To establish an interagency aerospace revitalization task force to develop a national strategy for aerospace workforce recruitment, training, and cultivation.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 758) to establish an interagency aerospace revitalization task force to develop a national strategy for aerospace workforce recruitment, training, and cultivation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 758.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that today we are considering a bill that addresses the needs of the United States aerospace workforce.

The Aerospace Revitalization Act establishes a task force designed to develop a national strategy for aerospace workforce recruitment, training, and cultivation. It implements a key recommendation from the 2002 Bipartisan Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry Report to the President to counter what it termed ``the Nation's apathy toward developing a scientifically and technologically trained workforce.''

This bill creates an interagency task force to examine ways to partner within and beyond the Federal Government to strengthen our aerospace workforce. Led by the Department of Labor, membership on the task force spans nine agencies that participate in the development and deployment of the present and future aerospace workforce.

The goal is to develop a comprehensive strategy to increase the number of students and workers who choose science, engineering and other aerospace-related careers. To that end, the task force will also establish partnerships with industry, organized labor, academia and State governments to coordinate aerospace career education and training programs.

Each of the aerospace industry's three core segments, national defense, civil aviation and space systems, makes a unique contribution to sustaining the Nation's global political and technological leadership. The aerospace industry generates nearly 15 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States, supports approximately 11 million jobs in the United States, and leads the United States economy in net exports. Furthermore, aerospace contributes directly to the economic and national security of our country through military, space, air transport, and information technology applications.

If that is true, why do we need this bill? For a very simple reason. A large number of employees in the aerospace industry started shortly after the Apollo project of the 1960s. Many of them are now reaching retirement age, and that creates a huge problem because we do not have a workforce available to fill the vacuum created when these individuals leave.

In 2004, total employment in the aerospace industry fell to its lowest point in 50 years, and almost 30 percent of the aerospace manufacturing workforce will become eligible for retirement by 2008. Employers within the aerospace industry are concerned that U.S. students, who currently perform near the bottom of the leading industrialized countries of the world in math and science tests, lack the necessary training and skills to fulfill the anticipated workforce needs of the industry. Clearly, our country needs a national strategy for aerospace workforce recruitment, training and cultivation so that we will have a sufficient workforce, a trained workforce, to carry this program forward and sustain this important part of our economy in the years ahead.

At a time when we are expanding the boundaries of scientific discovery through space exploration and depend on a strong national defense to keep our citizens safe, the calculated coordination and training of our aerospace workforce is a critical need. I am grateful to all my colleagues for considering this bill, and I encourage them to support its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I wish to thank the gentleman from Texas for his very fine statement and his encouragement on this issue. As we know, Texas is the center of a very important component of the aerospace industry, our space effort, and they have done very well in that.

I also appreciate the statement of the gentleman from Illinois who represents the leading aviation and aerospace company in the United States. That reflects very accurately what we are dealing with in the future if we simply do not produce the workforce that is required to maintain our lead in aerospace issues.

I have no further speakers at this time, but I do want to mention that several Members from California wish to speak on this bill. Unfortunately, they are currently en route here inside products of the aerospace industry, and I am sure they will submit statements for the Record later on.

I wish to thank the minority side for their support of this bill and thank my colleagues for their support. I urge everyone to continue their support, and I hope this bill will pass unanimously.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Business Checking Freedom Act of 2005, H.R. 1224. Among other things, H.R. 1224 would repeal the prohibition against banks paying interest on checking accounts and authorize the Federal Reserve to pay interest on reserve balances maintained by depository institutions at Federal Reserve Banks. The bill is almost identical to previous legislation on the subject passed by the House, including H.R. 758, which passed in 2003.

H.R. 1224 contains some long overdue changes. I am particularly pleased that this legislation will permit small businesses to earn interest on their checking account balances. Individuals have been able to receive interest on checking accounts for some time, and small businesses, many of which are individually owned and operated, should have the same ability to receive an equitable return on their checking deposits.

Small businesses face an array of barriers to accessing the capital they need for start-up, operation and expansion. One of these barriers is the Depression-era law that prohibits interest-bearing checking accounts. The law, enacted as part of the Banking Act of 1933, was meant to keep banks solvent during the Great Depression. Almost 70 years later, the law is still in effect, despite evidence that it is no longer valid--or necessary.

In fact, a 1996 joint report issued by the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision stated that the law barring payment on business checking accounts ``no longer serves a public purpose.'' H.R. 1224 effectively repeals this ban and permits small businesses to earn interest on their checking accounts.

Similar to past House bills, H.R. 1224 also includes a section entitled Rules of Construction, which ensure that the existing regulatory treatment of certain services and benefits provided by banks in lieu of interest on escrow accounts maintained to complete the settlement of real estate closing transactions remains as it is today.

Currently, the Federal Reserve's Regulation Q permits banks to offer services and benefits in lieu of interest to depositors. It also specifically provides that the provision or the receipt of such services and benefits does not constitute interest. Using this option, title companies and agents receive bank services, such as free safe deposit and night depository facilities and low-interest loans, in lieu of interest.

This arrangement lowers the cost of maintaining real estate escrows, which in turn lowers the cost of these services to customers of title companies and title agents. H.R. 1224 does not change Regulation Q or any regulatory standard regarding the definition of interest. Rather, it ensures the continued delivery of cost-effective real estate closing services.

H.R. 1224 provides for a long overdue change to federal banking laws that will enable small businesses to gain parity with larger firms that are already able to essentially receive interest on their checking accounts. By doing so, small businesses will be better able to grow and create the new jobs that our country so desperately needs.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I want to add my voice of support for this very important legislation, The Aerospace Revitalization Act, which I have cosponsored. I want to offer a tribute to Congressman Vernon Ehlers, a colleague from the Science Committee and Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, a colleague from my home state of California, for their insight in sponsoring this legislation. I also want to thank Chairman John Boehner and Ranking Democrat George Miller for their insight in moving this bill out of their Committee.

This legislation evolved from recommendations of the 2002 bipartisan Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry report, which was chaired by the Honorable Robert Walker, a former member of this body and a former chairman of the Science Committee. In this report, a recommendation proposed that the federal government needed to respond to what the Report termed, ``the nation's apathy toward developing a scientifically and technologically trained workforce.''

This bill does just that. H.R. 758 establishes a taskforce to be coordinated by the Secretary of the Department of Labor and spanning eight other federal agencies. This taskforce includes NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Departments of Defense, Energy, Education, Commerce, Transportation, and Homeland Security. This taskforce will examine the competitive challenges to the aerospace industry's three core business units--civil aviation, military contracting, and space transportation. It will then blend the resources of the federal government to identify new aerospace workforce training and recruitment opportunities through scholarship, grant and loan programs. The taskforce will also set up alliances with the private sector and state governments to tie business, state governments, and the federal government together with the common goal of providing the technical skills needed to keep America competitive.

As the Chairman of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, I sponsored the NASA Authorization, which passed this House in July. Because of our Committee's like concerns about our nation's competitiveness globally, in my bill, we direct the Administrator of

NASA to develop a Human Capital strategy to address our concerns about not only the size of the workforce, but the technical skill mix of this workforce. We all recognize the necessity to keep the United States competitively at the forefront. Our largest export is from the high tech aerospace industry. Our global standing is at risk if we do not keep our aerospace workforce second to none!

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 758, the Interagency Aerospace Revitalization Task Force. The situation facing the aerospace sector is a serious one. For example, the average age of an aerospace engineer is fifty-four, and twenty-seven percent of the aerospace engineers will retire by 2008. These are startling statistics.

Moreover, many recent reports have specifically pointed to the decline in the number of science, technology, engineering and math degrees being produced in the U.S. Each report presents a worrisome outlook for our economic health, national security, and quality of life. With a growing chorus of experts drawing our attention to this problem, we can't ignore the reality that the U.S. is losing its cutting edge. We need a national effort throughout our educational system to attract students at a young age and provide support through the graduate level.

The aerospace industry has an impact on both the public and private sectors. Aerospace generates nearly 15 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, and plays a large role in reducing our trade deficit. It is vital to our national defense. It has improved the quality of life for our citizens, and it has opened up new opportunities. Yet, as countless studies have pointed out, we cannot assume that the aerospace sector will remain healthy without a coordinated governmental approach.

I support H.R. 758 because developing a strong education base is vital to our aerospace industry. However, it is not a panacea. We must also look to reinvigorate our investment in aerospace research and development. If we continue to cut funding in these areas we will continue to lose expertise and experience in our current workforce, as well as our ability to compete globally. It is for this reason that I introduced the Aeronautics Research and Development Revitalization Act (H.R. 2358). This bill passed the House of Representatives as part of the NASA Authorization bill, H.R. 3070. The bill establishes an aeronautics research and development policy at NASA that will expand capacity, ensure safety, and increase the efficiency of the nation's air transportation system.

Education is a key component of strengthening the aerospace industry, but unless we also invest in R&D the number of aerospace jobs available will inevitably decline. I am hopeful that this taskforce will recognize the true value of these investments and will suggest a strategy that provides both short term and long term support for aerospace in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my good friend and colleague Vern Ehlers in support of H.R. 758, the Aerospace Revitalization Act and I urge my colleagues to give it their strong support.

I am a proud co-sponsor of this bill which will help restore U.S. leadership in a field we cannot afford to neglect.

While business in both the aerospace and defense industries seems to be picking up with increased orders and shipments in recent months, this development will not be sufficient to reverse what is a real crisis in the aerospace workforce.

Over the last 15 years, the aerospace industry has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them in my home state of California.

Many of these losses are cyclical and linked to the ebb and flow of defense spending.

Many of them, however, are due to self-inflicted injuries such as a lack of clear federal policy and direction and badly outdated export control systems that make no distinction between cutting-edge and readily available technology.

Our bill implements a central recommendation of the bipartisan Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry by creating an interagency taskforce to better coordinate aerospace workforce development efforts across the federal government with those of the private sector.

The bill focuses the federal government's efforts and fosters new solutions with the private sector to help workers obtain the skills and expertise necessary to replace what is today a shrinking and aging workforce.

A scientifically-literate and competitive workforce is produced over a lifetime and must evolve with demand.

Our bill would help improve training in the areas of science, engineering, technology, and skilled vocational trades to ensure competitive U.S. works for the foreseeable future.

While the challenges facing the aerospace industry will require a range of solutions, our bill is an important means of reclaiming our competitive edge.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill.