Bart Gordon

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the service of a valued staff member of the Committee on Science and Technology, Michael Quear. Mike has served on Capitol Hill for over 20 years, most recently as the Staff Director for the Technology and Innovation Subcommittee. Mike Quear grew up in Indiana on a farm where his work for 4H and his demanding piano teacher taught him the importance of principled, disciplined hard work. Every day Mike came to work for the Committee for the last 20 years, he brought that attitude to the job with him. It is hard to match either his stamina or the quality of his work. In 1990, Mike came to the Science Committee from a fellowship with the State Department. Educated in Chemical Engineering, Mike brought with him real-world experience from working in industry as well as exposure to the thinking of the State Department about how to use science and technology to build stronger diplomatic ties among nations. He worked directly for then-Chairman George E. Brown, Jr. Brown was a passionate advocate for using scientific cooperation to bridge differences between nations. Mike supported his efforts, acting as his advisor for international scientific cooperation matters. At Brown's direction, Mike played a key role in negotiating the establishment of the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Science. Beginning in 1995, Mike took the lead as the key Democratic staffer on technology issues and for reauthorization of programs at the National Institute of Technology and Standards. For the last 15 years, virtually every authorization or reauthorization of programs at NIST was the direct product of Mike's work. Mike is well known to colleagues in the Senate and the House, among authorizers and appropriators, both on and off the Hill for his detailed knowledge of NIST, its programs and its problems. His work on NIST programs could be a perfect case study for any young Committee staffer trying to understand how to work with an agency. Mike played a key role in crafting many pieces of legislation relating to standards, technology development, and competitiveness. I want to mention just two specifically. I am particularly indebted to Mike because he drafted the first bill I had signed into law as Chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology: the Methamphetamine Remediation Research Act of 2007. Secondly, Mike Quear was at the heart of the America COMPETES Act--taking the lead on all the technology provisions in that landmark legislation. Mike has been a model staffer: creative, smart, hard-working, and loyal. While the Committee will miss his dedicated services, I am confident that he will retire to his farm in Pennsylvania and apply those same gifts to his passions of raising horses, driving buggies, and gardening. I want to thank him for his selfless professionalism and congratulate him on his hard earned retirement. We will miss you and cannot replace you.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Brenda Marie Page, who is retiring after more than two decades of dedicated service as Clerk and Master of Tennesssee's 18th Judicial District. A lifetime Middle Tennessean, Brenda attended Maplewood High School, then earned her degree at Middle Tennessee State University, my own alma mater. She began her career at Tennessee's Department of Education and went on to work as a secretary at Volunteer State Community College. Then-Dean of Students Tom E. Gray recognized her abilities and brought her in as secretary upon being elected judge, then Chancellor of Sumner County. Brenda was appointed to the constitutional office of Clerk and Master of the 18th Judicial District in 1988. In her role as Clerk and Master, Brenda has worn many hats. In addition to overseeing the operations and budget of the Clerk's office, Brenda is appointed Special Master in cases involving the division of property. She has played critical roles in the execution of thousands of civil and domestic cases throughout her 22 years of service. Outside of her contributions to the district, Brenda has served as a division president of the State Court Clerk's Association and an active member of the County Officials Association of Sumner County. She has also served as treasurer of the Sumner County Democratic Party and has been a valued organizer for many years. Brenda, I hope you enjoy a long and happy retirement with your husband, Robert, and your children and grandchildren. I wish you all the best.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor Amy Taylor and thank her for her tremendous service to Tennessee's Sixth Congressional District. After serving as my executive assistant for 4 years, Amy is leaving for a new position on Capitol Hill. Amy first came to my office as a summer intern in 2005 when she was still an English major at Middle Tennessee State University, my alma mater. It was clear to me and to my staff that she was bright, capable and eager to learn more about the inner workings of Congress. When her internship ended, we didn't forget her skill for the work of the congressional office and her loyalty to her Middle Tennessee roots. When a position became open in the office around the time Amy was graduating, I was happy she accepted and made the move to Washington. Throughout her time here, she has brought remarkable capability, talent and good humor to a challenging job. Madam Speaker, I simply can't say enough about the outstanding job Amy has done while working in my office. Her knowledge of the district has been a great asset, and her positive attitude has enabled her to have a good and quick rapport with constituents, her coworkers and virtually anyone she meets. It's been a pleasure having Amy on our staff. While my staff and I are sad to see her go, we're fortunate that she won't be going far. Amy will be moving on to the office of my colleague Mr. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee's Fourth Congressional District, where she also has family roots. I hope Mr. Davis and his staff appreciate how lucky they are to have her. Amy, I thank you for your hard work and good advice, and I wish you all the best in your continued service to the Volunteer State.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the instructions of the House in the motion to recommit, I report the bill, H.R. 5116, back to the House with an amendment.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I demand a division of the question on the adoption of the amendment to enable the separate votes on the portion of the amendment proposing to insert a new section 704 and on the portion of the amendment proposing to insert a new section 705.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I demand that the question on adopting the amendment be divided among its nine separate parts.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5325) to invest in innovation through research and development, to improve the competitiveness of the United States, and for other purposes.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I will take time a little bit later to try to respond to some of Mr. Hall's concerns, but I want to get to the veterans right now. I want to assure Mr. Hall that when he goes home for Memorial Day, he can look at those veterans and say, I fought for you. I fought for you. And I want to read the language so there'll be no misunderstanding about this issue. We don't need to have red herrings here. This is an important bill. So I'm going to read the language of the bill. ``For the purposes of the activities and programs supported by this Act and the amendments made by this Act . . . institutions of higher education offering STEM research and education activities and programs that serve veterans with disabilities shall receive special consideration in the review of any proposals by these institutions for funding under research and education programs authorized in this Act . . . '' So let's be sure that we know that has been addressed. Now, let me also point out that there's 435 Members of Congress, and if we each wrote a bill, we would probably write it a little bit differently. This is a matter of trying to bring folks together, develop consensus, and that's what we did with 49 different hearings, a bipartisan vote through four different markups, so I think that we have addressed that. I will address other issues later, but I would like to now yield 2 minutes to my friend from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind).

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. As my friend from Texas says, we have worked together long and hard on many issues. And certainly, again, we are going to continue to try to work to get this language exactly where both parties that are seeing it in good faith can agree. To me it seems ``shall receive'' is better than ``make available,'' but we are going to work to get that together. I yield 2 minutes to the chairman of the Research and Science Education Subcommittee, the gentleman from Illinois, Dr. Lipinski.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. I yield 30 additional seconds to Dr. Lipinski.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me make this suggestion: if you want to wait for the absolutely perfect bill that you agree with every word, then you shouldn't vote for this bill because this bill is a bipartisan compromise that was a result of 49 hearings, four bipartisan markups, and so we had to work together. So if you want the perfect bill that is just exactly what you want regardless of what anybody else might want, then this may not be your bill. But if you want a bill that is going to take America forward, if you want a bill that is supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, by the National Association of Manufacturers, by the Information Technology Industry Association, by the Aerospace Industry Association, by the Business Roundtable, by the Council on Competitiveness, by the National Venture Capitalists Association, by TechAmerica, by TechNet, by Technological CEO Council, by the Telecommunication Industry Association, by the Energy Sciences Coalition, by the Biotech Industry Organization, by the American Council of Education, by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, by the Association of American Universities, by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, and on, and on, and on, and on, then this is the bill for you. Now, do they agree with every word in it? No, I'm sure they don't. But do they understand that 50 percent of the growth in our GDP in this country since World War II is a direct result of the R&D investment that we made and the benefit from that R&D investment? Yes, they understand that. And so today we have a chance to cast a vote for our kids, for our grandkids. We have a chance to cast a vote for energy independence in this country. And when I say energy independence, I don't mean just independence from foreign oil; I mean energy independence from foreign technology, also. This is a good bill. I request everyone to take a look at it, see it, and I think they'll see that on the merits that this a good bill that serves our country. I think they'll see that this is a good bill that helps our disabled veterans. It was very specific in that. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have left?

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself that final minute. Let me point out to my friend from Texas that the National Taxpayers Union did oppose the previous bill, but they have not taken a position on this bill. We just checked their Web site. If you have something different, we would be glad to see it, because this bill is different than the last bill. This bill cuts the authorization by 50 percent. So we have a different bill here today. So again, as I have said before, Mr. Speaker, there are 6.5 billion people in the world. Half of those working make less than $2 a day. That is not the kind of way we want to compete in this country. We have to work at a higher technological level to be more productive. This bill will help us get there. I thank, once again, the Republican and Democratic Members that have worked together to bring this bipartisan bill. I thank the staff of the minority and majority for working together to bring us this good bill, and I urge passage.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The bill before us today, H.R. 5325, is similar to the bill the House considered last week, H.R. 5116, including all 52 amendments adopted during floor consideration last week. However, the bill differs in two respects. One, it includes language from the motion to recommit barring money from going to agency employees who were disciplined for viewing pornography at work, and two, the authorization period for all programs in the bill has been changed from 5 years to 3 years. I understand the concerns of many of my colleagues about the overall size of a 5-year authorization, and this reduction is my sincere attempt to compromise on an issue that is very important to me and our country. The bill before us today includes an overall funding reduction of 50 percent from H.R. 5116, as introduced. I spoke at length about the background and need for this bill last week, so I'm only going to give the highlights today. On October 12, 2005, in response to a bipartisan, bicameral request of the Science Committee and our colleagues in the Senate, the National Academies announced the report, ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.'' The distinguished panel, led by Norm Augustine, painted a very scary picture and told us that, without action, the future was bleak for our children and grandchildren. This report was, without question, a call to arms. Congress responded by turning the Gathering Storm recommendation into legislative language. The final result was enactment of the America COMPETES Act of 2007, with the bipartisan support of 365 Members. Moreover, with the leadership of Senators Alexander and Bingaman and 69 Senate cosponsors, the Senate approved the conference report by unanimous consent. Now, after 3 years, we're back to work on reauthorizing COMPETES. Since enactment of COMPETES, the Science and Technology Committee has held 48 hearings on areas addressed in the bill before us today. What we've heard from those hearings is that if we are to reverse the trend of the last 20 years where our country's technological edge in the world has diminished, we must make the necessary investments today. The statistics speak for themselves. More than 50 percent of our economic growth since World War II can be directly attributed to investments in research. The path is simple. Research leads to innovation. Innovation leads to economic development and good paying jobs, and ultimately, creating good jobs is the goal of this bill. During our committee's four markups, we accepted 25 amendments offered by the minority and, in addition, many additional changes have been made at the suggestion of the minority. I believe this is a good bill, both on substance and on inclusive procedure, and it is a better bill because of the contributions of our Members. I specifically want to thank my friend Ralph Hall for the cooperation and the spirit with which this bill has been brought before us and the way it was handled within our committee. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. 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 H.R. 5325, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We have all heard the story of two people seeing the same accident, and with their best intentions viewing it differently. You know, I think this is what we have here today. This really has become something of a red herring on a much bigger bill. But let me once again address this veterans issue. Mr. Hall says he wants to make these programs available to the veterans. I want to require it. We require it. So let me read the language again. ``For the purposes of the activities and programs supported by this Act and the amendments made by this Act . . . institutions of higher education offering STEM research and education activities and programs that serve veterans with disabilities shall receive''--not made available--``shall receive special consideration in the review of any proposals by these institutions for funding under the research and education programs authorized in this Act . . . '' Shall receive. Not made available; shall receive. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson).

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, how much time do we have left?

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would first say to my friend from Texas that I think I probably minded him more than his kids minded him, but probably less than his grandkids have minded him. We have tried to cooperate in a lot of ways. Let me address a couple of things. As I said earlier, Mr. Hall has said, and rightfully so, that everyone here is supportive of our veterans and our disabled veterans. So what I would suggest is that we use a suspenders and a belt. Let's make sure. And so, Mr. Hall, I want to assure you that we're going to include your language, but we can also keep our strong language as ``shall.'' So this is what we would have: institutions of higher education offering STEM research education activities and programs, rather than that ``serve,'' we'll use your language that are available to veterans with disabilities, and then we'll continue to say ``shall'' receive special consideration. So I think this can be a suspenders and belt to do what we all want, and that is to make sure that our disabled veterans are taken care of. Let me also mention that there is a discussion about duplicate programs. I guess sometimes that could happen. In that last bill that 365 Members of the Congress voted for, we found that there were nine programs that didn't serve well and so those programs were taken out of this bill, and I think we can have disagreements as to whether a program is duplicative or not, but the funding doesn't go up. And so that is the good news there. Let me also point out that on page 195, section 502, ``Coordination and Nonduplication. To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary shall ensure that the activities carried out under this section are coordinated with, and do not duplicate the efforts of, other loan guarantee programs within the Federal Government.'' So there is an effort to be sure that we do not have this kind of duplication. Once again, this is a bill that authorization has been cut by 50 percent from what 365 Members of this House voted for just 3 years ago and that was unanimously approved by the other body. And I yield 2 minutes to my friend from New Jersey, Dr. Rush Holt.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Chair, I would like to thank Chairman Miller of the Education and Labor Committee for working cooperatively with the Science and Technology Committee on H.R. 5116, the America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2010. Chairman Miller has been a champion of STEM education in the House and his Committee has been very supportive in helping shape the STEM education provisions in the Competes Act. I insert into the Congressional Record an exchange of letters between the Committees on Science and Technology and Education and Labor. House of Representatives, Committee on Education and Labor, Washington, DC, May 5, 2010. Hon. Bart Gordon, Chairman, Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Gordon: In recognition of the desire to expedite consideration of H.R. 5116, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, the Committee on Education and Labor agrees to waive formal consideration of the bill as to provisions that fall within its rule X jurisdiction. The Committee takes this action with our mutual understanding that by foregoing consideration of H.R. 5116 at this time, it does not waive any jurisdiction over subject matter contained in this or similar legislation, and that our Committee will be appropriately consulted and involved as the bill or similar legislation moves forward, so that we may address any remaining issues in our jurisdiction. The Committee also reserves the right to seek appointment of an appropriate number of conferees to any House-Senate conference involving this or similar legislation, and requests your support for any such request. I would appreciate your including this letter in the Congressional Record during consideration of the bill on the House floor. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and for the cooperative working relationship between our two committees. Sincerely, George Miller, Chairman. House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, Washington, DC, May 6, 2010. Hon. George Miller, Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Miller: Thank you for your May 5, 2010 letter regarding H.R. 5116, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, Your support for this legislation and your assistance in ensuring its timely consideration are greatly appreciated. I agree that provisions in the bill are within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Education and Labor. I acknowledge that by waiving rights to further consideration of H.R. 5116, your Committee is not relinquishing its jurisdiction and I will fully support your request to be represented in a House-Senate conference on those provisions over which the Committee on Education and Labor has jurisdiction in H.R. 5116, or similar legislation. A copy of our letters will be placed in the legislative report and the Congressional Record during consideration of the bill on the House floor. I value your cooperation and look forward to working with you as we move ahead with this important legislation. Sincerely, Bart Gordon, Chairman.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Let me just add that this is an excellent amendment that makes a good bill better; a good, bipartisan bill even better. And I thank the gentlelady for the content of this amendment.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. I thank the gentlelady and I commend my friend, the ranking member, Mr. Hall, for his continued commitment to veterans from World War II, like himself, and beyond. I also want to thank the gentlelady from Illinois for her good work on the Veterans Affairs' Committee and for this amendment promoting the inclusion of veterans in our STEM workforce. Many of our veterans have technical backgrounds already. With some additional training, they are well positioned to continue serving their country through research discoveries that will benefit society and improve our economic competitiveness. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.