[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19714-19715]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          AMERICA COMPETES ACT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, there is a lot of good news today 
legislatively.
  I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
consideration of Calendar No. 159, H.R. 2272, the House competitiveness 
bill; that all after the enacting clause be stricken and the text of 
the Senate companion, S. 761, as passed by the Senate, be inserted in 
lieu thereof; the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to 
reconsider be laid on the table, the Senate insist on its amendment, 
request a conference with the House, and the Chair be authorized to 
appoint conferees.
  Mr. President, let me say this is the end of a long haul to do a bill 
that is extremely important. This is a bipartisan bill. There are a 
number of people who have worked extremely hard on this legislation but 
no one harder than Senators Bingaman and Alexander. I apologize for 
only mentioning their

[[Page 19715]]

names. I am sure there are many others who worked just as hard as they 
did. I remember they were the first two who talked to me about it, and 
there has been a lot of time spent on this legislation.
  It is a bill that was passed in the Senate with little opposition. I 
am so happy we can now go to conference. The House has already passed 
something. We can come back with a bill that I think will really help 
productivity in our country and help the educational aspects of 
students, especially in the scientific fields.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Republican leader is recognized.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object--and I 
will not object--there have been a number of people on both sides of 
the aisle who have been deeply invested in this America COMPETES Act. 
Several of them will be shortly announced by the Chair as conferees.
  Particularly, I want to single out Senator Stevens, Senator Enzi, 
Senator Ensign, and Senator Coleman, all of whom will be named 
conferees, and, of course, Senator Alexander and Senator Domenici, who 
were really the leaders on our side, in conjunction with Senator 
Bingaman, in developing this important bipartisan legislation.
  Senator Alexander kept pushing others forward. But, in fact, we all 
knew who the real leader on our side was on this issue. He, in a very 
selfless way, helped move a bipartisan group together to form this 
important legislation. I commend Senator Alexander in particular for 
the role he played in all of this.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 2272), as amended, was read the third time and passed.
  The Presiding Officer appointed Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Inouye, Mr. 
Kennedy, Mr. Lieberman, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Nelson of Florida, 
Mr. Domenici, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Ensign, and Mr. 
Coleman conferees on the part of the Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I join the two leaders in thanking our 
colleagues and thank them for moving this process forward in naming 
these conferees on the America COMPETES Act. I wish to underline the 
excellent work that was done under the bipartisan leadership of Senator 
Bingaman and Senator Alexander, and the other members of our committee. 
They have worked long and hard on this legislation.
  A very distinguished leader in business, Norm Augustine--who has been 
the head of many of our defense industries and is a real statesman in 
terms of defense policy--was enormously important in helping guide the 
bipartisan group, to get recommendations from the National Academy of 
Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Science 
Foundation, and others, to help prepare this legislation, and to make 
recommendations to the House and the Senate.
  This is an enormously important effort to ensure that the United 
States can continue to be competitive in the world economy for years 
ahead. I think this is a very solid and important bipartisan effort. I 
join with our two leaders, thanking them for their recommendations in 
terms of conferees, and join in commending the bipartisan effort that 
has seen this as continuing progress.

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