EPSCoR Research and Competitiveness Act of 2007

Mr. President, this evening the Senate unanimously passed a piece of legislation which we call the America COMPETES Act. Earlier today, the House of Representatives passed it by a vote of 367 to 57. So anyone watching the work of the U.S. Congress must think: Well, that must either be not very important or not very hard to do.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I would suggest that the America COMPETES Act will be as important as any piece of legislation the Congress passes in this session, and it has taken as much work as any piece of legislation that has been passed in this session.

I would like to spend a few minutes acknowledging the work and describing the importance of the bill, but I think the first thing to do is to say actually what the bill does. The point of the America COMPETES Act is very simple. It helps America keep its brainpower advantage so we can keep our jobs from going overseas to China and India and other countries.

The Presiding Officer is from a State that has benefitted greatly from America's brainpower advantage. There is a great deal of higher education and research in his State, and, as a result of that, a number of jobs. I have been in the Edison Museum in New Jersey, which is a good reminder of exactly what we are talking about.

Thomas Edison used to say he failed 10,000 times until he succeeded once. That one success was the lightbulb, and then a number of other inventions, which created millions of jobs in the United States.

The United States, this year, is producing about a third of all the money in the world. The International Monetary Fund says that almost 30 percent of all the wealth in the world is produced in our country, measured in terms of gross domestic product, for just 5 percent of the world's population. That is how many Americans there are.

So imagine if you are living in China or India or Ireland or any country in the world, and you are looking at the United States. It is not so hard to look at other countries today with the Internet and travel and television the way they are. Someone in one of those countries could say: How can those Americans be producing 30 percent of all the wealth for themselves when they are only 5 percent of the world's population? They have the same brains everybody else does. They cannot work any harder than anybody else does.

What is it? There are a variety of advantages we have in this country. But most people who look at this country, since World War II, believe our standard of living, our family incomes, our great wealth comes primarily from our technological advances, from the fact that it has been in this country that the automobile, the electric lightbulb, the television set, the Internet, Google have been invented. Or the pharmaceutical drugs that help cure disease all over the world, they also have come mostly from this country.

It is that innovation that has given us our standard of living and given the rest of the world a high standard of living. That brainpower advantage we have is located in some pretty obvious places. One place, of course, is our system of higher education, the great university system. We not only have many of the best universities in the world, we have almost all of them. Another place is in the great National Laboratories, from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to Los Alamos and across our country.

Another is in the great corporations of America where research is done whether it is in pharmaceuticals or whether it is in agriculture. Those great engines of research and innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit and free market that we have have given us this great advantage.

We, therefore, talk a lot about progrowth policies. What causes our economy to grow? We, on this side--we Republicans--talk a lot about low taxes. I believe that is important and vote that way. When I was Governor of Tennessee, we had the lowest tax rates in the country. But I found very quickly that low taxes by themselves do not create a high standard of living because we had the lowest taxes in our State but we also were the third poorest State. I also found that better schools and better research were the keys to better jobs. That is what this bill is about. So as a result of the America COMPETES Act, over the next few years, we will have done something pretty remarkable.

We asked the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, as well as other business leaders in our country, exactly what it would take to keep our brainpower advantage, and they have told us, and tonight we have done it. All that has to happen now is for the President of the United States to sign it, and I feel confident he will.

I hope what he does is sign it and take credit for a lot of it, because in his State of the Union Address President Bush emphasized the importance of this and talked about his American Competitiveness Initiative 2 years ago.

But this is what we have done. We have authorized the spending, over the next 3 years, of $43 billion to help keep our brainpower advantage by investing in science and technology. Most of that--and this was a part of the President's recommendation--helps to grow research at our major scientific laboratories and Departments by doubling their research budgets over a 7-year term. That would be the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Department of Energy Office of Science, which among other things, supervises the great National Laboratories in our country.

As I said, the act authorizes a total of $43.3 billion, over the next 3 fiscal years, for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research and education programs across the Federal Government. It will help to prepare thousands of new teachers and provide current teachers with content and teaching skills in their area of education. It will establish an advanced research projects agency for energy--a nimble and semi-autonomous research agency at the Department of Energy--to engage in high-risk, high-reward energy research. This is modeled after what we call DARPA at the Department of Defense which produced stealth technology and the Internet. Perhaps we can do the same as we look for new energy technologies.

It expands programs at the National Science Foundation to enhance the undergraduate education of our future science and engineering workforce, including at our community colleges. There are many provisions in the bill to broaden participation in science and engineering fields at all levels.

There are new competitive grant programs to enable partnerships to implement courses of study in math, science, engineering, technology, and critical foreign languages. There are competitive grants to increase the number of math and science teachers serving high-need schools. The bill expands access to advanced placement courses and international baccalaureate courses by increasing the number of qualified teachers in high-need schools. In other words, in plain English, it will help more children, including those who come from families with less money, have a chance to take the advanced placement courses that will give them a route into college, high achievement, and the ability to produce jobs not just for themselves but for the rest of us.

It expands early-career research grant programs. It strengthens interagency planning for research infrastructure. It does all of this.

Now, one might say: Where did all these ideas come from? Did the Senator from New Jersey just wander in one day and say, ``I have a great idea. Let's stick it in''? Or did the Senator from Arkansas say, ``Well, we have a little program over at Little Rock that we all like, so let's have some money for it''? Or did the Senator from Tennessee say, ``I was down at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory yesterday, and someone gave me an idea, so let's have $10 million for that''?

That is not the way we did it. What we did is, 2 years ago, Senator Bingaman and I, and Representatives Bart Gordon and Sherwood Boehlert of the House of Representatives--two Democrats and two Republicans--we literally went to the National Academy of Sciences and we asked this question: Tell us exactly what we need to do to keep our brainpower advantage, to keep our jobs from going to China and India? And they took us seriously.

The National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine appointed a distinguished committee of 21 Americans chaired by Norm Augustine, the former Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. On that committee were some of America's most distinguished business leaders, three Nobel laureates, the president emeritus of MIT, teachers, and others, who gave up their summer, reviewed hundreds of proposals, and, in priority order, told us the 20 things we needed to do to keep our brainpower advantage.

All of that was presented to us in a booklet called ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm,'' which is now well-known at universities, in schools, and in the business community as a wakeup call for the United States of America. It says we have been good--in fact, we have been way ahead of the rest of the line--but if we do not watch out, China, India, Ireland, England, and many of the other countries in the world, are going to catch up with us because there is no preordained right for Americans--no matter how bright we think we might be--to produce 30 percent of the world's wealth for just 5 percent of the people. Other people can do the very same thing in their colleges and universities, if they wish.

The members of this commission had countless stories to tell that every American who confronts these issues will find. Every Senator who travels to China sees they have recruited a distinguished professor of Chinese descent at an Ivy League university to come home and help improve a Chinese university. That is happening all over the world, and it is creating a much more competitive environment.

Last summer, Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens led a delegation of Senators to China. We were very well received because Senator Stevens was the first to fly a cargo plane into Beijing in 1944 at the end of World War II. He was flying with the Flying Tigers. Senator Inouye, of course, was a Congressional Medal of Honor winner in World War II. The Chinese remember well their affection for Americans in that war. So we were treated well and got to see President Hu, and the No. 2 man, Mr. Wu, the Chairman of the National People's Congress, for an hour each. These were interviews that many American delegations had not had before.

What was interesting to me was that in those sessions with the No. 1 and No. 2 man in China, where our conversations ranged from Iraq to Iran to North Korea to Taiwan, all the issues one might expect, the issue that animated the leaders of China the most was their efforts over the next 15 years to create an innovation economy. They wanted to talk about how China caught up with America's brain power advantage because they know their skills, they know they are good, they know they can do it and they did it in their way.

The month before, President Hu had walked over to the Great Hall of the People and assembled their National Academies of Science and Engineering and said: We are going on a 15-year innovation plan. We are going to invest 4 percent of our gross domestic product in research and technology. We are going to improve our colleges and our universities and our schools. We are going to create a brain power advantage for China that gives us a higher standard of living. They understand that.

We did it a little different way. Two years ago, we walked down to our National Academy of Sciences. We invited them to give us this report, ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm''. We took the recommendations of the Council on Competitiveness which was already working. The President of the United States gave his recommendations in his American Competitiveness Initiative. And then we went to work in the American way. We don't announce 15-year plans here; our way is a little messier. So we had to go through three committees here in the Senate and two in the House of Representatives.

I have to thank the senior Members of this body for the attitude they took toward this. For example, Senators Stevens and Inouye, Senators Kennedy and Enzi, Senators Domenici and Bingaman, Democrats and Republicans who put aside 3,000 years of seniority and 200 jurisdictional prerogatives and said: Let's just work together and see if we can get this done across party lines. That is not very interesting to people across the country, all this inside baseball about how the Senate works. But it has to work in order for something such as this to happen.

It is not a simple thing to take the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences and actually do them in both bodies, and yet that is what we have done. Not only did we start 2 years ago, when this was a Republican Congress, but we passed this legislation during a Democratic Congress almost without missing a step.

What happened was a bill that was sponsored by the leaders--last time it was Frist and Reid; now it is Reid and McConnell. They just changed the names because we had worked so well together--not only with ourselves but also with the Bush administration--that it was hard to tell whose bill it was.

At one time, this legislation that Senator Domenici and Senator Bingaman first introduced had 35 Republican cosponsors and 35 Democratic cosponsors, and the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, when she was the Democratic leader, was one of the first out to support it. It is especially gratifying to me that Tennesseans, if I may say so, have taken such a role in it in the House of Representatives. Representative Bart Gordon, who is now chairman of the Science Committee, was the lead conferee on this piece of legislation. Representative Zach Wamp, who represents the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, gave I thought the best speech on the House floor today on the Republican side. So again, it was bipartisan.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record at the end of my remarks an overview of the conference report we passed.

I mentioned a number of the Senators who had been so deeply involved in this. I mentioned the committee chairmen and the ranking members. But I would like to especially acknowledge the work of Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who was especially effective in reminding Republicans that investments in research and technology and science is as pro-growth as tax cuts. Senator Ensign was powerful on that subject. I believe it as strongly as he does. I believe he was more effective than I was. Senator Hutchison had been working with Senator Bingaman for years on advanced placement courses. Senator Mikulski was out front from the very beginning on this. There is an enormous list of Senators who made this happen.

There is also a long list of Democratic and Republican staff members who deserve thanks. The list is too long for me to read all those names tonight, but I ask unanimous consent that this list of staff members be printed in the Record following my remarks, with the thanks of all of us for their work.

I would like to especially thank Matt Sonnesyn who is sitting here beside me. When I was permitted to be on the faculty of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard at the time when the Senator from Arkansas's father was the Director of the Institute of Politics, Matt Sonnesyn was my course assistant. He came with me to my campaign, and then he came with me to the Senate. For the last 2 years, he has worked on this legislation with Senator Bingaman's staff and Senator Ensign's staff on this side--a tremendously effective staff group who has made this bill possible.

I see the Senator from Arkansas here, and I know he is going to close out in a few minutes, and I think I am coming toward the end of my remarks.

I would like to conclude by emphasizing two points--one about substance and one about process. I know the Senator from Arkansas and I have talked about this often. We are working together right now on a bipartisan project that has to do with the Iraq war. We believe there shouldn't be any partisan votes on the Iraq war. For example, we, Senator Salazar and I, are joined by 6 Republicans and 7 Democrats in cosponsoring legislation that would make the bipartisan Iraq Study Group the law of our country. If the Congress and the President would agree on this bill, we could send to our enemy and our troops and the world the message that as we go forward to wherever we go next in Iraq, we go together; we are united.

Each Tuesday we have a breakfast that Senator Lieberman and I host-- no staff, no media, no policy positions adopted--so that in the midst of all our team meetings among Republicans and Democrats, when we talk about what to do to each other, we can have a session where we build relationships and talk about how we move the country ahead. We have had as many as 40 Senators at those breakfasts.

It is important for the people of this country to know that we spend a lot of time working that way. We did tonight on the Children's Health Insurance bill with Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley working together in a bipartisan way. For 2 years, we have done that on legislation that goes straight to the heart of how we keep our jobs from going to China and India, which is what we passed tonight.

So the word I wish to say about process is that when the Senate tries and when we focus on big issues, we are perfectly capable of acting the way the rest of the country would hope we would act. We compromise on our differences and come up with a result that benefits family after family.

This legislation, the America COMPETES Act, will mean, for example, in my home State of Tennessee, opportunities for hundreds of math and science teachers and for thousands of students to go to summer academies and institutes of math and science. It will mean opportunities for thousands of students who now can't afford to take advanced placement courses in science and technology to be able to do so and for hundreds of teachers who aren't trained to teach those courses to have that training.

It will mean distinguished scientists will hold joint appointments at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for example. It will mean support for a residential high school for science and math, which we have wanted to do in our State ever since I was Governor 20 years ago but didn't feel like we had the money. Now other States have it, and this bill provides some support for such a school.

It will mean a steady growth over 7 years in research funding, new support for early-career research grants in science and technology, and more support for all those kinds of studies that create the jobs that will keep our standard of living. That is what it means for my State. It means the same for New Jersey, and it means the same for Arkansas. So that bipartisan consensus we have seen here happens more often than most Americans know, but it doesn't happen as often as it should.

So this has been a privilege for me to work, especially with Senator Bingaman and Senator Domenici on the committee that I was a part of, to help get this started with Bart Gordon, my colleague from the House, the Democratic Congressman who is chairman of the Science Committee, and with all the other Senators. This is the kind of thing I hoped to do when I came to the Senate. I think each of us hopes when we come here to get up every day and do a little something constructive and then go home at night and come back the next day and see if we can find something more to do along that way. If all of us participate in that way in other big issues, as we have in this, the America COMPETES bill, the Senate will be a stronger institution and the country will be a better country.

So I thank my colleagues for their support and for the time tonight. I thank the Senator from Arkansas for staying late so I can make these remarks. This legislation, the America COMPETES Act which passed the House today overwhelmingly and passed the Senate unanimously, is at least as important as any piece of legislation that passes in these 2 years because we have accepted the advice of the wisest men and women in our country about what we ought to do to keep our brain power advantage so we can keep our jobs.

The President has done a big part of it. I am sure he will sign it. I hope he takes some credit because he deserves it. There is plenty of credit to go around. I think the country will be glad we acted.

I yield the floor.

Exhibit 1

Overview of the Conference Report on H.R. 2272, the America Creating

Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology,

Education, and Science Act (COMPETES)

Earlier this year, both the U.S. House and Senate passed

comprehensive legislation (H.R. 2272, S. 761) to ensure our

nation's competitive position in the world through

improvements to math and science education and a strong

commitment to research.

The Conference Agreement follows through on a commitment to

ensure U.S. students,

teachers, businesses and workers are prepared to continue

leading the world in innovation, research and technology--

well into the future.

In summary, the Conference Agreement:

Keeps research programs at National Science Foundation

(NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology

(NIST) and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science

on a near-term doubling path;

Authorizes a total of $43.3 billion over fiscal years 2008-

2010 for science, technology, engineering and mathematics

(STEM) research and education programs across the federal

government;

Helps to prepare thousands of new teachers and provide

current teachers with content and teaching skills in their

area of education through NSF's Noyce Teacher Scholarship

Program and Math and Science Partnerships Program;

Creates the Technology Innovation Program (TIP) at NIST

(replacing the existing Advanced Technology Program or ATP)

to fund high-risk, high-reward, pre-competitive technology

development with high potential for public benefit;

Establishes an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy

(ARPA-E), a nimble and semiautonomous research agency at the

Department of Energy to engage in high-risk, high reward

energy research;

Expands programs at NSF to enhance the undergraduate

education of the future science and engineering workforce,

including at 2-year colleges;

Includes provisions throughout the bill to help broaden

participation in science and engineering fields at all

levels;

Authorizes two new competitive grant programs that will

enable partnerships to implement courses of study in

mathematics, science, engineering, technology or critical

foreign languages in ways that lead to a baccalaureate degree

with concurrent teacher certification;

Authorizes competitive grants to increase the number of

teachers serving high-need schools and expand access to AP

and IB classes and to increase the number of qualified AP and

IB teachers in high-need schools;

Expands early career grant programs and provides additional

support for outstanding young investigators at both NSF and

DOE; and

Strengthens interagency planning and coordination for

research infrastructure and information technology (i.e.

high-speed computing).

Following are more detailed summaries of the conference

agreement's eight titles:

TITLE I--Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)/Government Wide

Science

The conference agreement directs the President to convene a

National Science and Technology Summit to examine the health

and direction of the U.S. STEM enterprises; requires a

National Academy of Sciences study on barriers to innovation;

changes the National Technology Medal to the National

Technology and Innovation Medal; establishes a President's

Council on Innovation and Competitiveness (akin to the

President's Council on Science and Technology); requires

prioritization of planning for major research facilities and

instrumentation nationwide through the National Science

and Technology Council; and expresses a sense of Congress

that each federal research agency should support and

promote innovation through funding for high-risk, high-

reward research.

TITLE II--National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The conference agreement establishes the National

Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a full

participant in all interagency activities to promote

competitiveness and innovation and to enhance science,

technology, engineering and mathematics education. The

agreement also affirms the importance of NASA's aeronautics

program to innovation and to the competitiveness of the

United States. It urges NASA to implement a program to

address aging workforce issues at NASA and to utilize NASA's

existing Undergraduate Student Research program to support

basic research by undergraduates on subjects of relevance to

NASA. Finally, the conference agreement expresses the sense

of Congress that the International Space Station (ISS)

National Laboratory offers unique opportunities for

educational activities and provides a unique resource for

research and development in science, technology, and

engineering which can enhance the global competitiveness of

the U.S.

TITLE III--National Institute of Standards and Technology

The conference agreement authorizes a total of $2.652

billion over fiscal years 2008-2010 for NIST. This includes

funds for the NIST labs, for lab construction, the TIP

program, and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

Program: This funding level keeps the NIST labs on a path to

doubling in ten years.

The conference agreement funds the NIST Labs at $502.1

million for FY08 and increases the funding by 8% per year

(10-year doubling), which result in $541.9 million in FY09

and $584.8 million in FY10. The conferenqe agreement provides

$150.9 million in FY08 for lab construction. This funding is

reduced in each of the next two fiscal years, with funding

provided at $86.4 million in FY09 and $49.7 million FY10.

These out-year funding levels will allow the completion of

construction projects at NIST's Boulder, CO and Gaithersburg,

MD facilities. The MEP program is funded at $110 million in

FY08, $122 million in FY09 and $131.8 million FY10.

The conference agreement creates a new initiative, the

Technology Innovation Program (TIP) which is based on the

proven success of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), but

better reflects global innovation competition by funding

high-risk, high-reward, pre-competitive technology

develoment, focusing on small- and medium-sized companies.

The TIP allows for greater industry input in the operation of

the program, allows university participation for the first

time, and firmly focuses the program on small- and medium-

sized high-tech firms.

TIP will replace ATP and bridge the funding gap between the

research lab and the marketplace. The conference agreement

provides an authorization of $100 million FY08, $131.5

million FY09 nd $140.5 million in FY10. These funding levels

will allow for a viable program, with approximately $40

million per year for new awards.

The agreement includes language to clarify that the focus

of TIP is to support, promote and accelerate innovation in

the U.S. through high-risk, high-reward research in areas of

critical national need. It specifies that large companies may

not receive any TIP funding.

Further, it provides a list of award criteria to ensure

that the proposed technology has a strong potential to

address critical national needs through transforming the

nation's capacity to deal with major societal challenges that

are not currently being addressed; that the applicant

provides evidence that the research will not be conducted

within a reasonable time period without TIP assistance; that

reasonable efforts were made by the applicant to secure

funding from alternative sources and that no other

alternative funding sources were reasonably available; and

that other entities have not already developed,

commercialized, marketed, distributed or sold similar

technologies. In addition, the NIST Director shall issue an

annual report on the program's activities. TIP may accept

funds from other federal agencies, and these funds will be

included as part of the federal cost share of any TIP

project.

TITLE IV--National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The conference agreement establishes a coordinated ocean,

Great Lakes, coastal and atmospheric research and development

program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration NOAA) in consultation with NSF and NASA. In

addition, NOAA is required to build upon existing educational

programs and activities to enhance public awareness and

understanding of the ocean, Great Lakes, and atmospheric

science. As a result, a science education plan is to be

developed that would set forth the goals and strategies for

NOAA, and be reevaluated and updated every 5 years. NOAA

would also be recognized for their historic contributions to

the innovation and competitiveness of this country, as well

as be recognized as a full participant in interagency efforts

to promote innovation and competitiveness.

TITLE V--Department of Energy

The conference agreement provides nearly $17 billion to

Department of Energy (DOE) programs over fiscal years 2008-

2010, keeping Office of Science on a seven-year doubling path

and establishes an Advanced Research Projects Agency for

Energy, or ARPA-E.

ARPA-E will address long-term and high-risk technological

barriers in energy through collaborative research and

development that private industry or the DOE are not likely

to undertake alone. Because of its autonomy within DOE, and

the flexibility and resources afforded to its technical

personnel, ARPA-E is structured to respond very quickly to

energy research challenges, as well as terminate or

restructure programs just as quickly. A fund is established

in the U.S. Treasury separate and distinct from DOE

appropriations, as will be the budget request for ARPA-E.

With this separate fund, ARPA-E will be independent of the

DOE bureaucracy, and likewise should not operate at the

expense of other programs at DOE, particularly the Office of

Science. The conference agreement authorizes $300,000,000 in

FY 2008, and such sums as are necessary thereafter for fiscal

years 2009 and 2010.

As the nation's largest supporter of the physical sciences,

the DOE Office of Science funds basic research and world-

class facilities that play an integral role in the effort to

maintain the technological competitiveness of the U.S. The

conference agreement contains an authorization for the Office

of Science which extends the 7 year doubling track prescribed

in Energy Policy Act of 2005 by authorizing Fiscal Year 2010

at a funding level of $5.8 billion.

The conference agreement provides $150 million for K-12

science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)

education programs that capitalize on the unique scientific

and engineering resources of the national laboratories. These

programs include a pilot program of grants to states to help

establish or expand statewide specialty high schools in STEM

education; a program to provide internship opportunities for

middle and high-school students at the national labs, with

priority given to students from high-needs schools; a program

at each national lab to help establish a Center of Excellence

in STEM education in at least one high-need public secondary

school in each lab region in order to develop and disseminate

best practices in STEM education; and

a program to establish or expand summer institutes at the

national labs and partner universities in order to improve

the STEM content knowledge of K-12 teachers throughout the

country.

All of these programs would be coordinated by a newly

appointed Director for STEM Education at the Department, who

would also serve as an interagency liaison for K-12 STEM

education. In keeping with ongoing efforts to improve

coordination and evaluation of K-12 STEM education programs

across the federal government, all of the programs authorized

in this conference agreement require evaluation and reporting

of program impact.

In addition, the conference agreement highlights the

critical role of young investigators working in areas

relevant to the mission of DOE by establishing an early

career grant program for scientists at both universities and

the national labs; and a graduate research fellowship program

for outstanding graduate students in these fields. The

agreement also brings attention to research and education

needs in the nuclear sciences and hydrocarbon systems

sciences by establishing programs of grants to Universities

to establish or expand degree programs in these areas.

Finally, the conference agreement helps DOE recruit

distinguished scientists to the national labs and foster

collaboration between universities and the labs by providing

competitive grants to support joint appointments between the

two.

TITLE VI--Department of Education

To enhance teacher education in the STEM fields and

critical foreign languages, the conference agreement

authorizes two new competitive grant programs. The programs

will specifically enable partnerships to implement courses of

study in STEM fields and critical foreign language that lead

to a baccalaureate degree with concurrent teacher

certification and at the graduate level the conference

agreement implements 2- or 3-year part-time master's degree

programs in these areas for current teachers to improve their

content knowledge and pedagogical skills. The conference bill

authorizes $151,200,000 for the baccalaureate degree program

and $125,000,000 for the master's degree program for fiscal

year 2008 and the two succeeding fiscal years.

The conference agreement authorizes competitive grants to

increase the number of highly qualified teachers serving

high-need schools and expand access to AP and IB classes; as

well as authorize the Secretary of Education to contract with

the National Academy of Sciences to convene a national panel

within a year after the enactment of this Act to identify

promising practices in the teaching of science, technology,

engineering and mathematics in elementary and secondary

schools. It also authorizes appropriations of $65,000,000 for

fiscal year 2008 and such sums as may be necessary for each

of the two succeeding fiscal years.

The conference agreement authorizes new grant programs to

enhance math education in elementary and middle school

mathematics and provides grants to support the following

activities to assist states to implement programs for

secondary schools and in addition to other best practices and

in-service training, the bill provides targeted help to low-

income students who are struggling with mathematics. The

conference agreement also authorizes a competitive grant

program to increase the number of students studying critical

foreign languages, starting in elementary school and

continuing through postsecondary education programs.

The Secretary of Education is authorized to award

competitive grants to states to promote better alignment of

elementary and secondary education with the knowledge and

skills needed to succeed in academic credit-bearing

coursework in institutions of higher education, in the 21st

century workforce and in the Armed Forces. The Secretary is

also authorized to award grants of $50,000 to three

elementary and three secondary schools, with a high

concentration of low-income students in each state, whose

students demonstrate the largest improvement in mathematics

and science.

TITLE VII--National Science Foundation

The conference agreement provides $22 billion to the

National Science Foundation (NSF) over fiscal years 2008-

2010, putting it on a path to double in approximately 7

years. Particularly strong increases are provided in fiscal

year 2008 for K-12 STEM education programs at NSF. These

programs, including the Noyce Teacher Scholarship program and

the Math and Science Partnerships program will help to

prepare thousands of new STEM teachers and provide current

teachers with content and pedagogical expertise in their area

of teaching.

In addition to providing increased support for programs

that address the earliest stages of the STEM workforce

pipeline, the conference report will help create thousands of

new STEM college grduates, including 2-year college

graduates, through increased support for the STEM talent

expansion (STEP) program and the Advanced Technological

Education (ATE) program.

For those STEM graduates who continue on the path toward

academic careers, the conferece agreement provides critical

support for young, innovative researchers by expanding the

graduate research fellowships (GRF) and integrative graduate

education and research traineeship (IGERT) programs,

strengthening the early career grants (CAREER) program, and

creating a new pilot program of seed grants for outstanding

new investigators. Such programs have an additional benefit

of helping to stimulate high-risk, high-reward research by

identifying and taking a chance on the best and brightest

young minds.

Finally, the conference agreement includes provisions

throughout the bill to help broaden participation in STEM

fields at all levels, from kindergarten students through

academic researchers. These include several programs of

outreach and mentoring for women and minorities, a request

for a National Academy of Sciences report to identify

barriers to and opportunities for increasing the number of

underrepresented minorities in STEM fields, and an emphasis

on inclusion of students and teachers from high-needs

schools.

Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the importance of supporting the conference report on the America COMPETES Act. This report represents a unique bipartisan, bicameral collaboration among three committees on the Senate side and our House counterparts to enhance American competitiveness in the 21st century global economy.

This conference report demonstrates that when we set partisan politics aside and work together, we can do great things for the American people. The core of this conference agreement is the Senate's America COMPETES Act, which was the product of bipartisan negotiations and input from the Members of the Senate Commerce, Energy, and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committees. Work on this legislation began last year in response to the National Academy of Sciences report ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm,'' which was chaired by Norman Augustine, the ``Innovate America'' report, and the President's American Competitiveness Initiative. I want to thank all those who worked on this legislation for their hard work and dedication and commend them for the collegial manner in which this bill was crafted.

The focus of the programs in this bill is where it should be: on the knowledge and skills the American people need to have to be successful in the 21st century global economy. I am pleased we were able to keep education as one of the key priorities in this legislation. However, I have said consistently from the beginning that I wanted to hold programs to reasonable funding levels and to avoid duplication of programs. I think we could have gone further toward reducing duplication and overlap of programs, but this bill represents a strong bipartisan, bicameral effort and moves us in the right direction.

Why is this important? This year marks 50 years since Sputnik was launched. That launch sparked huge turmoil in this country and worry about the knowledge and skills necessary to keep our country safe and our economy growing and competitive. I was in junior high at the time. It was a shock to our Nation. Every one of us could recognize it-- teachers, parents, and, probably as important, students, recognized it. Russia was beating us. They had put a satellite into orbit. It was hard to accept that we were behind. But it also brought out that American competitive spirit. We said they were not going to beat us. It launched a change in education such as we had not seen in the United States in decades, maybe centuries.

We were ultimately the winners of the space race, but it wasn't just a space race; it was an education race. It was the broad range of education that the United States delved into and the innovation that was brought about at the time that put us ahead of Russia.

Sputnik had a dramatic effect on our education system and made us recognize that a high school diploma was no longer just a nice thing to have. We could no longer rest on our past successes as a nation. We met the challenge of Sputnik through the National Defense Education Act. We looked to education as a path to continued success, and we supported an increase in the number of people who would continue their education beyond high school, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Today, we are again being challenged. In the 1950s, skilled jobs comprised 20 percent of the U.S. job market. In 2000, 85 percent of all U.S. jobs were categorized as skilled. For millions of Americans, access to an affordable college education is the key to their success in the 21st century global economy. The United States has one of the highest college enrollment rates but college completion rate is average to below average among developed countries in the world. Four out of every five jobs will require postsecondary education or the equivalent, yet only 52 percent of Americans over the age of 25 have achieved this level of education.

We have a huge challenge, not just in K-12 and higher education but in continuing education. It is estimated the average person leaving college will change careers 14 times. I didn't say ``change jobs'' 14 times, I said ``change careers'' 14 times. Of those 14 career changes, 10 of them don't even exist now. That is the pace at which things are accelerating.

So we are educating people for a level of jobs that do not exist at the present time. That is quite a challenge. Technology is demanding that everybody continue to learn and gain skills to remain competitive in the workplace. Learning is never over; school is never out. Those who do not get the knowledge and the capability to make the transfer to new careers will be left behind. We do not want that to happen. Education at all levels, including lifelong learning opportunities, is vital to ensuring that America retains its competitive edge in the global economy. Every American can and should be part of our Nation's success.

Because higher education is the on-ramp to success in the global economy, it is our responsibility to make sure everyone can access that on-ramp and reach their goals. This bill includes provisions that improve science, mathematics, and critical foreign language education in our Nation from elementary school through graduate school. It supports improvements to teacher preparation, establishes stronger links between graduate schools and employers, provides funding to support students trained at the doctoral level in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and enhances Federal programs that support students in graduate school.

The American system of higher education is renowned throughout the world. I can attest to that after having gone to India. I saw how their educational system works and how it is becoming very competitive with the United States. In India, only 7 percent of their children go on to higher education. That creates a very high level of competition among students to get into higher education. Despite the rigorous emphasis on science, mathematics, engineering and technology, however, India continues to send its graduate students to the United States because it is here that they learn creativity and innovation.

In most of the other countries around the world they learn the basics, can do excellent calculations and have a vast amount of rote knowledge. But what our colleges specialize in is teaching people to think, to come up with new ideas. To date, that is what has kept America ahead. However, the success story of American higher education is at risk of losing the qualities that made it great, which are competition, innovation, and access for all, if we do not invest in those core principles.

It is important to ensure that more students enroll in college prepared to learn and that more students have the support they need to complete college with the knowledge and skills to be successful. Slightly less than one-third--31 percent--of all public high school students are prepared for postsecondary education, as demonstrated by the academic courses they pursue. Well-prepared and well-supported students are more likely to persist to a degree completion and obtain the knowledge and skills they need.

If our students and workers are to have the best chance to succeed in life and employers to remain competitive, we must ensure that everyone has the opportunity to achieve academically and obtain the skills they need to succeed, regardless of their background. To accomplish this, we need to build, strengthen and maintain our educational pipeline, beginning in elementary school. We must also strengthen programs that encourage and enable citizens of all ages to enroll in postsecondary education institutions and obtain or improve their knowledge and skills. The decisions we make about education and workforce development will have a dramatic impact on the economy and our society for generations to come.

The America COMPETES Act is a good starting point, but we need to do more. Maintaining America's competitiveness requires that all students have the opportunity to continue to build their knowledge and skills. We need to find ways to encourage high school students to stay in school and prepare for and enter high-skill fields such as math, science, engineering, health, technology and critical foreign languages. For many, including those at the cutting-edge of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, acquiring a postsecondary education or training will be the key to their success.

Our Nation needs to make sure that every person has the opportunity to access quality education and training throughout their lives, which is why the America COMPETES bill is only the beginning. I remain committed to reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, the Head Start Act, and the Workforce Investment Act. In addition, we need to focus our efforts on taking

what we have learned from 5 years of experience to improve the No Child Left Behind Act. Together these laws form the path for success, so that every American can have the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in the 21st century global economy, which is only going to become more competitive.

The call for education and skills training is loud and clear. Ingenuity, knowledge, and skills are a beacon for jobs; therefore, we must keep the beacon of innovation shining brightly on our shores. I ask my colleagues to support passage of the conference report on the America COMPETES Act and to work with me to move the companion education and workforce bills through Congress this year.

Mr. President, our increasingly global economy is creating numerous challenges for America's families nationwide. Across the country, hardworking citizens are being left behind. The value of their wages is declining, their cost of living is going up, and many of their jobs are being shipped overseas.

As a result, the Nation is falling behind in the world economy. Study after study tells us the answer is to invest more in education, research and innovation, if we hope to keep up with other countries whose economies are soaring.

We know that a sound education is more important than ever for today's youth to succeed. Yet studies show, for example, that 15-year- old U.S. students score below average in math and science compared to the youth of other industrial nations. In one study, our 15-year-olds ranked only 24th in math. High school and college graduation rates are also falling behind. Our college graduation rate today has now dropped below the average graduation rate for OECD countries.

We know that Federal investments in research lead to medical, scientific, and technology breakthroughs. But these investments have been shrinking as a share of the economy. In real terms, government spending for research has been flat. Since 1975, we have dropped from third to 15th in the production of scientists and engineers.

It is a serious problem and we can't just tinker at the margins. We have a responsibility to our people, our economy, our security, and our Nation to make the investments to achieve the progress we need in the years ahead.

The America COMPETES Act is a step in the right direction. It will help put America back on track.

It invests in research by doubling the support for research at the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation over the next 7 years, and will increase funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology as well.

It invests in innovation by creating a President's Council on Innovation and Competitiveness to determine the most effective ways to create jobs and move our economy forward.

Above all, it will invest in education, especially in math and science, engineering, and technology from the elementary school through high school and beyond, in order to attract more young people to pursue careers in these fields in the years ahead.

The problem today is especially serious for our low-income and minority students. Teachers are the single most important factor in improving student achievement and narrowing the achievement gap. One study found that having a high quality teacher for 5 years in a row can close the average 7th grade achievement gap in math between lower income and higher income children. Yet too often, low-income and minority students are taught by the least prepared, least experienced, and least qualified teachers. Math and science classes in high-poverty schools are much more likely to be taught by teachers who do not have a degree in their field.

We know what we need to do, and this bill will help us do it. We must make sure all students are getting the teachers they need and deserve in the subjects that matter most in the new economy.

This bill addresses the teacher challenge head on by taking strong steps to ensure that all children have access to a high quality teacher with strong content knowledge in math, science, engineering and technology--particularly in high need schools, where such teachers are needed most.

The bill expands the Robert Noyce Teacher Program of the National Science Foundation, NSF, by creating a new NSF teaching fellows program to prepare accomplished math, science, technology and engineering professionals to teach in high need schools. It also creates a master teaching fellows program to leverage the talents of the best teachers to improve instruction in high need schools. Teaching fellows in the program will receive annual salary supplements of $10,000 a year in exchange for a commitment to teach for at least 4 years in a high need school.

The bill also expands the Teacher Institutes for the 21st Century Program at NSF, which provides cutting-edge professional development programs throughout the school year and during the summer for teachers in high-need schools.

In addition, the bill supports impressive new programs in colleges and universities to prepare math, science, technology, engineering and foreign language teachers. These programs will combine bachelor's degrees with concurrent teacher certification in their subjects, and will create master's degree programs for teachers to improve their knowledge in these subjects and to encourage math and science professionals to go into teaching.

Too often today, elementary and secondary school standards are not aligned with the expectations of colleges and employers. In many cases, high school graduates are struggling to keep up in college and the workplace. Remedial education and lost earning potential costs the Nation $3.7 billion a year, because so many students are not adequately prepared for college when they leave high school.

Our bill will help States align their standards with the demands of the 21st century workplace. Grants to States to create P-16 Councils will bring the elementary and secondary schools, college, businesses, and the Armed Forces together to ensure that education standards are better aligned with the expectations of colleges, the workforce, and the military. This alignment is essential if we hope to remain internationally competitive. Support will also be available for new data systems in states to track students' achievement and help them graduate prepared to succeed.

The bill will help give students in low-income districts the same opportunities as those in wealthier districts to enroll and succeed in college preparatory classes by expanding access to advanced placement and international baccalaureate classes.

This bill invests as well in foreign language education, to ensure that students are exposed to foreign languages and cultures. More than 80 Federal agencies now use tens of thousands of employees with skills in 100 foreign languages, and our businesses need the same.

For students to become proficient in foreign languages, they need sustained study, beginning in the early grades. But only a third of students in grades 7 through 12 today and only 5 percent of elementary school students study a foreign language. The bill provides grants to colleges and local educational agencies to create partnerships for students from elementary school through college to study such languages.

Finally, the bill will encourage new interest in nuclear science. Massachusetts has long been a leader in this research. Of three dozen licensed research reactors in the United States, three are located in Massachusetts universities The University of Massachusetts in Lowell, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and MIT. These colleges will have an increasingly important role as nuclear science expands, and our bill will expand existing programs and establish new ones to meet the growing demand.

All of these programs and investments are designed to help prepare us to compete in the 21st century, but there is more we must do if we intend to keep our nation and our workforce truly competitive. Significant new investments are needed to expand opportunities for higher education. College is more important than ever today, but it is also more expensive than ever. In the Senate 2 weeks ago, we passed the largest increase in student aid since the G.I. bill, and I look forward to delivering that aid for low-income students as quickly as possible.

We must also address the increasingly demanding impact of the global economy on American workers and their families. Our hard-working men and women deserve greater job security today and greater job opportunities in the future.

This bill puts first things first. Increased investments in education, research, and innovation are indispensable to our success as a nation. We have done it before and we must do it again. Let's begin with this bill.

Mr. President, I rise today in support of the America COMPETES Act. I applaud the bipartisan group that put together the America COMPETES Act, an extraordinary bill that will provide invaluable resources to ensure that the United States does not lose step with our global competitors.

We live in a global marketplace and if our students are to compete with students from around the world, they must have the benefit of a first rate math and science education taught by first rate math and science teachers. This new program will vastly improve the chance that our high school students are taught math and science by the best and the brightest.

That is why I am particularly proud of one provision that I authored that has been included in this conference agreement. This provision will establish a new program called the National Science Foundation Teaching Fellowship within the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. I wish to express my deep gratitude to Senators Kennedy, Bingaman, Alexander and Enzi for including this important provision in the bill. I would also like to thank my friend and colleague, Senator Clinton, for her valuable support.

The provision creating the NSF Teaching Fellowship is modeled on a bill I introduced last Congress, the Math and Science Teaching Corps Act. The Math and Science Teaching Corps was in turn modeled after a highly successful New York City program called Math for America.

Math for America's mission is to improve math education in our Nation's public schools by recruiting top math and science college graduates to become teachers and providing financial incentives to make these jobs competitive with the graduates' other opportunities.

The program has made tremendous strides. Over 100 teachers teach in nearly 60 New York City public schools. By 2011 the program will support at least 440 teachers. I can only hope that the new NSF Teaching Fellowship will be so successful.

The NSF Teaching Fellowship program is about paving the way for the future. It will ensure that leaders in math and science train the next generation of innovators--instead of leaving the classroom for research or other jobs. This model program is working in New York City, and now, with the America COMPETES legislation, it will be expanded to the rest of the country.

We need this program to reverse a dismal trend. Our students are not currently prepared to compete in a technology-intense economy. In the 2003 PISA math assessment that compared 15-year-old students across the world, American students ranked 24th out of the 29 participating countries--here in the U.S., in math, 24th out of 29. How can we compete when our students are falling behind?

A 2005 mathematics assessment of twelfth graders by the National Assessment of Education Progress found that 61 percent of high school seniors performed at or above the basic level, and 23 percent performed at or above the proficient level. For science, 54 percent of twelfth graders scored at or above the basic level. Eighteen percent performed at or above the proficient level. This is unacceptable.

Students currently studying math and science will be the fuel that powers our economy for the next century, and we must give them every chance to achieve, excel and thrive. The NSF Teaching Fellowship is a significant step.

Inspirational and brilliant teachers will make an enormous difference. To attract these role models, we need to level the playing field, and ensure that these future teachers can afford to teach. Only one-third of math teachers and less than two-thirds of science teachers majored or minored in the subject they teach. It is not hard to understand why. Starting salaries for math and science majors can be as much as $20,000 higher in the private sector than they are for public school teachers.

The NSF Teaching Fellowship will help reduce these barriers. The program's structure has a rigorous selection process and incentives built in to improve retention. NSF teaching fellows will have to take a test to prove their strengths in math or science. Then they enroll in a 1-year master's degree program in teaching that will give them teaching certification, and it is all paid for. They will agree to teach for at least 4 years, and for those 4 years, they will receive bonuses on top of their salaries. These individuals will infuse our schools with a deep passion for and an understanding of math and science and will share their knowledge with other teachers in their school.

To retain our current teachers who are outstanding at what they do and can provide expertise in the classroom that our teaching fellows won't yet have, there is another category called NSF master teaching fellows. Master fellows are current teachers who already have a master's degree in math or science education. They will also take a test demonstrating they have a high level understanding of their subject area. For the next 5 years they will serve as leaders in their school, providing mentorship for other teachers in their department as well as assisting with curriculum development and professional development. For these 5 years they also will receive bonuses on top of their salaries.

We all agree that every child deserves effective, high-quality professional teachers. And there are thousands of wonderful teachers in our country. But we need more. Without them, children will have difficulty reaching the high standards we want them to achieve. The federal government has long worked to ensure that all children have equal access to a quality education, no matter where they live. We must encourage and fund well-designed programs, such as the NSF Teaching Fellowship to incite rapid improvement in the quality of the Nation's future teaching workforce.

I urge all my colleagues to support this monumental bill, the America COMPETES Act.

Mr. President, I am pleased today to introduce the Guaranteed Access to Medicaid for Newborns Act. This bill corrects a problem that has arisen during the implementation of the Deficit Reduction Act, DRA, of 2005. Through this act, we will guarantee that children born in America who are eligible for Medicaid can seamlessly get Medicaid coverage.

For the last two decades, Medicaid recipients have been required to be a U.S. citizen or qualified alien who has been in the country for at least 5 years. In a July 2005 report, the HHS Office of Inspector General found that 47 States allowed individuals to ``self attest'' their citizenship status to qualify for Medicaid benefits. In short, the State simply asked a Medicaid applicant if they were a citizen. The applicant need only respond, ``Yes, I am an American.'' No documents necessary. And of those 47 States, 27 did no followup verification such as checking with the Social Security Administration. In response to this report, the DRA included a House-led provision that I supported to require States to more carefully document the citizenship of Medicaid recipients and applicants.

Implementation of this provision, as is often the case with legislation, has not been without its challenges. The interim final rule that was issued by CMS effective July 6, 2006, did make many improvements so that the new statute could be implemented consistent with legislative intent. I think, on the whole, CMS did a good job. However, there was one specific provision in the interim final rule that I do not think is consistent with congressional intent: the provision that makes it more difficult for children born to undocumented mothers to gain Medicaid eligibility.

In section 1903(v) of the Social Security Act, the Medicaid statute makes available payment to States for treatment of an alien who is not otherwise eligible for Medicaid in the case of an emergency medical condition. A woman who is undocumented or not

otherwise eligible for Medicaid is covered under Medicaid for labor and delivery. Nothing in the DRA changed that nor was anything in the DRA intended to change that.

Under section 1902(e)(4) of the Social Security Act, a child born to a woman receiving Medicaid at the time of the child's birth is deemed onto Medicaid for a year. States had been interpreting that to mean the child of a woman who was undocumented could be deemed onto Medicaid for a year since the mother, under 1903(v), was eligible for Medicaid at the time of the child's birth. The interim final rule now specifically prevents a State from deeming the child of an undocumented mother onto the State Medicaid program without properly documenting the child's citizenship first.

In this case, I believe CMS has gone too far. A child born in the United States of America is a citizen. Before the DRA, children born to mothers on Medicaid were deemed onto Medicaid, and I think that is absolutely in the best interest of that newborn child. The DRA did not change two fundamental facts: First, the mother, regardless of documentation status, was eligible for Medicaid at the time of the child's birth and, second, the child is a citizen. In my mind, there is no reason then to have any new documentation requirement for the child.

The legislation I am introducing today reinstitutes the pre-DRA policy with one notable exception. Under the old rule, a State could issue a temporary Medicaid identification number to the mother which served as the identification number for the child for up to a year. I don't think that it's necessary or appropriate for a State to provide a child Medicaid benefits by issuing the mother a Medicaid card. This especially problematic in cases where the mother may not be in the country legally nor eligible for Medicaid after delivery. My legislation changes the old policy by requiring the State to issue an identification number to the child of the undocumented mother. This does not in any way change the States' responsibility to provide the mother benefits when she comes to the emergency room in labor.

The legislation makes one further change to the statute to benefit newborns. Under the interim final rule, all children born to mothers on Medicaid are required to document their citizenship within 1 year of birth. I do not think that is necessary. Medicaid paid for the birth of an American citizen. It is simple common sense that the child is a citizen and requiring any further documentation is redundant and counter-intuitive.

I want to be clear that I support the requirement that a State more fully document the citizenship of applicants for Medicaid. Given what the Congressional Budget Office has told us would be the cost of making undocumented aliens eligible for public programs, the Deficit Reduction Act addressed a real concern by requiring documentation. I want the new statutory provision to go forward to ensure that the people getting the benefits are actually eligible for the benefits. However, CMS and the States should recognize what is to me, common sense: A child born in the United States whose birth was paid for by Medicaid is a citizen under current law. No further documentation necessary.