[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10618-10619]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          AMERICA COMPETES ACT

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, last week, while the media covered Iraq 
and U.S. attorneys, the Senate spent 3 days debating and passing 
perhaps the most important piece of legislation of this 2-year session. 
Almost no one noticed. The America COMPETES Act, which was the name of 
the legislation, authorized $60 billion over 4 years to, among other 
things, double spending for physical sciences research, recruit 10,000 
new math and science teachers, and retrain 250,000 more, provide grants 
to researchers, and invest more in high-risk, high-payoff research.
  These were recommendations of a National Academy of Sciences task 
force that had been asked to tell Congress--to tell us--exactly what we 
needed to do to help America keep its brainpower advantage so we can 
keep our jobs from going to China and India.
  Last year, the Senate--but not the House--enacted task force 
recommendations to encourage ``insourcing brainpower'' by giving legal 
residency to skilled foreign students and researchers. Both Houses 
extended the research and development tax credit.
  The process for this legislation was as exemplary as the substance. 
Senators and their staffs worked across party lines for 2 years. Senior 
committee members, chairmen and ranking members, waived jurisdictional 
prerogatives. The administration participated in extensive homework 
sessions with Senators and outside experts. The effort was so 
bipartisan that when the Senate shifted to the Democrats in January, 
the new majority leader and minority leader introduced the same bill 
their predecessors had in the last Congress. Seventy Senators 
cosponsored the legislation. Even though no cloture motion was filed, 9 
amendments were voted upon, and 32 more amendments were addressed 
within 4 days. The final vote was 88 to 8.
  Anyone who knows the Senate knows that the final margin masks how 
difficult passage was. There were concerted efforts to derail the bill 
by those with different ideas about policy and about spending. Yet this 
success with competitiveness suggests three lessons for dealing with 
other issues that are simply too big to be solved by one party alone, 
such as immigration, to which the majority leader has indicated we will 
turn in May, such as health insurance, such as energy independence, 
such as terrorism, and such as Iraq.
  These are the three lessons as I see them:
  First, most ideas in the Senate fail for lack of the idea. The first 
step in our success was when Senator Jeff Bingaman and I asked the 
National Academy of Sciences the following question more than 2 years 
ago:

       What are the top 10 actions, in priority order, that 
     Federal policymakers can take to enhance the science and 
     technology enterprise so that the United States can 
     successfully compete, prosper and be secure in the global 
     community of the 21st century?

  The Academy's 21-member task force, headed by former Lockheed Martin 
chairman and CEO Norm Augustine and including 3 Nobel laureates, gave 
up their summer, reviewed hundreds of proposals, and presented us with 
20 specific recommendations in response to our question. These 20 
recommendations, along with the work of the Council on Competitiveness 
and the President's ideas, gave us something to work with other than 
pet projects of various Members of Congress.
  The second lesson is that bipartisanship is possible, even on complex 
issues. From the framing of the question to the introduction of the 
final legislation by the majority and minority leader, every effort was 
bipartisan. When Senator Domenici, for example, went to see President 
Bush, he invited Senator Bingaman, a Democrat, to go, as well as me, a 
Republican. Staffs worked so closely together that no one could say 
whether it was a Republican bill or a Democratic bill.
  Third, and finally, the last lesson is that, unfortunately, 
bipartisan success, even on the biggest, most complex issues, has an 
excellent chance of remaining a secret. Despite the size of the 
accomplishment, the passage of the 208-page America COMPETES Act was 
barely noticed by the major media. This is not a complaint, merely an 
observation. More than ever, the media, outside interest groups, and 
party structures reward conflict and the taking of irreconcilable 
positions. There is little reward for reconciling principled positions 
into legislation.
  Here is another example: The work of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group 
was consigned almost immediately to the shelf as a bookend. Somewhere, 
there is a letter to President Bush from 10 Senators, 5 from each 
party, offering to work together with him to help every American have 
affordable health insurance.
  Although there is not much attention paid to this kind of legislative 
activity, I am convinced the American people and most Senators are 
hungry for it. I believe the last election was as much about the 
conduct of business in Washington, DC, as it was about the conduct of 
the war in Iraq. Americans are tired of what they perceive as Senators 
playing petty, kindergarten, partisan games while there are big issues 
that cannot be solved by one party alone. Americans know we need a 
political solution to Iraq in Washington,

[[Page 10619]]

DC, as much as we need one in Baghdad.
  The irony is that last week's culmination of 2 years of work on the 
America COMPETES Act demonstrates that the Senate is capable of 
tackling big, complex issues in a bipartisan way, but that we will have 
to look beyond the influences of the media, special interest groups, 
and the political party apparatus for encouragement to do it.
  Virtue, as ever, will be its own reward.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in 
morning business for as much time as I may consume.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Webb 
be recognized following me for a period of 15 minutes in morning 
business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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