[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 23274-23275]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               H.R. 4664

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 14, 2002

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of 
the National Science Foundation Authorization Act, H.R. 4664, passed by 
the House on November 14, 2002, a bill which doubles funding for one of 
the most efficient and essential agencies of the Federal government, 
the National Science Foundation. In particular, I am proud to support 
this bill because it contains two provisions I authored, both of which 
will address growing needs in our educational system, our workforce and 
the economy.
  The first provision will have a positive impact on our educational 
system's ability to integrate cutting edge technology into the 
classroom instruction of advanced disciplines at the primary and 
secondary education levels and which will, therefore, improve the 
educational opportunities of America's students. The second provision 
will address a growing problem in our nation's workforce: fewer and 
fewer Americans are seeking degrees in the scientific and technical 
fields as demand grows and more jobs go unfilled. Both provisions will 
improve the nation's capacity to maintain an innovative edge in 
technical fields, which is the backbone of America's prosperous 
economic system.
  The first provision is simple: it tasks the National Science 
Foundation to identify the best educational practices to provide 
educators and policy makers with tools for using existing and evolving 
Internet technology more effectively as a part of the nation's 
educational strategy. It does this by tasking NSF to study:
  (1) The current status of high-speed, large bandwidth capacity access 
to all public elementary and secondary schools and libraries in the 
United States;
  (2) How high-speed, large bandwidth capacity access to the Internet 
to such schools and libraries can be effectively utilized within each 
school and library;
  (3) The effect that specific or regional circumstances may have on 
the ability of such institutions to acquire high-speed, large bandwidth 
capacity access to achieve universal connectivity as an effective tool 
in the education process; and
  (4) Present various options and recommendations for the entities 
responsible for elementary and secondary education to address the 
challenges and issues identified in the report.
  In essence, in order to prepare our public schools for the 21st 
century, we must reexamine how our children's education is delivered 
into the classrooms. The provision would provide our schools with the 
best data available from some of the nation's top researchers to help 
schools enter the 21st century by assisting them to establish effective 
educational pipelines--broadband pipelines--through which we can supply 
the energy necessary to fuel the new digital economy.
  The second provision is, essentially, a bill I co-authored and 
introduced with Science Committee Chairman, Sherwood Boehlert, the Tech 
Talent Act, H.R. 3130. That bill's main provision, which made it into 
the NSF Authorization bill, consists of a new effort to address the 
tech worker shortage by establishing a competitive grant program at the 
National Science Foundation that rewards universities and community 
colleges that pledge to increase the number of U.S. citizens or 
permanent residents obtaining degrees in science, math, engineering and 
technology (SMET) fields.
  It is no secret that America has long recognized that its long-term 
strength and security, and its ability to recover and sustain high 
levels of economic growth, depends on maintaining its edge in 
scientific achievement and technological innovation. Biomedical 
advances have permitted us to live longer, healthier, and more 
productively. Advances in agricultural technology have permitted us to 
be able to feed more and healthier people at a cheaper cost. The 
information revolution can be seen today in the advanced instruments 
schools are using to instruct our children and in the vast information 
resources that are opened up as a result of the linkages created by a 
networked global society. Our children today can grow up to know, see, 
and read more, be more diverse, and have more options in their lives 
for learning and growing. Other emerging technologies--such as 
nanotechnology--have untold potential to make our lives more exciting, 
secure, prosperous, and challenging.
  Many countries also recognize this and they, therefore, focus their 
industrial, economic, and security policies on the nurturing and 
diffusion of technological advancement through all levels of society in 
a deliberate fashion. Countries that follow this path of nurturing 
innovation focus a lot of their efforts into recruiting and training 
the very best engineers and scientists, ensuring that a pipeline which 
pumps talented and imaginative minds and skills is connected to the 
needs of the country's socio-economic and security enterprise.
  Yet here in this country, this pipeline is broken, threatening the 
competitive edge we enjoy in the business of technological innovation. 
Fewer and fewer Americans are getting degrees in scientific and 
technical fields--even

[[Page 23275]]

as the demand grows. For example, the number of bachelors degrees 
awarded in math, computer science, and electrical engineering has 
fallen 35 percent and 39 percent respectively from their peaks in 1987, 
at a time when total BA degrees have increased. The number of graduate 
degrees in those fields has either fallen noticeably or stayed flat. 
And only about half of all engineering doctoral degrees granted in the 
U.S. are earned by Americans.
  The nation has dealt with this crisis in the recent past by expanding 
the H1B Visa program to let more foreign residents with science and 
engineering degrees enter the country. But the H1B program was never 
intended to be more than an interim solution. The long-term solution 
has to be ensuring that more Americans get into these fields. The Tech 
Talent provision included in this bill represents a new effort aimed at 
producing just such people.
  It always pays to be mindful of the fact--especially in the wake of 
the September 11 events--that there is a strong and tight linkage 
between our national security and the level of science and technology 
proficiency in America. Our strength and leadership in the world is 
based on the might of our defense, strength of our economy, and the 
quality of our education system. Without any one of these three 
components the global preeminence of the nation suffers.
  In the House Science Committee room there is an inscription: Where 
there is no vision, the people perish. To remain a strong nation, we 
must ensure that the single most important element that keeps us 
dynamic, innovative, prosperous, and secure--and therefore mighty--is 
there for us: our students, teachers, researchers, engineers, 
scientists, and technologists. In short, we need more people with 
vision. The provisions I authored and the underlying legislation will 
address the deficiencies in our ability to replenish our workforce with 
visionary individuals and I urge President Bush to sign this 
legislation.

                          ____________________