[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 150 (Monday, September 22, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H8541-H8543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SUCCESSFUL DEMONSTRATION OF THE 
                        FIRST INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

  Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1471) honoring the 50th anniversary of 
the successful demonstration of the first integrated circuit and its 
impact on the electronics industry.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 1471

       Whereas in May 1958 Jack St. Clair Kilby joined Texas 
     Instruments because it was the only company that would permit 
     him to work full-time on miniaturization of electronics;
       Whereas just four months later on September 12, 1958, Jack 
     Kilby demonstrated the first integrated circuit by combining 
     a transistor, several resistors, and a capacitor on a half 
     inch piece of germanium in an attempt to reduce transistor 
     costs;
       Whereas Jack Kilby spent his career at Texas Instruments, a 
     productive engineering career that resulted in over 60 
     patents and seminal inventions, including the electronic 
     calculator;
       Whereas Jack Kilby received the National Medal of Science 
     in 1969 and the National Medal of Technology in 1990, and 
     shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000, for his invention 
     of and contributions to the development of the integrated 
     circuit;
       Whereas during Kilby's lifetime integrated circuits 
     provided a million fold decrease in the costs of electronics;
       Whereas Kilby's achievement revolutionized electronics and 
     permitted it to grow to over $1,500,000,000,000 in annual 
     sales world wide;
       Whereas the integrated circuit revolutionized computing and 
     made possible getting a man to the moon and modern space 
     exploration;
       Whereas the integrated circuit led to a revolution in 
     communications, transportation, and medical industries; and
       Whereas the future will inevitably bring equally far-
     reaching integrated circuit-based advances in many fields: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
       (1) recognizes and honors the research and development 
     efforts of Jack Kilby and his contemporaries, who by 
     inventing and perfecting the integrated circuit brought us 
     modern electronics and changed the world; and
       (2) recognizes the importance of continued advancements in 
     electronics to the well-being of America.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlelady from 
Maryland (Ms. Edwards) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Maryland.


                             General Leave

  Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their 
remarks and to include extraneous material on House Resolution 1471, 
the resolution now under consideration

[[Page H8542]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Maryland?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  September 12 of this year came and went with little mention of the 
50th anniversary of one of the most important events of the 20th 
century. We owe a debt to Congressman Hall for introducing the 
resolution to remind us of the great importance of Jack Kilby's 
experiment and for giving us the opportunity to celebrate the positive 
contributions of the electronics industry to our well-being.
  Jack Kilby knew he was on to something important. He turned down 
offers from other leading electronics companies to go to Texas 
Instruments in May 1958, because Texas Instruments was the one company 
that would let him work full time on miniaturization of electronics. 
Just 4 months later, he demonstrated what others had been unable to do, 
that it was possible to create an integrated circuit by combining a 
transistor, a capacitor and resistors.
  All this happened within a year of the Sputnik, the Russian satellite 
that was a wake-up call regarding the state of American science and 
engineering. There were computers then, but they were a mass of vacuum 
tubes and wires that filled a room but provided very little computing 
power. Radios, television and communications equipment also existed, 
but, once again, were fairly complicated devices with limited utility.
  The miniaturization that Jack Kilby espoused revolutionized 
electronics. Thanks to the efforts of others, including Bob Noyce and 
his colleagues at Fairchild, integrated circuits rapidly moved from 
germanium to widely available silicon.
  Early integrated circuit applications allowed mankind to reach the 
moon by the end of the 1960s. It completely changed the face of 
national defense. It allowed Jack Kilby to intent the calculator. It 
made the Internet possible. It allowed electronics to be the future of 
automobiles, airplanes, entertainment, medical equipment and 
manufacturing controls.
  Before Jack Kilby died, the circuits he invented had become 
microscopic and had decreased in price by a factor of a million. During 
our lifetimes, they will continue to drop in price, increase in 
sophistication and be even more integral building blocks for life as we 
know it.
  I am extremely pleased the leadership of this Committee on Science 
and Technology has seen fit to push this tribute to such an important 
set of achievements. I urge my colleagues to join with me in voting for 
this legislation that honors a group of individuals who truly changed 
the world for the better.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HALL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 1471, 
which honors the 50th anniversary of the invention of the integrated 
circuit by Jack St. Clair Kilby. On September 12, 1958, in a Dallas lab 
of Texas Instruments, Jack St. Clair Kilby gathered a small group of 
coworkers to unveil a stunning achievement. Before them sat a thin 
piece of metal attached to monitoring equipment.
  When powered on, it became clear that the single piece of metal was 
doing the work of several simple electronic components, including 
transistors, capacitors and resistors. Jack had created the first 
microchip.
  I go back a long ways with Texas Instruments. I knew very well Erik 
Johnson, who started Texas Instruments. I have talked with him 
personally on several occasions about TI and how he bought it. He said 
he bought it on a Saturday morning, and the next morning, Sunday 
morning, he was driving out to look at what he had bought and turned on 
his radio, because he had promised his wife he would be back in time to 
go to church with her. He turned on his radio, and the announcement was 
that the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor.
  I said to Erik Johnson, Mr. Johnson, as an engineer, you are 
wonderful, but as a matter of timing, you are perfect, because that 
launched the world into war and TI has been a major player in the 
victory that they achieved some 4 or 5 years later. This breakthrough 
is a similar breakthrough that they have had time and time again at TI.
  For much of the 20th century, the electronics industry had relied on 
vacuum tubes as the basis for its design. By 1958, these bulky and 
fragile devices were beginning to be widely replaced by transistors 
made of semiconducting metals, which were tougher, which were smaller, 
which produced less heat. These features allowed electrical engineers 
to design much more complicated systems.
  However, as the number of components increased, engineers were having 
a harder time reliably connecting everything. Cutting edge devices 
might require connecting thousands of components to thousands of tiny 
wires by hand.
  Jack Kilby solved that problem. Over the summer of 1958, Jack created 
a way to build all of the wires, transistors and other electrical 
components into a single piece of metal. In essence, electronics 
manufacturers could take a solid piece of metal and etch a complete, 
electronic device into it, no assembly required.
  This breakthrough, the integrated circuit, revolutionized the world. 
Jack Kilby's work, as well as fellow integrated circuit pioneers, 
Geoffrey Drummer and Robert Noyce, heralded the beginning of an 
encompassing transformation of modern society. Their work paved the way 
for the modern electronics industry. Electronic devices that once 
required a small building and teams of engineers working around the 
clock now fit neatly into pocket.
  Integrated circuits continue to be a cornerstone of the American 
economy and an important priority of our research and development 
institutions. Fifty years after the first demonstration of an 
integrated circuit, it's fitting that Congress recognizes achievement 
and the importance of this sector now and in the future.
  I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 1471.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for 
time and reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HALL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlelady 
from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx).
  Ms. FOXX. I thank my colleague from Texas for yielding me some time.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it's very appropriate that we are heralding this 
innovation today. I want to tie this into what we have been trying to 
do here on the House, what Republicans have been trying to do all this 
year, and that is to allow us to create more American-made energy by 
drilling in Alaska and drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf and 
using that money that we, the Federal Government would get, for the 
leases, to find new and exciting alternatives for our energy situation, 
the challenges that we face. I want to highlight again what some 
newspapers across the country have said about the cynical bill that was 
passed last week by Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats and show that this 
is understood all across the country.
  The New Hampshire Union Leader editorial said, ``Drilling for cover: 
Pelosi & Co.'s phony bill . . . Democrats in the U.S. House want you to 
think that they support expanded drilling for oil and natural gas. They 
don't. Their vote on Tuesday proved it . . . This bill is a total 
fraud. It gives access to only 12 percent of the estimated oil reserves 
we are currently not allowed to access. . . . The bill . . . does not 
allow States to share revenues from oil leases granted there. So States 
such as California, which faces a huge budget shortfall, have less 
incentive to give that approval. Democrats who have opposed expanded 
domestic drilling forever suddenly found themselves on the losing end 
of a major economic issue after gas prices hit $4 a gallon. Now they 
are pushing a phony drilling bill to fool the American people into 
believing that Democrats support new oil exploration.''
  In the Honolulu, Hawaii, Star-Bulletin editorial, ``House energy bill 
falls short of bipartisan solution. Representative Neil Abercrombie's 
admirable effort to craft a comprehensive energy plan worthy of 
bipartisan support has been cast aside. Instead, the Democratic House 
leadership has pushed through a surrogate measure on a

[[Page H8543]]

party-line vote that is doomed either in the Senate or by presidential 
veto, while providing Democrats political cover from voters angry about 
high gasoline prices. . . . The bill backed by Pelosi, a long-time 
opponent of offshore drilling, would keep the ban in effect within 50 
miles of the shore. It would allow drilling from 50 to 100 miles from 
the shore if adjacent States gave their approval and would extend it 
beyond 100 miles with or without such approval. That means that 88 
percent of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil in waters now under 
drilling bans would remain off limits.''
  The Washington Examiner editorial. ``Pelosi's sham editorial bill is 
an oily dodge.'' It says, ``The reality is this sham legislation 
effectively keeps the 26 year-old congressional drilling ban in place 
for 85 percent of all offshore petroleum reserves. Pelosi's measure 
allows virtually no drilling within 100 miles of U.S. coastlines, yet 
that's where most of the untapped resources are.

                              {time}  1630

  ``Incredibly, that's not the worst of it. Pelosi's bill leaves in 
place the endless delays created via lawsuits filed by rabid 
environmentalists. U.S. Representative John Shadegg calls this problem 
the bill's 'litigation loophole.'''
  The Charleston, West Virginia Daily Mail editorial, ``A Drilling Bill 
That Does Nothing. When House Democrats came back to Washington, they 
quickly passed a bill that Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of oil-
producing Louisiana pronounced dead on arrival in the Senate.''
  It goes on to say: ``Pelosi's plan is a slap in the face of 
Americans. Americans need to be as independent of foreign oil as 
possible. The public sees that. Yet Democrats refuse to pursue policies 
that will increase American oil production. This position is senseless, 
and it is especially so in an election year.''
  The Los Angeles Times editorial: ``Wasted Energy Bill. House 
Democrats' push for expanded offshore oil and gas drilling was more 
about electoral positioning than drilling, aimed at convincing voters 
that the party shares their pain at the pump.''
  And then an op-ed in Forbes, ``Washington's Offshore Snake Oil. On 
Tuesday, the House Democrats went on the record supporting an offshore 
drilling bill in a piece of legislation that now heads promptly over to 
the Senate to die.''
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to put the remainder of my comments in the 
Record.

       Investor's Business Daily Editorial: ``Drill-Shy Congress . 
     . . House Democrats have passed an `oil drilling bill that 
     bans drilling where most of the oil is . . . On that first 
     day of the new fiscal year, the congressional prohibitions 
     expire on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, as well 
     as for the oil shale available in Western states. The 
     Democratic-controlled, do-nothing Congress for once is 
     frantic to do something before that deadline hits. In a big 
     election year, with summer gas prices exceeding $4 a gallon, 
     voters won't swallow an extension of the ban. So Speaker 
     Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday had the House of Representatives pass 
     legislation she unveiled less than 24 hours earlier, with 
     Republicans blocked from offering amendments . . . But Texas 
     Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the Republicans' Study Committee 
     chairman, correctly called the bill `a sham' with no 
     provision addressing the dire need for construction of new 
     oil refineries, `no clean coal, no energy exploration in 
     arctic Alaska, no nuclear energy and--if you read it--no 
     exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf for energy in 
     their bill.' '' (9/18/08)

  Mr. HALL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Maryland (Ms. Edwards) that the House suspend the 
rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1471, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________