Recognizing the extraordinary number of African-Americans who have overcome significant obstacles to enhance innovation and competitiveness in the field of science in the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1133) recognizing the extraordinary number of African-Americans who have overcome significant obstacles to enhance innovation and competitiveness in the field of science in the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on H. Res. 1133, the resolution under consideration.

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

To honor the extraordinary number of African Americans who have enhanced our country through scientific innovation, I offer this resolution to celebrate their accomplishments. This resolution also recognizes the significant barriers African Americans have broken to enhance science and increase American competitiveness.

February is normally the month where the accomplishments of African Americans are celebrated. It was our original intent to do just that and be on the floor last month. However, I am pleased to see this resolution on the floor today in March, knowing we all enjoy the contributions of African American scientific contributions every day of the year.

As we go throughout our daily routines, Americans rely on technologies, procedures, and improvements fashioned by African American innovators over the centuries. In any field, whether it is transportation, architecture, transportation, medicine, or home appliances, African Americans have innovated, improved, and enhanced our technology.

In 2010 it is unthinkable that a person of any race, origin, or culture in this country would be denied an education because of the color of their skin. For centuries, African Americans who developed procedures, inventions, and technologies we rely upon each day had to overcome significant obstacles to advance our Nation.

From 1654 until 1865, slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of much of the present United States. At that time, many slaves were prohibited from obtaining an education. In response, many historically black colleges and universities were founded. These universities contribute significantly to the overall percentage of African Americans who receive undergraduate and graduate degrees in the fields of science today. We honor and celebrate the effectiveness of these vital institutions.

We acknowledge that slaves, because they were not considered citizens, could not register any invention with the U.S. Patent Office. Due to this, there is a strong likelihood that during the period of slavery many discoveries have been undocumented or stolen. After President Lincoln abolished slavery in 1865, many African American scientists continued to face poverty, legal and social discrimination over 100 years later.

Our past is our prologue, and we must recognize and celebrate our history in order to achieve our full potential as a Nation. As Martin Luther King once said, ``Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten. A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present.''

Today our Nation has a vast untapped potential as African Americans and other minorities remain disproportionately underrepresented in science,

technology, engineering, and math, the STEM disciplines. Many of these students suffer from inadequate schools, residential segregation, gender and racial bias from the classroom, and, perhaps even the most, nonprepared teachers. In order to become more energy independent, create new jobs and new exports, and develop the next great technology, we must invest robustly in scientific education and innovation.

Looking towards our future, the fraction of college age population ages represented by minorities is expected to grow to 55 percent in 2050. The proportion of STEM bachelor's degrees earned by minorities is much lower than the representation of minorities within the U.S. population. In order to keep the United States competitive in future years, we have a lot of work to do.

We honor African Americans who have overcome significant obstacles to enhance innovation and competitiveness in the field of science in the United States. We also encourage investment in programs which lessen the achievement gap of African Americans as well as other minorities and disadvantaged groups in the sciences and ultimately strengthen competitiveness in the United States.

The lights are on, the stage is set, the camera is rolling, and we are the actors. The actions we take today are ultimately what will determine our future.

I thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee.

I yield the gentlelady an additional 1 minute.

Dr. Mae Jemison trained as a physician now is in the business of producing and training new astronauts by her summer programs and year- long programs and camps emphasizing math and science, her work that she has offered to do with the North Forest Independent School District on science, technology, engineering, and math.

And Dr. Joshua Hill, my friend, the late Dr. Joshua Hill, of Texas Southern University, was the first person to begin to talk about solar energy. And of course Prairie View A&M where a host of agricultural scientists have looked at new ways to produce food.

To the Speaker I will say that this legislation is timely. There are many scientists who are on the verge coming from the minority community and coming from the African American community. Look what they can do, and let us give them the further opportunity to be able to help America and to help the world.

Let us continue our support for NASA as many of these first develop their scientific prowess utilizing their skills as astronauts in America's human space program.

I urge passage of the bill, and I yield back my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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

H. Res. 1133 recognizes the African American contribution to U.S. innovation and competitiveness. There is no doubt that the American transportation system is better off thanks to the contributions of African Americans like Richard Spikes, Joseph Gambol, Garrett Morgan, and Elbert Robinson. Our cities' skyscrapers are accessible thanks to the work of Alexander Mills. Modern medicine, particularly cardiology, may not be as advanced if it were not for the work of Drs. Otis Boykin, Daniel Williams, Charles Drew, and Ben Carson. And our work lives would not be as simple had it not been for Will Purvis, Lee Burridge, and W.A. Love, or our personal lives more comfortable had it not been for Frederick Jones, Lewis Latimer, George Sampson, and John Standard. And our children know that the sky is not the limit because of pioneering astronauts like Fred Gregory, Mae Jemison, Bernard Harris, and Charlie Bolden.

It is in part due to the contributions of these brilliant men and women that we as a Nation need to continue encouraging all Americans, male and female, from all socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, to become interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines so that our next generation of Americans will know there are no barriers to innovation, and United States competitiveness will continue to be unsurpassed.

I want to acknowledge and thank my good friend from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson) for her tireless dedication and efforts on this issue. I encourage my colleagues to support it.

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

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

Let me rise and support the legislation that has been offered by my friend and colleague from Texas, and a senior member of the House Science Committee, to celebrate African Americans who have overcome significant obstacles to enhance innovation and competitiveness in the field of science in the United States.

Frankly, this debate is appropriate and timely, as we are discussing the status of NASA and the opportunity to inspire and to ensure that our scientists and physicians and those with inventiveness have the opportunity to show those talents and to produce on behalf of the American people.

As a 12-year member of the House Science Committee and the Subcommittee on Aeronautics, I know the value of research and the providing for a safe and secure place for the intelligence of America. I want to cite as part of this legacy of African Americans Dr. Lovell Jones, who heads the minority health center at M.D. Anderson, and has made great strides in the research dealing with cancer in minority populations.

Dr. Bernard Harris, an astronaut, who has led in establishing new businesses around research and knowledge that he was able to expand on as an astronaut in the NASA human space program.

The late Dr. Ron McNair, who was trained as a physicist, came from South Carolina, whose beginnings were enormously humble, and yet he was able to achieve greatness through his studies at MIT, and then ultimately he came to become an astronaut, and of course we lost him in the line of duty. But his research knowledge helped to expand horizons of the space exploration program.

Dr. Mae Jemison, trained as a physician, the first African American woman in space.