Bart Gordon

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I will remind my friend from Illinois that there is nothing, nothing in this bill that says that the Department of Energy, the Office of Science, or RPE cannot do research on coal-to-liquid. Nothing in this bill stops that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Science, Mr. Lampson from Texas.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. I thank my friend from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, for not only his support for this bill but his very active, passionate work on the Science Committee. He is a valued member. Also let me point out that I think the endorsements of this bill, by the National Chamber of Commerce, by the National Association of Manufacturers, by Business Roundtable indicate very well that this bill very much is in the economic scope. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a valued member of the Science Committee, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson).

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, first I want to thank my friend and ranking member for the work that he did in bringing this bill before us today. I also want to thank him on all of the good things that he said about this bill. It sounds like we almost got him. We did have a conference, and when you have a conference, you have to make compromises. This is probably not a perfect bill, but as Dr. Ehlers said earlier, he has never seen that perfect bill. But I will remind everyone that every Senator, Democrat and Republican, signed the conference report, and it was bipartisanly signed in the House. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu).

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I know the minority leader is very sincere about his concerns here. I wish I had the time to address them one by one. Let me just quickly remind everyone that we look at this bill, the American Chamber of Commerce thinks it is a good investment, the National Association of Manufacturers thinks it is a good investment, the Business Roundtable thinks it is a good business. Virtually every business major in America thinks this is a good investment. All the universities and research agencies thinks it is a good investment. But there can be sincere differences of opinion. Mr. Speaker, could you report to me the time I have left?

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I recognize that we have had differences of opinion, differences of policy and differences concerning procedure for the last couple of days. You have that at the end of a session before you go into a work period, and I am afraid we are going to have some more, and that is unfortunate. But we have an opportunity, at least for the next hour, to have a little window of civility, a little window to work together on a bill, a conference report that is bipartisan and bicameral. It is a competitiveness bill. It is a bill that is going to make America a better place for all of our kids and grandkids. I want to take just a little time to tell you about it. This bill is a compilation of five bills that we passed out of the Science Committee on a bipartisan basis that came to the House floor, none of which received more than 23 votes against them. Then we piled them all together as a suspension and it passed unanimously. Lamar Alexander in the Senate did yeoman's work by going to the Senators and getting 70 cosponsors. It passed in the Senate 88-8. Truly this is a bipartisan, bicameral bill. The reason is, it is a good bill that is going to help manufacturers and businesses, it is going to help workers, it is going to help teachers, it is going to help students, to be able to help America to be in the lead in the world in terms of manufacturing, research, technology and innovation. Again, I want to tell you how this bill came about. Three years ago, Sherry Boehlert, then the chairman of the Science Committee; Lamar Alexander, who was chairman of the Science Committee in the Senate; myself and Jeff Bingaman, we all asked the National Academies to do a report on the competitiveness of America in the 21st Century. It was a sobering report. Norm Augustine, the former chairman of Lockheed, Craig Barrett, the chairman of Intel, and several noted scholars and other business individuals came together and said America was on a losing track, which meant that my 6-year-old daughter, many of your children and grandchildren, these two children right here, could be the first generation of Americans to inherit a national standard of living less than their parents, a complete reversal of the American dream. That is why so many of us came together to try to do something. This is not a Democratic bill. It is not a Republican bill. This simply is a compilation of the recommendations of the report ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.'' Let me tell you a little bit about this bill. It really composes three general areas. The first is they said we have got to lead the world in terms of our science and our research, our innovation. So this bill is an authorization that is going to double over the next 7 years the National Science Foundation, the Office of Science and the Department of Energy, as well as the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Let me remind you, because I know there are some folks who are going to say this is going to be too much money. This is an authorization. My friend from Tennessee and the other appropriators will determine whether it is going to be too much. We will work together to make that determination. This is a responsible, I think, 7-year increase. Then they came back to us and they said that American manufacturers and American workers have to work at a higher skill level. There are 7 billion people in the world right now, and half of them make less than $2 a day. We don't want to compete like that. We can't compete like that. So that means if they are making one widget in India or China, we have got to make 50 widgets here in America. And we need to be not only making the widgets, we need to be inventing the widget maker and manufacturing that widget maker here in this country. If we are going to do that, then whether you are a high school graduate, a junior college graduate, a college graduate, you have got to work at a higher level, which means you are going to have to have science and math skills. But the report tells us we are not doing very well in that area. As a matter of fact, right now, only Cyprus and South Africa have lower scores than we do in the science and math areas. So what do we do about this? Well, they looked around and tried to figure out what the problem is. Are Americans just not as smart? No, that is not the problem. Do we need maybe smaller classrooms or more equipment? Those things would help. But the real problem is this, and listen to this: The fact is 67 percent of the teachers that teach in middle school in this country have neither a major nor a certification to teach math. And 87 percent of the physical science teachers in this country have neither a certification nor a major to teach those subjects. So it is very difficult to teach or inspire if you haven't had an opportunity to really understand those courses. This is not a slur to those good teachers. I want to give you a personal story. My father was a farmer. World War II comes along. He enlists, comes back, and he wants to be even a better farmer. So he takes advantage of the GI bill and goes to college at Middle Tennessee State University. He gets a degree in agriculture. Well, a few years later I come along and my mother had to give up her job. She was working at a high school cafeteria. So my father applied to be a teacher in addition to being a farmer. He was the last person hired to teach at Smyrna High School in my home county. So since he was the last person hired, you might imagine, he was assigned to teach high school science and to coach girls basketball. I am not sure which he knew the least about, which really wasn't fair to him or his students. And so we want to take care of those good smart people, those good smart teachers, and help them do a better job. So we are going to bring those kinds of teachers during the summer and, with stipends, allow them to get their certifications, hopefully AP, IB. Hopefully they will get a master's. We are also going to have a whole new corps of teachers. We want to provide competitive scholarships for 10,000 students a year that will go into math, science and education and agree to teach for 5 years. And 5 years is important, because we find that half the teachers quit teaching in the first 5 years. We have to get them over that hump. Next they said, and this may sound familiar, they said that America needs to be energy independent. This was before we started talking about the price of oil going up. This was before that. They gave us a way to do that. They suggested we look at the Department of Defense, DARPA, for a model. There is something in the Department of Defense called DARPA. It is an advanced research operation that takes high risk, high rewards. It is where the Internet was discovered and developed, and it is where stealth technology was developed. They said this is a proven model. Take it over to the Department of Energy and set up a high-risk, high-reward agency there, but have very narrow management. Have a few employees and let them manage programs. Take the seven or eight most cutting-edge types of technologies, those that can really jump us ahead, and let's crash on them. Let's bring in the national labs, the private sector, the public sector and our universities, and let's make some real breakthroughs. Now, if one doesn't work, fine; pull the plug. But let's not be afraid to fail because we have to make these types of jumps in technology so we can have not only energy independence, but we will also have new jobs and new exports for America. That is what we did. We brought all of these things together, and that is why we have a bipartisan, bicameral bill. I encourage my colleagues to support this bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Hall earlier in the presentation said that he was going to have a motion to recommit on coal to liquid. Let me just remind all of my colleagues there is not one word, not one single word, in this bill that would stop any investment, any research in coal to liquid. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to say thank you to the Democratic and Republican Members that attended all those meetings where we could develop this good bill. I want to say thank you to subcommittee Chairmen Baird, Lampson, Udall, and Wu; Ranking Members Ehlers, Inglis, Feeney, and Gingrey for their effort in putting this bill together. Let me also say we have 70 Democratic and Republican staff members that have worked on this bill, and that is basically what we have been doing for the last few months. I would like to thank every one of them personally, but there is not going to be the time. So let me just say thanks to Chuck Atkins, our chief of Staff; Leslie Gilbert; and Mr. Hall's chief of staff for all the work they have put together. I hope that the staff's thank you is seeing this bill enacted, seeing the good work that is going to come from this, knowing that their kids and grandkids are going to live in a better America. I don't know a better thank you.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to one of our very able subcommittee chairmen, Mr. Baird.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the vice chairman of the Science Committee, Mr. Lipinski.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I want to concur with the eloquent remarks of Mr. Ehlers. He's a great addition to our committee. Mr. Speaker, would you report on the time remaining?

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I certainly understand my friend from Wisconsin's concerns. In the House, we did pass a 10-year doubling of the National Science Foundation. In the Senate, they passed an authorization for 5 years. Seven was a compromise, I think a reasonable compromise, and I remind everyone that we're in a pay-as- you-go budget, and the appropriators know they have to pay for what they appropriate. So I think that was a good and fair compromise. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hooley), a very valued member of the Science Committee.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) for the purpose of making a unanimous consent request, and also to thank him for his help on this bill we are going to be taking up. (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the rule, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 2272) to invest in innovation through research and development, and to improve the competitiveness of the United States.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\3/4\ minutes of those to my friend and colleague from the Energy and Commerce Committee, Ms. Eshoo.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to my friend from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge). (Mr. ETHERIDGE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Thank you, Lady Sutton. I will grace you by not taking that full 20 minutes. I want to thank Mr. Welch for his kind words. I want to thank Mr. Hastings for not being too ugly about this bill, and I want to make my friend on the Science Committee, Mr. Gingrey, feel better about this bill. Mr. Speaker, in the last few hours of every session, it doesn't matter who is in the majority or who is in the minority, things get a little bit tense. Folks want to get going for their district work period, and so this is an opportunity for us all to come together. This is a bill that was based on a suspension that passed out of this House unanimously, based on a bill out of the Senate that passed 88-8. This is a bipartisan, bicameral bill. The National Chamber of Commerce supports this bill. The National Association of Manufacturers supports this bill. The Business Roundtable supports this bill. Every university that is represented in this body supports this bill because it is a good bill. It's going to help American workers, businesses. It's going to help students and teachers be able to compete in the world. It's going to help us regain and maintain a leadership in research, innovation and technology. Let me just take a moment and tell you a little bit about the bill. Well, it's also based on, of course, Sherry Boehlert, the former, very good Republican chairman of our Science Committee, myself when I was ranking member, Lamar Alexander, who has done Herculean work in the Senate, as well as Jeff Bingaman asked the National Academy of Science to do a report on the competitiveness of America in the 21st century. Norm Augustine, the former head of Lockheed Martin, Craig Barrett at Intel, many other scholars, as well as academic and business individuals, came together and they told us in a very sobering way that America was heading in the wrong direction in terms of competitiveness in the 21st century. Now, this is not just an idle thought for the ones of us that have kids and grandkids, because I am very concerned that the next generation of Americans could be the first generation of Americans that inherit a national standard of living less than our parents if we don't do something. This bill will help change the corner, turn that corner. Let me tell you about it; it deals really with three main areas. First of all, following the recommendations of the rising above the gathering storm, we are going to increase our expenditures and research in this country, in the National Science Foundation that does such a good job, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. And, again, for my friend from Georgia, these are just authorizations. If they can't justify what they are doing, then the appropriations will not appropriate those funds. This is just authorization. It doesn't spend any money, but it does give us a great blueprint. The next thing we are going to do, we have to recognize that there are about 7 billion people in the world, half of which make less than $2 a day. We can't compete with that. We don't want to compete with that. We don't want our kids and grandkids to have to be in that situation. What do we do? We have to compete at a higher level. If they are going to make one widget in China or India or elsewhere, we have got to make 50 in this country at the same time. We need to be inventing the widget maker and we need to be manufacturing the widget maker. That's what this bill is going to help us do. But to do that, our workers have to perform at a higher skill level. We have to help them do that. When you look, and it's a sad situation right now, but only Cyprus and South Africa have lower overall math and science scores than we have in this country right now. What is the reason for that? Is it that we are not as smart as other countries? No, that's not the case. The problem is we have very good and talented teachers in this country, but unfortunately, when it comes to math and science, about 63 percent of the math teachers at the middle school have neither a major or a certification to teach math. The science teachers in this country are trying to do a good job, but 87 percent of them have neither a major or certification to teach the physical sciences. It's hard to inspire. It's hard to really convey information when you don't have a good background. I want to give you an example of that. My father was a farmer. He went to World War II, and he came back, and because of the GI Bill, he was able to go to college. He got a degree in agriculture. I come along, and my mother had to give up her job at the cafeteria, so my father needed a second job. So he applied to teach, and he got the last teaching job at Smyrna High School in my home county. So since he was the last person to get a job, they assigned him to teach high school science and to coach girls basketball. I am not sure which one my father knew the least about. He was a bright, able fellow, but they put him in a difficult situation. And it was tough for his students, I am sure. Well, we have got to do better than that. And so what this bill is going to do is really two things in that area. We are going to take those good teachers like my father, bring them back into school. We will do it in the summer, so they can get their certification, hopefully go ahead and get a master's, get an AP certification so they can do a better job. We are also going to provide scholarships for approximately 10,000 students each year on a competitive basis that want to go into math, science, and education and agree to teach for 5 years in high-need areas. This is going to go a long way to helping our skills. And so, finally, we are going to look at one other area, one other area that Rising Above the Gathering Storm mentioned, was we have to become energy independent in this country. We have been talking about a lot of energy bills and are going to hopefully pass an energy bill at least in the House. The Senate has done. It is a long way to getting something completed. But, today, this is a conference report. This is not just a bill that then goes to the other body and goes to conference. This is a conference report that was passed out of that conference on a bipartisan, bicameral basis, and it does something about energy independence today. And let me tell you about that, and this is a recommendation that came from the National Academies of Science. We are going to set up an agency within the Department of Energy modeled after DARPA, which is in the Defense Department, a high-risk, high-reward group. It is going to look at the the seven or eight most cutting-edge types of new technologies. And we are going to bring our private sector, the public sector, the national labs, the universities all together with a very narrow bit of management that is only going to be like project directors to bring all these folks together. And, just like in the Department of Defense, the Internet was developed, stealth and technology was developed, but there were a lot of things that didn't work out, because they weren't afraid to try. High risk, high reward. That is what we are going to do. We are going to get in there, and we are going to find those areas that are new technologies that are going to bump our ability to create renewable energy in this country, which is going to help us become energy independent, it is going to create jobs, and it is going to create exports. This is a very good bipartisan, bicameral bill that is endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce, by the National Association of Manufacturers, by the Business Roundtable, universities. And this afternoon we will talk about this some more. I am going to bring you a list of businesses and organizations that support this that is going to go on and on and on. So, my friends, let's put aside I guess just the natural bit of tenseness that goes with ending a session. Let's work together and get something good today and pass this bipartisan, bicameral bill.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

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

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, let me just conclude by saying I think this is our 30th bill with Mr. Feeney's help out of the Science Committee. All have been bipartisan. All but two have been unanimous. This is another good piece of legislation.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 487, which recognizes the contribution of modeling and simulation technology to the security and prosperity of the United States, and recognizing modeling and simulation as a national critical technology. Modeling and simulation is an important technology. It allows scientists to understand the functioning of complex systems that would otherwise be impossible to comprehend. It allows developers to understand their products better. It allows industry to save money that would otherwise be spent on experimentation and to allocate those funds to other activities, and allows our military to understand the impacts of their weapons. In short, modeling and simulation is a very powerful tool that has improved our lives in many ways. Americans lead the world in this technology, and we should acknowledge that. It's important that we nurture this industry and stimulate its further growth. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks, and include extraneous material on H. Res. 487.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 487) recognizing the contribution of modeling and simulation technology to the security and prosperity of the United States, and recognizing modeling and simulation as a National Critical Technology.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. I want to say that I share the gentleman's concern about the issue of climate change and about the impact that it may have on our Nation. My committee held three hearings on the working group reports, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, released earlier this year. The Committee on Science and Technology is marking up a bipartisan bill tomorrow authored by Mr. Udall and Mr. Inglis, the different Mr. Udall, H.R. 906, to restructure the U.S. Global Change Research Program to provide more policy-relevant information to Congress and to regional organizations, State and local governments, and to businesses and organizations that are developing and implementing adaptation mitigation strategies. The Global Change Resource Program authorized in the Global Change Research Act of 1990 has guided our government's climate science agenda for the past 17 years. It has had many successes. Much of the research that has been summarized in the IPCC reports emerge from this program, and I commend the gentleman for producing a bill that makes additional money available for climate change. I fully support the allocation of an additional $50 million for the important task of developing adaptation and mitigation strategies. We need to lessen the impact of climate change on our Nation. However, the structure authorized in the bill for determining the research agenda and allocating the funds is not compatible with either the existing structure of the program or the bill the Science Committee will be marking up tomorrow. Mr. Chairman, I have a responsibility to lead the Committee on Science and Technology in a fashion that produces good, consensus-based legislation. I take that very seriously. In the spirit of cooperation, and in the interest of comity, I will not support a motion to strike the climate change commission language from the bill with the understanding that you will agree to work with our committee as we go forward to allocate these funds in a manner that is compatible with authorizing legislation. I am confident that H.R. 906 will provide a solid foundation for reaching the goal that you and I share, addressing the challenge of the climate change through applications of a solid foundation of science on adaptation and mitigation.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Certainly.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Dicks, we do have a bipartisan bill, and we look forward to working with you in a bipartisan manner to make this good bill even better.

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Chris Clark on his retirement from WTVF-Channel 5 after 41 years of service. During a segment before his retirement on Wednesday, May 23, after the 6 p.m. newscast, Chris seemed surprised at the outpouring of well wishes he received via e-mail from hundreds of viewers who considered him as part of their family after all the years he had been on air. Indeed, it's rare for a person in broadcast to stay in one place for 41 years. Chris will be remembered for encouraging Channel 5 to switch from recorded interviews to live on-site reports, making the station only the second in the Nation to use the technology at that time. But he may be more famous for giving Oprah Winfrey her first television job in 1974. Chris, I wish you well as you head into retirement. I understand you are a self-described movie nut and that you will soon take a well- deserved vacation in Florida with your family. I hope you have many more opportunities to travel and watch movies in your unscripted life.