[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 76 (Thursday, May 8, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E865-E867]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RISING ABOVE THE GATHERING STORM: TWO YEARS LATER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 8, 2008

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to share a speech I gave to the 
National Academies' convocation on April 29, 2008 on the second 
anniversary of the release of the ``Gathering Storm.'' I was honored to 
have had the opportunity to address some of our nation's top business, 
academic, and scientific leaders at the convocation.
  As you may recall, the report painted a very bleak picture of our 
Nation's high-tech workforce, innovation, and global competitiveness. 
It prompted swift congressional action to authorize new funding and 
resources to bolster our science and high-tech workforce, culminating 
with the enactment of the America COMPETES Act last fall.
  However, I am concerned that we still have much work to do to secure 
our economic future in this global marketplace. And we will never be 
competitive if we cannot get the Federal Government's finances in order 
and begin to reduce our dependency on foreign debt.
  Madam Speaker, my address as prepared to the ``Gathering Storm'' 
convocation follows:

       Thank you for the opportunity to address this gathering. As 
     the fourth of five ``congressional perspectives'' on the 
     program this morning, I'm reminded of the old Congressman Mo 
     Udall quote: ``Everything has been said but not everyone has 
     said it.''
       First, I want to thank you all for your efforts. I am 
     pleased that so many of our nation's science, business, and 
     government leaders have once again gathered to discuss this 
     most pressing of issues challenging the United States.
       Perhaps the greatest success of the ``Gathering Storm'' 
     report thus far is the tremendous awareness and urgency it 
     has raised among the American people.
       It was only a few years ago, in 2005, that Rep. Vernon 
     Ehlers, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, and I went to the White House 
     to urge the administration to make this a priority.

[[Page E866]]

       With the support of the councils of National Academies of 
     Science and Engineering, we announced a national summit on 
     science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing at the 
     Department of Commerce which helped lead to the creation of 
     the Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st 
     Century.
       I want to thank Norm Augustine and the other members of the 
     committee who helped educate me to the critical importance of 
     this as I served as Chairman of the Appropriations 
     Subcommittee funding these programs.
       I appreciate President Bush for laying out the American 
     Competitiveness Agenda in his 2006 State of the Union and his 
     support for more funding this year.
       Congress followed suit and adopted many recommendations 
     from the ``Gathering Storm'' report into the America COMPETES 
     Act which was signed into law last year.
       I appreciate the leadership of Science Committee Chairman 
     Bart Gordon and Ranking Member Ralph Hall in the House, as 
     well as Sen. Lamar Alexander in the Senate for seeing this 
     bill through.
       It is rare in Washington that good ideas move so far, so 
     fast. And it is in many ways a testament to the people in 
     this room who tirelessly worked to educate Congress, the 
     Administration, business community, and the American people.
       There is so much more work to be done. We have been 
     successful in raising public awareness of these issues, but 
     we have barely begun to turn the page in meeting our 
     workforce and innovation demands.
       I worry that we still graduate half the number of 
     physicists that we did in 1956--before Sputnik spurred our 
     last ``great awakening'' in science and engineering.
       I worry that one-third to half of those we graduate with 
     science and engineering degrees are foreign students; and 
     most of them will return to their home countries rather than 
     applying their skills in the U.S.
       I worry that U.S. patents are down and our companies are 
     spending more on tort legislation than on research and 
     development.
       I worry that tests still show that one-third of U.S. 
     students lack the competency to perform the most basic 
     mathematical computations.
       I worry that half of the money we made available for grants 
     for college students in STEM fields is going unused.
       I worry that our edge in aerospace research is in danger. 
     Our historic prominence in automobiles and electronics 
     manufacturing has long since eroded; we cannot afford to lose 
     our aerospace leadership.
       I worry about losing competitiveness with China--they may 
     even beat us back to the moon.
       I worry about the country my children and grandchildren 
     will live in if we fail to deal with this.
       But you don't need me to rattle off any more statistics. 
     The real experts will help put these trends and developments 
     in context later today.
       Instead, I'd like to talk about a different, yet 
     inextricably linked, issue that is further undermining our 
     competitiveness. To turn Udall's phrase, I would like to talk 
     about something that hasn't been said, in hopes that everyone 
     will say it.
       While we are working hard to stave off the ``Gathering 
     Storm,'' we are losing sight of the tsunami right off our 
     coasts--a tsunami of debt. Former Comptroller General David 
     Walker calls this tsunami powerful enough to ``swamp our ship 
     of state.''
       This is particularly relevant as we consider the state of 
     our nation's competitiveness. If we can't pay for our current 
     obligations, how can we begin to afford the resources we will 
     need to compete globally in the twentyfirst century?
       These two efforts go hand-in-hand.
       America is $9 trillion deep in federal debt, and the 
     Government Accountability Office has estimated $54.3 trillion 
     in unfunded promised benefits if we don't change our current 
     course. That's trillions, with a ``T''.
       The Social Security and Medicare Trustees reports issued 
     last month only reinforce the dire condition of our fiscal 
     health. Both reports make very clear that we must address 
     these tremendous shortfalls very soon.
       The U.S. dollar is dropping like a rock--it lost 15 percent 
     against the Euro last year.
       Gasoline reached $120 per barrel this week.
       What will happen when the well runs dry and we no longer 
     have money for the vital technology programs that we're 
     discussing today?
       How will we remain competitive when there is no money to 
     fund science and math education initiatives? Our children 
     can't compete in the global marketplace if we can't provide 
     U.S. students with a first-class education.
       How will we remain competitive when there is no money to 
     fund medical research? Without discretionary funding to 
     develop cutting-edge technology, advance research, and 
     perform clinical trials, we will not be able to make critical 
     strides toward cures for cancer, Alzheimer's, autism, and 
     other devastating diseases.
       How will we remain competitive when there is no money to 
     fund our infrastructure?
       How will we remain competitive when there is no money to 
     pay for the National Science Foundation and NASA? America 
     will no longer be able to provide leadership and inspiration 
     to the rest of the world.
       These bleak scenarios only scratch the surface of how 
     concerned we should be about America's future. These are the 
     realities we face.
       Sadly, much of this falls on deaf ears in Washington. So 
     many bright people delude themselves into thinking that we 
     have a long-term plan to bring our finances into order.
       The long-term has arrived. The next President will have to 
     address this.
       It reminds me of the refrain from songwriter Paul Simon's 
     ``The Boxer'': ``Man hears what he wants to hear and 
     disregards the rest.'' That could describe Congress's and 
     Wall Street's reaction, or lack thereof, to the financial 
     crisis staring America square in the face.
       We can't afford to put off reform anymore. With every year 
     that Congress prolongs making the difficult decisions to deal 
     with this runaway mandatory spending--the portion of the 
     federal budget available to fund discretionary programs 
     decreases.
       And just so we're clear: nearly every science, technology, 
     research, manufacturing, and competitiveness program we 
     discuss here today is funded through discretionary dollars.
       In 1962, mandatory spending--Social Security, Medicare, 
     Medicaid, and debt interest payments--comprised less than 
     one-third of the federal budget. Today it's doubled to over 
     two-thirds of the budget.
       The Office of Management and Budget projects that in less 
     than 5 years, non-defense discretionary spending will fall to 
     less than 15 percent of the federal budget. And the 
     competitiveness programs we're working so hard for are but a 
     small fraction of that.
       Because mandatory programs get funded first, we will have 
     to fight harder for fewer dollars to fund this important 
     initiative.
       Without mandatory spending reform, we simply won't be able 
     to fund the necessary increases in competitiveness programs 
     without significant cuts in other discretionary programs.
       Clearly, this is a pressing economic issue, as the first 
     baby boomer has just signed up for promised Social Security 
     benefits and our nation's longterm IOUs are coming due.
       Just recently, Moody's Investment Service indicated that 
     the U.S. triple-A bond rating will be at risk by 2018. 
     Standard and Poor's Investment Service indicated that it may 
     be as early as 2012; and if present trends continue would 
     plummet to junk-bond status by 2025.
       What will that mean to our economy?
       Should the U.S. lose its AAA rating in a few years, the 
     cost of borrowing for both the Treasury and for U.S. private 
     businesses would significantly increase. It would also 
     increase the likelihood of a devastating capital flight. This 
     is a very real risk to our economic growth and global 
     competitiveness.
       Again, this debt has very real implications. More than $2.6 
     billion a day is needed to fund our budget shortfall, which 
     has left nearly 40 percent of our domestic economy in foreign 
     hands.
       These IOU's are held by foreign countries--with significant 
     shares held by non-democratic countries like China and Saudi 
     Arabia. We should care that countries that do not share our 
     democratic values have growing leverage over the U.S.
       Borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars on the Chinese 
     and Saudi credit cards puts not only our future economy, but 
     also our national security at serious risk.
       Ironically, the Chinese will be some of our greatest 
     economic and technology competitors in the twenty-first 
     century. How well will we be able to compete when we depend 
     on their credit to fund our programs? They have become our 
     banker.
       This is also a moral issue. Last month, Pete Peterson 
     penned an editorial that ran in Newsweek. He ends by quoting 
     Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was instrumental 
     in the resistance movement against Nazism. Bonhoeffer said, 
     ``The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world 
     it leaves to its children.''
       I can't help but wonder what sort of future today's 
     partisan Washington is leaving to our children and 
     grandchildren.
       Fortunately, we still have options--if we act soon.
       I am truly impressed by the bipartisan and broad ranging 
     coalition that the ``Gathering Storm'' report has assembled 
     in its cause. I believe we can replicate this success in 
     addressing entitlement reform, tax policy, and fiscal 
     solvency. We need to replicate the ``Gathering Storm'' effort 
     to deal with the issue of our debt.
       For the past year, Congressman Jim Cooper, a Democrat from 
     Tennessee, and I have been working closely together on the 
     Cooper-Wolf SAFE Commission Act. It has since garnered over 
     80 bipartisan cosponsors, including Republican leadership in 
     the House as well as the chairs of the Democratic Blue Dog 
     Coalition.
       The Heritage Foundation, Brookings Institution, Concord 
     Coalition, and former Comptroller General David Walker helped 
     us draft this and it is supported by David Broder and David 
     Brooks.
       Modeled after the base-closing process, the bill would 
     create a bipartisan 16-member commission to review 
     entitlement spending, tax policy, debt, and all other federal 
     spending.
       The Commission will look beyond the Beltway for solutions, 
     holding at least 12 town meetings--one in each of the 
     nation's Federal Reserve districts--over the span of 12 
     months in order to hear directly from the American people.
       Everything must be on the table--including tax policy.

[[Page E867]]

       If anyone has another viable plan to address our 
     entitlement tsunami, we are anxious to hear it. But it has to 
     be able to pass. Doing nothing is not acceptable.
       And just like the base-closing process, the SAFE Commission 
     Act would require and up-or-down vote on the Commission's 
     proposal--ensuring that Congress finally considered a 
     comprehensive solution to this great challenge.
       So far, Rep. Cooper and I have reached out to every Member 
     of Congress, the President and his potential successors, 
     Fortune 500 leaders, small business owners, think tanks, 
     thought leaders, and the religious community.
       And today I'm reaching out to you--our science, technology, 
     engineering, manufacturing and workforce development leaders.
       I ask for your support in this endeavor so that it may put 
     us back on track financially, just as the ``Gathering Storm'' 
     report spurred us to fix our nation's education and 
     competitiveness programs.
       William Wilberforce, who, in his first speech in the 
     British Parliament in 1789 describing the evils of the slave 
     trade, concluded by telling his colleagues,
       ``Having heard all this you may choose to look the other 
     way, but you can never again say that you did not know.''
       Not one of us can say we do not know about the nation's 
     long-term financial outlook.
       We know, and it's on our watch to fix.
       This must also be a part of this year's presidential 
     debate. We need to make the next president understand that 
     entitlement reform.
       And the media needs to do a better job covering it. We 
     should insist on a presidential debate devoted to these 
     issues.
       I am confident that, with your support, we will succeed and 
     it may well lead to a renaissance in America--a renaissance 
     in innovation, education, and economic development.

                          ____________________