[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 22809-22810]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          AMERICA COMPETES ACT

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I want to take a very few minutes to 
comment on the action of the Senate last night in passing and sending 
to the President the America COMPETES Act.
  With the passage of the conference report, I hope we will begin a 
long-term commitment by the Congress and by the executive branch to 
ensure our Nation continues to lead the world in innovation and 
economic competitiveness.
  I will put in the record a full statement of the history that has led 
us to this point of hard work that has gone on by many in the Senate, 
in the House of Representatives, as well as in the private sector.
  Yesterday, the House voted 357 to 57 to pass the conference report 
and in doing so affirmed that on large issues such as these we can work 
in a bipartisan way for the benefit of our Nation. Then, later last 
night, the Senate passed the conference report by unanimous consent.
  This bill has been more than 2 years in the making. One primary 
impetus was in May of 2005, when Senator Alexander and I asked the 
National Academies of Science to report on steps the Congress could 
take to keep the United States competitive in a rapidly changing global 
environment. That report, entitled, ``Rising Above the Gathering 
Storm,'' was spearheaded by Norm Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed 
Martin. It was released in October of 2005 and received significant 
attention in the U.S. media. The report clearly tapped into an 
increasing concern among many Americans about the challenges we face in 
competing against the rising national economies of countries such as 
India and China.
  In January of 2006, Senator Domenici, Senator Alexander, and I, along 
with 67 other cosponsors, introduced the Protecting America's 
Competitiveness Edge Act, or PACE Act. This bill reflected the 
recommendations of the Augustine commission and covered a wide array of 
topics related to competitiveness, including increasing funding for 
research and education and other provisions designed to encourage a 
climate of entrepreneurship and innovation.
  On a separate track, in December 2004, the Council on Competitiveness 
released their report entitled, ``Innovate America.'' Based upon that 
report,

[[Page 22810]]

Senators Ensign and Lieberman introduced S. 2802, entitled the American 
Innovation Act of 2006.
  That summer, Senator Frist asked the authors of both bills and other 
interested Members, including the chairman of HELP, Senator Enzi and 
Ranking Member Kennedy, to draft a comprehensive Senate bill which was 
introduced in the Senate as S. 3936, the National Competitiveness and 
Innovation Act. S. 3936 was introduced in the final days of the 109th 
Congress as a Frist-Reid bill.
  Continuing this bipartisan effort in the 110th Congress, Senators 
Alexander, Domenici, and I introduced S. 761, the America COMPETES Act, 
which was taken up by the Senate and passed 88 to 8 in April of this 
year, with Senators Reid and McConnell as the lead sponsors.
  Meanwhile, similar efforts were going on in the House with the House 
Science Committee. The conference report that is on its way to the 
President is a result of bipartisan, bicameral compromise and 
cooperation.
  Reconciling the House and Senate bills started before Memorial Day 
and involved the Senate Committees on Commerce, HELP, and Energy. In 
the House, it involved the Committees on Science and Education and 
Labor. All in all, it took the efforts of over 70 staff to complete 
this legislation. I want to thank the members of these committees for 
their bipartisan effort and long-term vision on keeping our Nation 
competitive.
  I want to thank in particular the staff of these committees, all of 
whom put in long, hard hours, in many cases juggling the demands of 
other bills that their committee had on the floor. In the Senate, once 
things got underway 2 years ago, the process by which we operated was 
completely transparent--there was never a meeting held that did not 
include staff from both sides of the aisle. There was a remarkable lack 
of acrimony, and a striking absence of partisanship. I could not be 
more proud of this process and the staff that undertook it, and I think 
the conference report we passed last night reflects that process. It 
should serve as a model for the way this body should operate.
  Mr. President, let me quote from the ``Rising Above the Gathering 
Storm''--

       Without a renewed effort to bolster the foundations of 
     competitiveness, we can expect to lose our privileged 
     position. For the first time in generations, the nation's 
     children could face poorer prospects than their parents and 
     grandparents did. We owe the current prosperity, security, 
     and good health to investments of the past generations, and 
     we are obliged to renew those commitments in education, 
     research, and innovation policies to ensure that the American 
     people continue to benefit from the remarkable opportunities 
     provided by the rapid development of the global economy and 
     its not inconsiderable underpinning in science and 
     technology.

  This legislation represents that much-needed renewed commitment to 
bolstering our national competitiveness
  Much of the good work that was contained in the legislation was a 
result of the report ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm,'' which was 
issued by the Academies of Science at the urging of several of us in 
the Senate. This report set out specific actions that needed to be 
taken by this country in order to keep our economy competitive in the 
world. Clearly, most of those recommendations have been adopted, and 
now they have been legislated into law as part of this America COMPETES 
Act.
  I thank my colleagues--Senator Alexander, of course, Senator 
Domenici, Senator Ensign, Senator Lieberman, Senator Kennedy, Senator 
Enzi, Senator Inouye, Senator Stevens. A great many people in the 
Senate had a major part in this legislation. I thank them.
  I also want to particularly thank the staff. The hard work that went 
into this legislation was truly extraordinary. There were numerous 
staff from both sides of the aisle who worked very hard to make this 
effort a success.
  From the Commerce Committee: Beth Bacon, Jeff Bingham, Jean Toal-
Eisen, Christine Kurth, Chan Lieu, Jason Mulvihill, Floyd Deschamps, 
and H.J. Derr; from the HELP Committee: Beth Buehlman, David Cleary, 
Anne Clough, David Gruenbaum, Lindsay Hunsicker, David Johns, Carmel 
Martin, Roberto Rodriguez, Missy Rohrbach, Ilyse Schuman, and Emma 
Vadehra; from my personal staff: Michael Yudin, who does the work in 
our office on education issues, was an essential part of the effort 
from the very beginning and made enormous contributions to the 
education sections of the report; Melanie Roberts, an AAAS policy 
fellow in my office, did as well, worked hard; from the Energy and 
Natural Resources Committee: Bob Simon, our staff director; Mia 
Bennett; Kathryn Clay; Sam Fowler; Amanda Kelly; Judy Pensabene, who is 
the committee counsel for Senator Domenici; and Matt Zedler; on Senator 
Alexander's staff: Matt Sonnesyn and Jack Wells are the two with whom I 
am most familiar who have worked so hard; from Senator Lieberman's 
staff: Craig Robinson, Colleen Shogan, and Rachel Sotsky.
  I also want to acknowledge the great work done by our leadership 
staff: Jason Unger and Mark Wetjen on Senator Reid's staff, and by 
Libby Jarvis on Senator McConnell's staff. Let me express my special 
thanks to the Senate Legislative Counsel's Office for their tireless 
work in getting this legislation ready so it could be completed before 
the August recess: Liz King coordinated the conference efforts with the 
utmost patience; John Baggaley, Gary Endicott, Gary Koster, Amy Gaynor, 
and Kristin Romero.
  Finally, let me mention John Epstein in my own office and who works 
on the Energy Committee staff. I am convinced that if it were not for 
John's tireless efforts to move this legislation forward and his 
unfailing commitment to a collegial, bipartisan process, the bill would 
not have been able to be passed in this timeframe. I am extremely 
grateful to him for his persistence and integrity throughout the 
process. Also, let me particularly thank Trudy Vincent, my legislative 
director, for the great work she did on this legislation from its 
inception to its completion.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Missouri is 
recognized.

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