in our country,
measured in terms of gross domestic product, for just 5 percent of the
world's population. That is how many Americans there are.
So imagine if you are living in China or India or Ireland or any
country in the world, and you are looking at the United States. It is
not so hard to look at other countries today with the Internet and
travel and television the way they are. Someone in one of those
countries could say: How can those Americans be producing 30 percent of
all the wealth for themselves when they are only 5 percent of the
world's population? They have the same brains everybody else does. They
cannot work any harder than anybody else does.
What is it? There are a variety of advantages we have in this
country. But most people who look at this country, since World War II,
believe our standard of living, our family incomes, our great wealth
comes primarily from our technological advances, from the fact that it
has been in this country that the automobile, the electric lightbulb,
the television set, the Internet, Google have been invented. Or the
pharmaceutical drugs that help cure disease all over the world, they
also have come mostly from this country.
It is that innovation that has given us our standard of living and
given the rest of the world a high standard of living. That brainpower
advantage we have is located in some pretty obvious places. One place,
of course, is our system of higher education, the great university
system. We not only have many of the best universities in the world, we
have almost all of them. Another place is in the great National
Laboratories, from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to Los Alamos and
across our country.
Another is in the great corporations of America where research is
done whether it is in pharmaceuticals or whether it is in agriculture.
Those great engines of research and innovation and the entrepreneurial
spirit and free market that we have have given us this great advantage.
We, therefore, talk a lot about progrowth policies. What causes our
economy to grow? We, on this side--we Republicans--talk a lot about low
taxes. I believe that is important and vote that way. When I was
Governor of Tennessee, we had the lowest tax rates in the country. But
I found very quickly that low taxes by themselves do not create a high
standard of living because we had the lowest taxes in our State but we
also were the third poorest State. I also found that better schools and
better research were the keys to better jobs. That is what this bill is
about. So as a result of the America COMPETES Act, over the next few
years, we will have done something pretty remarkable.
We asked the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of
Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, as well as other business
leaders in our country, exactly what it would take to keep our
brainpower advantage, and they have told us, and tonight we have done
it. All that has to happen now is for the President of the United
States to sign it, and I feel confident he will.
[[Page S10765]]
I hope what he does is sign it and take credit for a lot of it, because
in his State of the Union Address President Bush emphasized the
importance of this and talked about his American Competitiveness
Initiative 2 years ago.
But this is what we have done. We have authorized the spending, over
the next 3 years, of $43 billion to help keep our brainpower advantage
by investing in science and technology. Most of that--and this was a
part of the President's recommendation--helps to grow research at our
major scientific laboratories and Departments by doubling their
research budgets over a 7-year term. That would be the National Science
Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the
Department of Energy Office of Science, which among other things,
supervises the great National Laboratories in our country.
As I said, the act authorizes a total of $43.3 billion, over the next
3 fiscal years, for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
research and education programs across the Federal Government. It will
help to prepare thousands of new teachers and provide current teachers
with content and teaching skills in their area of education. It will
establish an advanced research projects agency for energy--a nimble and
semi-autonomous research agency at the Department of Energy--to engage
in high-risk, high-reward energy research. This is modeled after what
we call DARPA at the Department of Defense which produced stealth
technology and the Internet. Perhaps we can do the same as we look for
new energy technologies.
It expands programs at the National Science Foundation to enhance the
undergraduate education of our future science and engineering
workforce, including at our community colleges. There are many
provisions in the bill to broaden participation in science and
engineering fields at all levels.
There are new competitive grant programs to enable partnerships to
implement courses of study in math, science, engineering, technology,
and critical foreign languages. There are competitive grants to
increase the number of math and science teachers serving high-need
schools. The bill expands access to advanced placement courses and
international baccalaureate courses by increasing the number of
qualified teachers in high-need schools. In other words, in plain
English, it will help more children, including those who come from
families with less money, have a chance to take the advanced placement
courses that will give them a route into college, high achievement, and
the ability to produce jobs not just for themselves but for the rest of
us.
It expands early-career research grant programs. It strengthens
interagency planning for research infrastructure. It does all of this.
Now, one might say: Where did all these ideas come from? Did the
Senator from New Jersey just wander in one day and say, ``I have a
great idea. Let's stick it in''? Or did the Senator from Arkansas say,
``Well, we have a little program over at Little Rock that we all like,
so let's have some money for it''? Or did the Senator from Tennessee
say, ``I was down at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory yesterday, and
someone gave me an idea, so let's have $10 million for that''?
That is not the way we did it. What we did is, 2 years ago, Senator
Bingaman and I, and Representatives Bart Gordon and Sherwood Boehlert
of the House of Representatives--two Democrats and two Republicans--we
literally went to the National Academy of Sciences and we asked this
question: Tell us exactly what we need to do to keep our brainpower
advantage, to keep our jobs from going to China and India? And they
took us seriously.
The National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of
Engineering and the Institute of Medicine appointed a distinguished
committee of 21 Americans chaired by Norm Augustine, the former
Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin and a member of the National
Academy of Engineering. On that committee were some of America's most
distinguished business leaders, three Nobel laureates, the president
emeritus of MIT, teachers, and others, who gave up their summer,
reviewed hundreds of proposals, and, in priority order, told us the 20
things we needed to do to keep our brainpower advantage.
All of that was presented to us in a booklet called ``Rising Above
the Gathering Storm,'' which is now well-known at universities, in
schools, and in the business community as a wakeup call for the United
States of America. It says we have been good--in fact, we have been way
ahead of the rest of the line--but if we do not watch out, China,
India, Ireland, England, and many of the other countries in the world,
are going to catch up with us because there is no preordained right for
Americans--no matter how bright we think we might be--to produce 30
percent of the world's wealth for just 5 percent of the people. Other
people can do the very same thing in their colleges and universities,
if they wish.
The members of this commission had countless stories to tell that
every American who confronts these issues will find. Every Senator who
travels to China sees they have recruited a distinguished professor of
Chinese descent at an Ivy League university to come home and help
improve a Chinese university. That is happening all over the world, and
it is creating a much more competitive environment.
Last summer, Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens led a delegation of
Senators to China. We were very well received because Senator Stevens
was the first to fly a cargo plane into Beijing in 1944 at the end of
World War II. He was flying with the Flying Tigers. Senator Inouye, of
course, was a Congressional Medal of Honor winner in World War II. The
Chinese remember well their affection for Americans in that war. So we
were treated well and got to see President Hu, and the No. 2 man, Mr.
Wu, the Chairman of the National People's Congress, for an hour each.
These were interviews that many American delegations had not had
before.
What was interesting to me was that in those sessions with the No. 1
and No. 2 man in China, where our conversations ranged from Iraq to
Iran to North Korea to Taiwan, all the issues one might expect, the
issue that animated the leaders of China the most was their efforts
over the next 15 years to create an innovation economy. They wanted to
talk about how China caught up with America's brain power advantage
because they know their skills, they know they are good, they know they
can do it and they did it in their way.
The month before, President Hu had walked over to the Great Hall of
the People and assembled their National Academies of Science and
Engineering and said: We are going on a 15-year innovation plan. We are
going to invest 4 percent of our gross domestic product in research and
technology. We are going to improve our colleges and our universities
and our schools. We are going to create a brain power advantage for
China that gives us a higher standard of living. They understand that.
We did it a little different way. Two years ago, we walked down to
our National Academy of Sciences. We invited them to give us this
report, ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm''. We took the
recommendations of the Council on Competitiveness which was already
working. The President of the United States gave his recommendations in
his American Competitiveness Initiative. And then we went to work in
the American way. We don't announce 15-year plans here; our way is a
little messier. So we had to go through three committees here in the
Senate and two in the House of Representatives.
I have to thank the senior Members of this body for the attitude they
took toward this. For example, Senators Stevens and Inouye, Senators
Kennedy and Enzi, Senators Domenici and Bingaman, Democrats and
Republicans who put aside 3,000 years of seniority and 200
jurisdictional prerogatives and said: Let's just work together and see
if we can get this done across party lines. That is not very
interesting to people across the country, all this inside baseball
about how the Senate works. But it has to work in order for something
such as this to happen.
It is not a simple thing to take the recommendations of the National
Academy of Sciences and actually do them in both bodies, and yet that
is what we have done. Not only did we start 2 years ago, when this was
a Republican Congress, but we passed this legislation during a
Democratic Congress almost without missing a step.
[[Page S10766]]
What happened was a bill that was sponsored by the leaders--last time
it was Frist and Reid; now it is Reid and McConnell. They just changed
the names because we had worked so well together--not only with
ourselves but also with the Bush administration--that it was hard to
tell whose bill it was.
At one time, this legislation that Senator Domenici and Senator
Bingaman first introduced had 35 Republican cosponsors and 35
Democratic cosponsors, and the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, when
she was the Democratic leader, was one of the first out to support it.
It is especially gratifying to me that Tennesseans, if I may say so,
have taken such a role in it in the House of Representatives.
Representative Bart Gordon, who is now chairman of the Science
Committee, was the lead conferee on this piece of legislation.
Representative Zach Wamp, who represents the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, gave I thought the best speech on the House floor today on
the Republican side. So again, it was bipartisan.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record
at the end of my remarks an overview of the conference report we
passed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See Exhibit 1.)
Mr. ALEXANDER. I mentioned a number of the Senators who had been so
deeply involved in this. I mentioned the committee chairmen and the
ranking members. But I would like to especially acknowledge the work of
Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who was especially effective in
reminding Republicans that investments in research and technology and
science is as pro-growth as tax cuts. Senator Ensign was powerful on
that subject. I believe it as strongly as he does. I believe he was
more effective than I was. Senator Hutchison had been working with
Senator Bingaman for years on advanced placement courses. Senator
Mikulski was out front from the very beginning on this. There is an
enormous list of Senators who made this happen.
There is also a long list of Democratic and Republican staff members
who deserve thanks. The list is too long for me to read all those names
tonight, but I ask unanimous consent that this list of staff members be
printed in the Record following my remarks, with the thanks of all of
us for their work.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See Exhibit 2.)
Mr. ALEXANDER. I would like to especially thank Matt Sonnesyn who is
sitting here beside me. When I was permitted to be on the faculty of
the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard at the time when the
Senator from Arkansas's father was the Director of the Institute of
Politics, Matt Sonnesyn was my course assistant. He came with me to my
campaign, and then he came with me to the Senate. For the last 2 years,
he has worked on this legislation with Senator Bingaman's staff and
Senator Ensign's staff on this side--a tremendously effective staff
group who has made this bill possible.
I see the Senator from Arkansas here, and I know he is going to close
out in a few minutes, and I think I am coming toward the end of my
remarks.
I would like to conclude by emphasizing two points--one about
substance and one about process. I know the Senator from Arkansas and I
have talked about this often. We are working together right now on a
bipartisan project that has to do with the Iraq war. We believe there
shouldn't be any partisan votes on the Iraq war. For example, we,
Senator Salazar and I, are joined by 6 Republicans and 7 Democrats in
cosponsoring legislation that would make the bipartisan Iraq Study
Group the law of our country. If the Congress and the President would
agree on this bill, we could send to our enemy and our troops and the
world the message that as we go forward to wherever we go next in Iraq,
we go together; we are united.
Each Tuesday we have a breakfast that Senator Lieberman and I host--
no staff, no media, no policy positions adopted--so that in the midst
of all our team meetings among Republicans and Democrats, when we talk
about what to do to each other, we can have a session where we build
relationships and talk about how we move the country ahead. We have had
as many as 40 Senators at those breakfasts.
It is important for the people of this country to know that we spend
a lot of time working that way. We did tonight on the Children's Health
Insurance bill with Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley working
together in a bipartisan way. For 2 years, we have done that on
legislation that goes straight to the heart of how we keep our jobs
from going to China and India, which is what we passed tonight.
So the word I wish to say about process is that when the Senate tries
and when we focus on big issues, we are perfectly capable of acting the
way the rest of the country would hope we would act. We compromise on
our differences and come up with a result that benefits family after
family.
This legislation, the America COMPETES Act, will mean, for example,
in my home State of Tennessee, opportunities for hundreds of math and
science teachers and for thousands of students to go to summer
academies and institutes of math and science. It will mean
opportunities for thousands of students who now can't afford to take
advanced placement courses in science and technology to be able to do
so and for hundreds of teachers who aren't trained to teach those
courses to have that training.
It will mean distinguished scientists will hold joint appointments at
the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for
example. It will mean support for a residential high school for science
and math, which we have wanted to do in our State ever since I was
Governor 20 years ago but didn't feel like we had the money. Now other
States have it, and this bill provides some support for such a school.
It will mean a steady growth over 7 years in research funding, new
support for early-career research grants in science and technology, and
more support for all those kinds of studies that create the jobs that
will keep our standard of living. That is what it means for my State.
It means the same for New Jersey, and it means the same for Arkansas.
So that bipartisan consensus we have seen here happens more often than
most Americans know, but it doesn't happen as often as it should.
So this has been a privilege for me to work, especially with Senator
Bingaman and Senator Domenici on the committee that I was a part of, to
help get this started with Bart Gordon, my colleague from the House,
the Democratic Congressman who is chairman of the Science Committee,
and with all the other Senators. This is the kind of thing I hoped to
do when I came to the Senate. I think each of us hopes when we come
here to get up every day and do a little something constructive and
then go home at night and come back the next day and see if we can find
something more to do along that way. If all of us participate in that
way in other big issues, as we have in this, the America COMPETES bill,
the Senate will be a stronger institution and the country will be a
better country.
So I thank my colleagues for their support and for the time tonight.
I thank the Senator from Arkansas for staying late so I can make these
remarks. This legislation, the America COMPETES Act which passed the
House today overwhelmingly and passed the Senate unanimously, is at
least as important as any piece of legislation that passes in these 2
years because we have accepted the advice of the wisest men and women
in our country about what we ought to do to keep our brain power
advantage so we can keep our jobs.
The President has done a big part of it. I am sure he will sign it. I
hope he takes some credit because he deserves it. There is plenty of
credit to go around. I think the country will be glad we acted.
I yield the floor.
Exhibit 1
Overview of the Conference Report on H.R. 2272, the America Creating
Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology,
Education, and Science Act (COMPETES)
Earlier this year, both the U.S. House and Senate passed
comprehensive legislation (H.R. 2272, S. 761) to ensure our
nation's competitive position in the world through
improvements to math and science education and a strong
commitment to research.
The Conference Agreement follows through on a commitment to
ensure U.S. students,
[[Page S10767]]
teachers, businesses and workers are prepared to continue
leading the world in innovation, research and technology--
well into the future.
In summary, the Conference Agreement:
Keeps research programs at National Science Foundation
(NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science
on a near-term doubling path;
Authorizes a total of $43.3 billion over fiscal years 2008-
2010 for science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) research and education programs across the federal
government;
Helps to prepare thousands of new teachers and provide
current teachers with content and teaching skills in their
area of education through NSF's Noyce Teacher Scholarship
Program and Math and Science Partnerships Program;
Creates the Technology Innovation Program (TIP) at NIST
(replacing the existing Advanced Technology Program or ATP)
to fund high-risk, high-reward, pre-competitive technology
development with high potential for public benefit;
Establishes an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy
(ARPA-E), a nimble and semiautonomous research agency at the
Department of Energy to engage in high-risk, high reward
energy research;
Expands programs at NSF to enhance the undergraduate
education of the future science and engineering workforce,
including at 2-year colleges;
Includes provisions throughout the bill to help broaden
participation in science and engineering fields at all
levels;
Authorizes two new competitive grant programs that will
enable partnerships to implement courses of study in
mathematics, science, engineering, technology or critical
foreign languages in ways that lead to a baccalaureate degree
with concurrent teacher certification;
Authorizes competitive grants to increase the number of
teachers serving high-need schools and expand access to AP
and IB classes and to increase the number of qualified AP and
IB teachers in high-need schools;
Expands early career grant programs and provides additional
support for outstanding young investigators at both NSF and
DOE; and
Strengthens interagency planning and coordination for
research infrastructure and information technology (i.e.
high-speed computing).
Following are more detailed summaries of the conference
agreement's eight titles:
TITLE I--Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)/Government Wide
Science
The conference agreement directs the President to convene a
National Science and Technology Summit to examine the health
and direction of the U.S. STEM enterprises; requires a
National Academy of Sciences study on barriers to innovation;
changes the National Technology Medal to the National
Technology and Innovation Medal; establishes a President's
Council on Innovation and Competitiveness (akin to the
President's Council on Science and Technology); requires
prioritization of planning for major research facilities and
instrumentation nationwide through the National Science
and Technology Council; and expresses a sense of Congress
that each federal research agency should support and
promote innovation through funding for high-risk, high-
reward research.
TITLE II--National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The conference agreement establishes the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a full
participant in all interagency activities to promote
competitiveness and innovation and to enhance science,
technology, engineering and mathematics education. The
agreement also affirms the importance of NASA's aeronautics
program to innovation and to the competitiveness of the
United States. It urges NASA to implement a program to
address aging workforce issues at NASA and to utilize NASA's
existing Undergraduate Student Research program to support
basic research by undergraduates on subjects of relevance to
NASA. Finally, the conference agreement expresses the sense
of Congress that the International Space Station (ISS)
National Laboratory offers unique opportunities for
educational activities and provides a unique resource for
research and development in science, technology, and
engineering which can enhance the global competitiveness of
the U.S.
TITLE III--National Institute of Standards and Technology
The conference agreement authorizes a total of $2.652
billion over fiscal years 2008-2010 for NIST. This includes
funds for the NIST labs, for lab construction, the TIP
program, and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)
Program: This funding level keeps the NIST labs on a path to
doubling in ten years.
The conference agreement funds the NIST Labs at $502.1
million for FY08 and increases the funding by 8% per year
(10-year doubling), which result in $541.9 million in FY09
and $584.8 million in FY10. The conferenqe agreement provides
$150.9 million in FY08 for lab construction. This funding is
reduced in each of the next two fiscal years, with funding
provided at $86.4 million in FY09 and $49.7 million FY10.
These out-year funding levels will allow the completion of
construction projects at NIST's Boulder, CO and Gaithersburg,
MD facilities. The MEP program is funded at $110 million in
FY08, $122 million in FY09 and $131.8 million FY10.
The conference agreement creates a new initiative, the
Technology Innovation Program (TIP) which is based on the
proven success of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), but
better reflects global innovation competition by funding
high-risk, high-reward, pre-competitive technology
develoment, focusing on small- and medium-sized companies.
The TIP allows for greater industry input in the operation of
the program, allows university participation for the first
time, and firmly focuses the program on small- and medium-
sized high-tech firms.
TIP will replace ATP and bridge the funding gap between the
research lab and the marketplace. The conference agreement
provides an authorization of $100 million FY08, $131.5
million FY09 nd $140.5 million in FY10. These funding levels
will allow for a viable program, with approximately $40
million per year for new awards.
The agreement includes language to clarify that the focus
of TIP is to support, promote and accelerate innovation in
the U.S. through high-risk, high-reward research in areas of
critical national need. It specifies that large companies may
not receive any TIP funding.
Further, it provides a list of award criteria to ensure
that the proposed technology has a strong potential to
address critical national needs through transforming the
nation's capacity to deal with major societal challenges that
are not currently being addressed; that the applicant
provides evidence that the research will not be conducted
within a reasonable time period without TIP assistance; that
reasonable efforts were made by the applicant to secure
funding from alternative sources and that no other
alternative funding sources were reasonably available; and
that other entities have not already developed,
commercialized, marketed, distributed or sold similar
technologies. In addition, the NIST Director shall issue an
annual report on the program's activities. TIP may accept
funds from other federal agencies, and these funds will be
included as part of the federal cost share of any TIP
project.
TITLE IV--National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The conference agreement establishes a coordinated ocean,
Great Lakes, coastal and atmospheric research and development
program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration NOAA) in consultation with NSF and NASA. In
addition, NOAA is required to build upon existing educational
programs and activities to enhance public awareness and
understanding of the ocean, Great Lakes, and atmospheric
science. As a result, a science education plan is to be
developed that would set forth the goals and strategies for
NOAA, and be reevaluated and updated every 5 years. NOAA
would also be recognized for their historic contributions to
the innovation and competitiveness of this country, as well
as be recognized as a full participant in interagency efforts
to promote innovation and competitiveness.
TITLE V--Department of Energy
The conference agreement provides nearly $17 billion to
Department of Energy (DOE) programs over fiscal years 2008-
2010, keeping Office of Science on a seven-year doubling path
and establishes an Advanced Research Projects Agency for
Energy, or ARPA-E.
ARPA-E will address long-term and high-risk technological
barriers in energy through collaborative research and
development that private industry or the DOE are not likely
to undertake alone. Because of its autonomy within DOE, and
the flexibility and resources afforded to its technical
personnel, ARPA-E is structured to respond very quickly to
energy research challenges, as well as terminate or
restructure programs just as quickly. A fund is established
in the U.S. Treasury separate and distinct from DOE
appropriations, as will be the budget request for ARPA-E.
With this separate fund, ARPA-E will be independent of the
DOE bureaucracy, and likewise should not operate at the
expense of other programs at DOE, particularly the Office of
Science. The conference agreement authorizes $300,000,000 in
FY 2008, and such sums as are necessary thereafter for fiscal
years 2009 and 2010.
As the nation's largest supporter of the physical sciences,
the DOE Office of Science funds basic research and world-
class facilities that play an integral role in the effort to
maintain the technological competitiveness of the U.S. The
conference agreement contains an authorization for the Office
of Science which extends the 7 year doubling track prescribed
in Energy Policy Act of 2005 by authorizing Fiscal Year 2010
at a funding level of $5.8 billion.
The conference agreement provides $150 million for K-12
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
education programs that capitalize on the unique scientific
and engineering resources of the national laboratories. These
programs include a pilot program of grants to states to help
establish or expand statewide specialty high schools in STEM
education; a program to provide internship opportunities for
middle and high-school students at the national labs, with
priority given to students from high-needs schools; a program
at each national lab to help establish a Center of Excellence
in STEM education in at least one high-need public secondary
school in each lab region in order to develop and disseminate
best practices in STEM education; and
[[Page S10768]]
a program to establish or expand summer institutes at the
national labs and partner universities in order to improve
the STEM content knowledge of K-12 teachers throughout the
country.
All of these programs would be coordinated by a newly
appointed Director for STEM Education at the Department, who
would also serve as an interagency liaison for K-12 STEM
education. In keeping with ongoing efforts to improve
coordination and evaluation of K-12 STEM education programs
across the federal government, all of the programs authorized
in this conference agreement require evaluation and reporting
of program impact.
In addition, the conference agreement highlights the
critical role of young investigators working in areas
relevant to the mission of DOE by establishing an early
career grant program for scientists at both universities and
the national labs; and a graduate research fellowship program
for outstanding graduate students in these fields. The
agreement also brings attention to research and education
needs in the nuclear sciences and hydrocarbon systems
sciences by establishing programs of grants to Universities
to establish or expand degree programs in these areas.
Finally, the conference agreement helps DOE recruit
distinguished scientists to the national labs and foster
collaboration between universities and the labs by providing
competitive grants to support joint appointments between the
two.
TITLE VI--Department of Education
To enhance teacher education in the STEM fields and
critical foreign languages, the conference agreement
authorizes two new competitive grant programs. The programs
will specifically enable partnerships to implement courses of
study in STEM fields and critical foreign language that lead
to a baccalaureate degree with concurrent teacher
certification and at the graduate level the conference
agreement implements 2- or 3-year part-time master's degree
programs in these areas for current teachers to improve their
content knowledge and pedagogical skills. The conference bill
authorizes $151,200,000 for the baccalaureate degree program
and $125,000,000 for the master's degree program for fiscal
year 2008 and the two succeeding fiscal years.
The conference agreement authorizes competitive grants to
increase the number of highly qualified teachers serving
high-need schools and expand access to AP and IB classes; as
well as authorize the Secretary of Education to contract with
the National Academy of Sciences to convene a national panel
within a year after the enactment of this Act to identify
promising practices in the teaching of science, technology,
engineering and mathematics in elementary and secondary
schools. It also authorizes appropriations of $65,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008 and such sums as may be necessary for each
of the two succeeding fiscal years.
The conference agreement authorizes new grant programs to
enhance math education in elementary and middle school
mathematics and provides grants to support the following
activities to assist states to implement programs for
secondary schools and in addition to other best practices and
in-service training, the bill provides targeted help to low-
income students who are struggling with mathematics. The
conference agreement also authorizes a competitive grant
program to increase the number of students studying critical
foreign languages, starting in elementary school and
continuing through postsecondary education programs.
The Secretary of Education is authorized to award
competitive grants to states to promote better alignment of
elementary and secondary education with the knowledge and
skills needed to succeed in academic credit-bearing
coursework in institutions of higher education, in the 21st
century workforce and in the Armed Forces. The Secretary is
also authorized to award grants of $50,000 to three
elementary and three secondary schools, with a high
concentration of low-income students in each state, whose
students demonstrate the largest improvement in mathematics
and science.
TITLE VII--National Science Foundation
The conference agreement provides $22 billion to the
National Science Foundation (NSF) over fiscal years 2008-
2010, putting it on a path to double in approximately 7
years. Particularly strong increases are provided in fiscal
year 2008 for K-12 STEM education programs at NSF. These
programs, including the Noyce Teacher Scholarship program and
the Math and Science Partnerships program will help to
prepare thousands of new STEM teachers and provide current
teachers with content and pedagogical expertise in their area
of teaching.
In addition to providing increased support for programs
that address the earliest stages of the STEM workforce
pipeline, the conference report will help create thousands of
new STEM college grduates, including 2-year college
graduates, through increased support for the STEM talent
expansion (STEP) program and the Advanced Technological
Education (ATE) program.
For those STEM graduates who continue on the path toward
academic careers, the conferece agreement provides critical
support for young, innovative researchers by expanding the
graduate research fellowships (GRF) and integrative graduate
education and research traineeship (IGERT) programs,
strengthening the early career grants (CAREER) program, and
creating a new pilot program of seed grants for outstanding
new investigators. Such programs have an additional benefit
of helping to stimulate high-risk, high-reward research by
identifying and taking a chance on the best and brightest
young minds.
Finally, the conference agreement includes provisions
throughout the bill to help broaden participation in STEM
fields at all levels, from kindergarten students through
academic researchers. These include several programs of
outreach and mentoring for women and minorities, a request
for a National Academy of Sciences report to identify
barriers to and opportunities for increasing the number of
underrepresented minorities in STEM fields, and an emphasis
on inclusion of students and teachers from high-needs
schools.
____
TITLE VIII--General Provisions
The conference agreement includes several general
provisions related to the purposes of the legislation, but
unrelated to any of the agencies above.
Specifically, the agreement requires the Secretary of
Commerce report to Congress on the feasibility, cost and
potential benefits of establishing a program to collect and
study data on export and import of services; expresses a
Sense of the Senate that the Securities and Exchange
Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
should promulgate final regulations implementing the section
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that are designed to reduce burdens
on small businesses; directs the Government Accountability
Office, after three years, to assess a representative sample
of programs under this Act and make recommendations to ensure
their effectiveness; expresses a Sense of the Senate that
federal funds should not be provided to any organization or
entity that advocates against a U.S. tax policy that is
internationally competitive; directs a National Academy of
Sciences study on the mechanisms and supports needed for an
institution of higher education or non-profit organization to
develop and maintain a program to provide free access to on-
line educational content as part of a degree program,
especially in science, technology, engineering, mathematics
and foreign languages, without using federal funds; expresses
a Sense of the Senate that deemed exports should safeguard
U.S. national security and basic research and that the
President and the Congress should consider the
recommendations of the Deemed Exports Advisory Committee; and
lastly, expresses a Sense of the Senate that U.S. decision-
makers should take the necessary steps for the U.S. to
reclaim the preeminent position in the global financial
services marketplace.
Democratic Staff to Thank
Jonathan Epstein (Bingaman).
Sam Fowler (Energy Committee).
Chan Lieu (Commerce).
Carmel Martin (HELP Committee).
Melanie Roberts (Bingaman).
Craig Robinson (Lieberman).
Roberto Rodriguez (HELP Committee).
Missy Rohrbach (HELP Committee).
Ilyse Schuman (HELP Committee).
Colleen Shogan (Lieberman).
Bob Simon (Energy).
Rachel Sotsky (Lieberman).
Jean Toal Eisen (Commerce).
Jason Unger (Reid).
Trudy Vincent (Bingaman).
Michael Yudin (Bingaman).
republican staff to thank
Jeff Bingham (Commerce).
Adam Briddell (HELP Committee).
Beth Buehlmann (HELP Committee).
Kathryn Clay (Energy).
David Cleary (HELP Committee).
Ann Clough (HELP Committee).
Hugh Derr (Commerce).
Floyd DesChamps (Commerce).
Lindsay Hunsicker (HELP Committee).
Libby Jarvis (McConnell).
Christine Kurth (Commerce).
Jason Mulvihill (Commerce).
Sharon Soderstrum (McConnell).
Matt Sonnesyn (Alexander).
Jack Wells (Alexander).
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, our increasingly global economy is
creating numerous challenges for America's families nationwide. Across
the country, hardworking citizens are being left behind. The value of
their wages is declining, their cost of living is going up, and many of
their jobs are being shipped overseas.
As a result, the Nation is falling behind in the world economy. Study
after study tells us the answer is to invest more in education,
research and innovation, if we hope to keep up with other countries
whose economies are soaring.
We know that a sound education is more important than ever for
today's youth to succeed. Yet studies show, for example, that 15-year-
old U.S. students score below average in math and science compared to
the youth of other industrial nations. In one study, our 15-year-olds
ranked only 24th in math. High school and college graduation rates are
also falling behind. Our college graduation rate today has now dropped
below the average graduation rate for OECD countries.
[[Page S10769]]
We know that Federal investments in research lead to medical,
scientific, and technology breakthroughs. But these investments have
been shrinking as a share of the economy. In real terms, government
spending for research has been flat. Since 1975, we have dropped from
third to 15th in the production of scientists and engineers.
It is a serious problem and we can't just tinker at the margins. We
have a responsibility to our people, our economy, our security, and our
Nation to make the investments to achieve the progress we need in the
years ahead.
The America COMPETES Act is a step in the right direction. It will
help put America back on track.
It invests in research by doubling the support for research at the
Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation over the next
7 years, and will increase funding for the National Institute of
Standards and Technology as well.
It invests in innovation by creating a President's Council on
Innovation and Competitiveness to determine the most effective ways to
create jobs and move our economy forward.
Above all, it will invest in education, especially in math and
science, engineering, and technology from the elementary school through
high school and beyond, in order to attract more young people to pursue
careers in these fields in the years ahead.
The problem today is especially serious for our low-income and
minority students. Teachers are the single most important factor in
improving student achievement and narrowing the achievement gap. One
study found that having a high quality teacher for 5 years in a row can
close the average 7th grade achievement gap in math between lower
income and higher income children. Yet too often, low-income and
minority students are taught by the least prepared, least experienced,
and least qualified teachers. Math and science classes in high-poverty
schools are much more likely to be taught by teachers who do not have a
degree in their field.
We know what we need to do, and this bill will help us do it. We must
make sure all students are getting the teachers they need and deserve
in the subjects that matter most in the new economy.
This bill addresses the teacher challenge head on by taking strong
steps to ensure that all children have access to a high quality teacher
with strong content knowledge in math, science, engineering and
technology--particularly in high need schools, where such teachers are
needed most.
The bill expands the Robert Noyce Teacher Program of the National
Science Foundation, NSF, by creating a new NSF teaching fellows program
to prepare accomplished math, science, technology and engineering
professionals to teach in high need schools. It also creates a master
teaching fellows program to leverage the talents of the best teachers
to improve instruction in high need schools. Teaching fellows in the
program will receive annual salary supplements of $10,000 a year in
exchange for a commitment to teach for at least 4 years in a high need
school.
The bill also expands the Teacher Institutes for the 21st Century
Program at NSF, which provides cutting-edge professional development
programs throughout the school year and during the summer for teachers
in high-need schools.
In addition, the bill supports impressive new programs in colleges
and universities to prepare math, science, technology, engineering and
foreign language teachers. These programs will combine bachelor's
degrees with concurrent teacher certification in their subjects, and
will create master's degree programs for teachers to improve their
knowledge in these subjects and to encourage math and science
professionals to go into teaching.
Too often today, elementary and secondary school standards are not
aligned with the expectations of colleges and employers. In many cases,
high school graduates are struggling to keep up in college and the
workplace. Remedial education and lost earning potential costs the
Nation $3.7 billion a year, because so many students are not adequately
prepared for college when they leave high school.
Our bill will help States align their standards with the demands of
the 21st century workplace. Grants to States to create P-16 Councils
will bring the elementary and secondary schools, college, businesses,
and the Armed Forces together to ensure that education standards are
better aligned with the expectations of colleges, the workforce, and
the military. This alignment is essential if we hope to remain
internationally competitive. Support will also be available for new
data systems in states to track students' achievement and help them
graduate prepared to succeed.
The bill will help give students in low-income districts the same
opportunities as those in wealthier districts to enroll and succeed in
college preparatory classes by expanding access to advanced placement
and international baccalaureate classes.
This bill invests as well in foreign language education, to ensure
that students are exposed to foreign languages and cultures. More than
80 Federal agencies now use tens of thousands of employees with skills
in 100 foreign languages, and our businesses need the same.
For students to become proficient in foreign languages, they need
sustained study, beginning in the early grades. But only a third of
students in grades 7 through 12 today and only 5 percent of elementary
school students study a foreign language. The bill provides grants to
colleges and local educational agencies to create partnerships for
students from elementary school through college to study such
languages.
Finally, the bill will encourage new interest in nuclear science.
Massachusetts has long been a leader in this research. Of three dozen
licensed research reactors in the United States, three are located in
Massachusetts universities The University of Massachusetts in Lowell,
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and MIT. These colleges will have an
increasingly important role as nuclear science expands, and our bill
will expand existing programs and establish new ones to meet the
growing demand.
All of these programs and investments are designed to help prepare us
to compete in the 21st century, but there is more we must do if we
intend to keep our nation and our workforce truly competitive.
Significant new investments are needed to expand opportunities for
higher education. College is more important than ever today, but it is
also more expensive than ever. In the Senate 2 weeks ago, we passed the
largest increase in student aid since the G.I. bill, and I look forward
to delivering that aid for low-income students as quickly as possible.
We must also address the increasingly demanding impact of the global
economy on American workers and their families. Our hard-working men
and women deserve greater job security today and greater job
opportunities in the future.
This bill puts first things first. Increased investments in
education, research, and innovation are indispensable to our success as
a nation. We have done it before and we must do it again. Let's begin
with this bill.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President. I want to add my thanks and
congratulations to the conference leaders and the dedicated staff for
completing the negotiations on the America Competes Act. This
legislation is an important investment in our Nation's strategy to
promote competitiveness. It is a bipartisan package with broad support,
based on the National Academy of Sciences report known as The Gathering
Storm. Many members deserve our thanks and praise, and the report is a
strong example that Congress can come together to develop comprehensive
public policy.
America Competes is a comprehensive package that includes major
sections covering math and science research and education initiatives.
I am particularly pleased and proud that the legislation will
reauthorize the National Science Foundation, NSF, at $22 billion from
fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2010, to support several grant programs intended
to encourage more students to teach math and science, as well as grants
for college and graduate student science research. I have worked long
and hard on programs within NSF. This bill supports the principle that
the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, EPSCoR,
increases in proportion with the overall budget of NSF. Earlier this
year, I introduced a bipartisan bill, S. 753, the
[[Page S10770]]
EPSCoR Research and Competitiveness Act of 2007 which makes a similar
recommendation. In my view, if our country seeks to broadly promote
competitiveness, every state needs to be part of the effort. The EPSCoR
program helps enhance the competitiveness of the 24 States, including
West Virginia, that have historically not received as many NSF grants.
The NSF continues its strong, peer-reviewed, merit-based competitive
grants, but underserved States get support to achieve NSF's high
standards.
EPSCoR is an essential part of our national competitiveness strategy.
Our country will not do as well if only half of our States are
competitive. It is also important to recognize that the EPSCoR States
are home to 20 percent of the population and 25 percent of doctoral and
research universities. Our States host 18 percent of academic
scientists and engineers, and their institutions train nearly 20
percent of science and engineering graduate students. Even more
interesting is the fact that 7 of the top 10 energy producing States
are EPSCoR States. To be competitive, we must continue to invest in the
EPSCoR program and our EPSCoR States for the long term. It is good for
the States, but it is also a fundamental building block for our
national policy. EPSCoR will enhance science and competitive which will
help increase the number of scientists and engineers. It will encourage
good science projects in States with unique aspects such as energy
resources, proximity to our oceans, and other helpful scientific
resources.
Two other programs that received generous support in the final
package are the NSF's Math and Science Partnerships and the Noyce
Scholarships. Both initiatives were including in the 2001
reauthorization of the National Science Foundation. Having sponsored
legislation years ago to develop both programs, I am thrilled by
current success of the programs in training teachers and recruiting top
math and science majors into teaching. Expanding these programs will
help improve math and science education which will be the cornerstone
for our future competitiveness. This is a good investment for the
future of West Virginia, and our entire country.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the America
COMPETES Act. I applaud the bipartisan group that put together the
America COMPETES Act, an extraordinary bill that will provide
invaluable resources to ensure that the United States does not lose
step with our global competitors.
We live in a global marketplace and if our students are to compete
with students from around the world, they must have the benefit of a
first rate math and science education taught by first rate math and
science teachers. This new program will vastly improve the chance that
our high school students are taught math and science by the best and
the brightest.
That is why I am particularly proud of one provision that I authored
that has been included in this conference agreement. This provision
will establish a new program called the National Science Foundation
Teaching Fellowship within the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship
Program. I wish to express my deep gratitude to Senators Kennedy,
Bingaman, Alexander and Enzi for including this important provision in
the bill. I would also like to thank my friend and colleague, Senator
Clinton, for her valuable support.
The provision creating the NSF Teaching Fellowship is modeled on a
bill I introduced last Congress, the Math and Science Teaching Corps
Act. The Math and Science Teaching Corps was in turn modeled after a
highly successful New York City program called Math for America.
Math for America's mission is to improve math education in our
Nation's public schools by recruiting top math and science college
graduates to become teachers and providing financial incentives to make
these jobs competitive with the graduates' other opportunities.
The program has made tremendous strides. Over 100 teachers teach in
nearly 60 New York City public schools. By 2011 the program will
support at least 440 teachers. I can only hope that the new NSF
Teaching Fellowship will be so successful.
The NSF Teaching Fellowship program is about paving the way for the
future. It will ensure that leaders in math and science train the next
generation of innovators--instead of leaving the classroom for research
or other jobs. This model program is working in New York City, and now,
with the America COMPETES legislation, it will be expanded to the rest
of the country.
We need this program to reverse a dismal trend. Our students are not
currently prepared to compete in a technology-intense economy. In the
2003 PISA math assessment that compared 15-year-old students across the
world, American students ranked 24th out of the 29 participating
countries--here in the U.S., in math, 24th out of 29. How can we
compete when our students are falling behind?
A 2005 mathematics assessment of twelfth graders by the National
Assessment of Education Progress found that 61 percent of high school
seniors performed at or above the basic level, and 23 percent performed
at or above the proficient level. For science, 54 percent of twelfth
graders scored at or above the basic level. Eighteen percent performed
at or above the proficient level. This is unacceptable.
Students currently studying math and science will be the fuel that
powers our economy for the next century, and we must give them every
chance to achieve, excel and thrive. The NSF Teaching Fellowship is a
significant step.
Inspirational and brilliant teachers will make an enormous
difference. To attract these role models, we need to level the playing
field, and ensure that these future teachers can afford to teach. Only
one-third of math teachers and less than two-thirds of science teachers
majored or minored in the subject they teach. It is not hard to
understand why. Starting salaries for math and science majors can be as
much as $20,000 higher in the private sector than they are for public
school teachers.
The NSF Teaching Fellowship will help reduce these barriers. The
program's structure has a rigorous selection process and incentives
built in to improve retention. NSF teaching fellows will have to take a
test to prove their strengths in math or science. Then they enroll in a
1-year master's degree program in teaching that will give them teaching
certification, and it is all paid for. They will agree to teach for at
least 4 years, and for those 4 years, they will receive bonuses on top
of their salaries. These individuals will infuse our schools with a
deep passion for and an understanding of math and science and will
share their knowledge with other teachers in their school.
To retain our current teachers who are outstanding at what they do
and can provide expertise in the classroom that our teaching fellows
won't yet have, there is another category called NSF master teaching
fellows. Master fellows are current teachers who already have a
master's degree in math or science education. They will also take a
test demonstrating they have a high level understanding of their
subject area. For the next 5 years they will serve as leaders in their
school, providing mentorship for other teachers in their department as
well as assisting with curriculum development and professional
development. For these 5 years they also will receive bonuses on top of
their salaries.
We all agree that every child deserves effective, high-quality
professional teachers. And there are thousands of wonderful teachers in
our country. But we need more. Without them, children will have
difficulty reaching the high standards we want them to achieve. The
federal government has long worked to ensure that all children have
equal access to a quality education, no matter where they live. We must
encourage and fund well-designed programs, such as the NSF Teaching
Fellowship to incite rapid improvement in the quality of the Nation's
future teaching workforce.
I urge all my colleagues to support this monumental bill, the America
COMPETES Act.
Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the importance
of supporting the conference report on the America COMPETES Act. This
report represents a unique bipartisan, bicameral collaboration among
three committees on the Senate side and our House counterparts to
enhance American competitiveness in the 21st century global economy.
[[Page S10771]]
This conference report demonstrates that when we set partisan
politics aside and work together, we can do great things for the
American people. The core of this conference agreement is the Senate's
America COMPETES Act, which was the product of bipartisan negotiations
and input from the Members of the Senate Commerce, Energy, and Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committees. Work on this legislation
began last year in response to the National Academy of Sciences report
``Rising Above the Gathering Storm,'' which was chaired by Norman
Augustine, the ``Innovate America'' report, and the President's
American Competitiveness Initiative. I want to thank all those who
worked on this legislation for their hard work and dedication and
commend them for the collegial manner in which this bill was crafted.
The focus of the programs in this bill is where it should be: on the
knowledge and skills the American people need to have to be successful
in the 21st century global economy. I am pleased we were able to keep
education as one of the key priorities in this legislation. However, I
have said consistently from the beginning that I wanted to hold
programs to reasonable funding levels and to avoid duplication of
programs. I think we could have gone further toward reducing
duplication and overlap of programs, but this bill represents a strong
bipartisan, bicameral effort and moves us in the right direction.
Why is this important? This year marks 50 years since Sputnik was
launched. That launch sparked huge turmoil in this country and worry
about the knowledge and skills necessary to keep our country safe and
our economy growing and competitive. I was in junior high at the time.
It was a shock to our Nation. Every one of us could recognize it--
teachers, parents, and, probably as important, students, recognized it.
Russia was beating us. They had put a satellite into orbit. It was hard
to accept that we were behind. But it also brought out that American
competitive spirit. We said they were not going to beat us. It launched
a change in education such as we had not seen in the United States in
decades, maybe centuries.
We were ultimately the winners of the space race, but it wasn't just
a space race; it was an education race. It was the broad range of
education that the United States delved into and the innovation that
was brought about at the time that put us ahead of Russia.
Sputnik had a dramatic effect on our education system and made us
recognize that a high school diploma was no longer just a nice thing to
have. We could no longer rest on our past successes as a nation. We met
the challenge of Sputnik through the National Defense Education Act. We
looked to education as a path to continued success, and we supported an
increase in the number of people who would continue their education
beyond high school, particularly in science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics.
Today, we are again being challenged. In the 1950s, skilled jobs
comprised 20 percent of the U.S. job market. In 2000, 85 percent of all
U.S. jobs were categorized as skilled. For millions of Americans,
access to an affordable college education is the key to their success
in the 21st century global economy. The United States has one of the
highest college enrollment rates but college completion rate is average
to below average among developed countries in the world. Four out of
every five jobs will require postsecondary education or the equivalent,
yet only 52 percent of Americans over the age of 25 have achieved this
level of education.
We have a huge challenge, not just in K-12 and higher education but
in continuing education. It is estimated the average person leaving
college will change careers 14 times. I didn't say ``change jobs'' 14
times, I said ``change careers'' 14 times. Of those 14 career changes,
10 of them don't even exist now. That is the pace at which things are
accelerating.
So we are educating people for a level of jobs that do not exist at
the present time. That is quite a challenge. Technology is demanding
that everybody continue to learn and gain skills to remain competitive
in the workplace. Learning is never over; school is never out. Those
who do not get the knowledge and the capability to make the transfer to
new careers will be left behind. We do not want that to happen.
Education at all levels, including lifelong learning opportunities, is
vital to ensuring that America retains its competitive edge in the
global economy. Every American can and should be part of our Nation's
success.
Because higher education is the on-ramp to success in the global
economy, it is our responsibility to make sure everyone can access that
on-ramp and reach their goals. This bill includes provisions that
improve science, mathematics, and critical foreign language education
in our Nation from elementary school through graduate school. It
supports improvements to teacher preparation, establishes stronger
links between graduate schools and employers, provides funding to
support students trained at the doctoral level in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics, and enhances Federal programs that
support students in graduate school.
The American system of higher education is renowned throughout the
world. I can attest to that after having gone to India. I saw how their
educational system works and how it is becoming very competitive with
the United States. In India, only 7 percent of their children go on to
higher education. That creates a very high level of competition among
students to get into higher education. Despite the rigorous emphasis on
science, mathematics, engineering and technology, however, India
continues to send its graduate students to the United States because it
is here that they learn creativity and innovation.
In most of the other countries around the world they learn the
basics, can do excellent calculations and have a vast amount of rote
knowledge. But what our colleges specialize in is teaching people to
think, to come up with new ideas. To date, that is what has kept
America ahead. However, the success story of American higher education
is at risk of losing the qualities that made it great, which are
competition, innovation, and access for all, if we do not invest in
those core principles.
It is important to ensure that more students enroll in college
prepared to learn and that more students have the support they need to
complete college with the knowledge and skills to be successful.
Slightly less than one-third--31 percent--of all public high school
students are prepared for postsecondary education, as demonstrated by
the academic courses they pursue. Well-prepared and well-supported
students are more likely to persist to a degree completion and obtain
the knowledge and skills they need.
If our students and workers are to have the best chance to succeed in
life and employers to remain competitive, we must ensure that everyone
has the opportunity to achieve academically and obtain the skills they
need to succeed, regardless of their background. To accomplish this, we
need to build, strengthen and maintain our educational pipeline,
beginning in elementary school. We must also strengthen programs that
encourage and enable citizens of all ages to enroll in postsecondary
education institutions and obtain or improve their knowledge and
skills. The decisions we make about education and workforce development
will have a dramatic impact on the economy and our society for
generations to come.
The America COMPETES Act is a good starting point, but we need to do
more. Maintaining America's competitiveness requires that all students
have the opportunity to continue to build their knowledge and skills.
We need to find ways to encourage high school students to stay in
school and prepare for and enter high-skill fields such as math,
science, engineering, health, technology and critical foreign
languages. For many, including those at the cutting-edge of science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics, acquiring a postsecondary
education or training will be the key to their success.
Our Nation needs to make sure that every person has the opportunity
to access quality education and training throughout their lives, which
is why the America COMPETES bill is only the beginning. I remain
committed to reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, the Head Start
Act, and the Workforce Investment Act. In addition, we need to focus
our efforts on taking
[[Page S10772]]
what we have learned from 5 years of experience to improve the No Child
Left Behind Act. Together these laws form the path for success, so that
every American can have the knowledge and skills necessary to be
successful in the 21st century global economy, which is only going to
become more competitive.
The call for education and skills training is loud and clear.
Ingenuity, knowledge, and skills are a beacon for jobs; therefore, we
must keep the beacon of innovation shining brightly on our shores. I
ask my colleagues to support passage of the conference report on the
America COMPETES Act and to work with me to move the companion
education and workforce bills through Congress this year.
Mr. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise to express my support for the
conference report on the America COMPETES Act, and I congratulate
Senators Bingaman, Alexander, Domenici, Ensign, Kennedy, Enzi, Inouye,
Stevens, and Nelson and their staff for their tireless and dedicated
work to bring this vital and important legislation to final passage.
There is much in this legislation that will enable the United States
to secure its leadership position in science, technology, engineering
and mathematics education and enhancing our competitiveness and
capacity for innovation.
I am especially pleased that the conference report contains the
language I included in the original Senate bill, reported last year by
the Commerce Committee and eventually incorporated into S. 761, as
passed by the Senate.
That provision directs that NASA be included in activities
collectively referred to as the American Competitiveness Initiative, or
ACI. This corrects what many of us believe was a serious oversight in
the original announcement of the ACI, which failed to recognize the
long-standing history of NASA's role in inspiring young people to
pursue academic and professional careers in science and engineering.
The report also contains new language recognizing the potential
contribution to education and competitiveness that can be made by the
International Space Station National Laboratory and directs NASA to
develop specific plans to realize that potential.
I look forward to working with Senator Bill Nelson, chairman of the
Subcommittee on Space, Aeronautics and Related Sciences, in drafting
reauthorization legislation for NASA next year, in which we can provide
more specific authorization and guidance for NASA in fulfilling its
important new role as part of the ACI.
This report also provides vital new authority to the Department of
Energy, the Department of Education, the National Institute for
Standards and Technology, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation to
enable them to address the pressing national needs in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics education and enhancing the
Nation's competitiveness and innovation capabilities.
It is vital that the new provisions provided by this legislation are
used as they are intended. This legislation includes generous new
authority for appropriations for the Departments of Energy and
Education and for NIST and the National Science Foundation. These
additional spending limits are not provided to enable them to continue
to do business as usual at an increased level of spending.
My single concern about the conference report is the action taken by
the conference to modify section 7018. That provision, which was an
amendment I offered during the markup of S. 1280, the original Senate
Commerce Committee portion of what became S. 761 and was preserved in
the conference chairman's mark considered in the conference, provided
that the National Science Foundation take into account the degree to
which proposed research contributed to the needs of innovation,
competitiveness, the physical and natural sciences, technology,
engineering and mathematics. At the same time, that provision included
language--consistent with the recommendations of the report ``Rising
Above the Gathering Storm''--that such prioritization not be used to
inhibit investments in other important areas of research or scientific
endeavor.
Despite that limitation, the conference adopted an amendment to that
section which, essentially, includes virtually all research conducted
by the NSF in the prioritization, including research that may or may
not contribute to meeting the critical needs outlined in that report
and which inspired the creation of this legislation. The awarding of
such a ``blank check'' to NSF removes any assurance that the expanded
authority and resources provided through this legislation will actually
be used to carry out the purposes for which they have been granted.
While I am disappointed with this change, I am very much in favor of
adopting the report. But as a member of the Commerce Subcommittee on
Science and Innovation, and the Appropriations Subcommittee on
Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, I will closely follow
how the National Science Foundation implements the authority granted by
this legislation.
By passing this report, Congress will have taken an extremely
important and significant step toward meeting what are clearly and
widely recognized as critical national needs. We cannot let that step
be compromised by allowing a business-as-usual approach by the
departments and agencies we are tasking to meet those needs.
Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I would like to join my colleagues in
congratulating Senator Alexander of Tennessee for his hard work and his
great legislative success on this piece of legislation which passed the
Senate tonight. I will just remark, if I may, that once again he has
proven himself to be an effective leader and a thoughtful legislator.
He is really the kind of Senators who is putting America first and
trying to get great things done. And, obviously, you can tell by his
speech that he is sharing credit with anybody and everybody.
We all know that it was Senator Lamar Alexander's hard work and
dedication that made that legislation a reality.
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