A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Internal Revenue Service of the Department of the Treasury relating to liability under section 5000A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 for the shared responsibility payment for not maintaining minimum essential coverage.

Mr. President, as for the other win for Massachusetts, today I am introducing my first major piece of legislation as a Senator. My bill, the American Renewable Energy and Efficiency Act, will allow every single American to have access to clean energy and money-saving efficiency.

In our slow economic recovery, there has been one very bright spot in Massachusetts and the national economy, the incredible growth of clean energy, energy efficiency, and the jobs that come with these industries.

According to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, our State alone has gained 20,000 jobs in these sectors since 2010, with another 10,000 new jobs expected in the next year alone. Massachusetts has become the Nation's most energy-efficient State. Boston is ranked as the Nation's most energy-efficient city. Our shores will host the first offshore wind farm, with a new construction terminal built in New Bedford, allowing our fishermen to work alongside our wind energy workers. Massachusetts is No. 7 in the Nation in deploying solar energy, even though we are more well known for the ``Perfect Storm'' than perfectly sunny days.

These advances, these jobs, these technologies have flourished in Massachusetts because we have set the right policies and encouraged our companies to lead.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick set high goals for clean energy deployment in our State, and we have already surpassed them. Boston Mayor Tom Menino wanted Boston to be known as green for just more than the Green Monster in Fenway Park, and he has delivered. Boston is now the greenest city in the United States. That is why I am introducing my first bill as a Senator to take our Massachusetts leadership and make it national.

My bill would require that electricity sold to American consumers increasingly be generated using renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and biomass. By 2025, the bill would require 25 percent of our electricity to come from the free fuel of the Sun, the wind, and the Earth.

Since the cheapest and the cleanest powerplant is the one we never have to build, my bill would also require utilities to put people to work on large-scale energy efficiency programs.

My bill would build on the efforts of Massachusetts and the 30 other States that already require utilities to provide customers with minimal amounts of renewable electricity and ensure that America joins the 118 other nations that have already established renewable energy goals.

My bill would quadruple renewable energy production in the United States. It would create more than 400,000 new jobs. We can put steelworkers and ironworkers and electricians back to work building the new energy backbone for America, from Massachusetts to Montana.

The energy efficiency measures in my bill would save the average household $39 per year on utility bills, and it would reduce carbon dioxide pollution by the equivalent output of 120 coal-fired powerplants, helping our efforts to battle the advancing tide of dangerous climate change.

A renewable electricity standard passed the House of Representatives twice while I was a Member of the body--as recently as 2009--and it has passed the Senate three times since 2002. Before it was held hostage over the Affordable Care Act, the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill showed there is real bipartisan support for energy efficiency in the Senate. These are policies that should be embraced and not blocked.

If we do not take these steps, we will lose the international race to dominate the multitrillion-dollar clean energy sector. Right now, China has already overtaken the United States as the No. 1 most attractive place to invest in renewable energy. Sixty percent of all new companies going public in the clean energy sector are doing so in China. More than 100,000 clean energy jobs are being created there annually. China now has more wind capacity installed than any other country, and they produce two-thirds of the world's solar panels.

It is time for our country to scale up our clean energy deployment and innovation. It is also time to take a look at revolutionary approaches to driving that innovation. All too often we are unable to move clean energy-related discoveries and breakthroughs out of the labs and into the marketplace.

That is the problem my clean tech consortia legislation addresses. I have included this bill as part of the Manufacturing Jobs for America Initiative, launched this week by Senator Coons and some of my Democratic colleagues. My bill would fertilize America's innovation ecosystems so that scientific breakthroughs can more effectively navigate the so-called valley of death between the lab and the factory and reach their commercial potential.

America's universities and research institutions are truly national treasures, and our venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are the sharpest in the world. When we sprinkle the right mix of scientific brainpower and capitalist drive, we get something uniquely American and extremely potent in terms of its economic impact.

My clean tech consortia bill, which I will soon be introducing, will link inventors with investors, professors with producers and get clean energy out of the laboratories and into the factories. That is the type of partnership we need with the private sector right now in our country.

The other bill I have included in this package, the Manufacturing Jobs for America Initiative, and which I will also be introducing soon, is called the Build America Bonds Initiative. Here is how it works and here is what it does.

When a State or local government wants to build and renovate schools, bridges, roads, and hospitals, they need financing, and they issue a bond. Investors buy those bonds, giving the State capital to hire workers and update infrastructure, and investors get a return in the form of interest. Build America Bonds say to State and local governments: We will help with the interest payments and help put more Americans back to work.

From the inception of this program in April 2009 to when it expired at the end of 2010, there were 2,275 separate

bonds issued nationwide, which supported more than $181 billion of financing for new public capital infrastructure projects, such as bridges, schools, and hospitals.

Build America Bonds were a huge success in Massachusetts. My State issued close to $5 billion in bonds. Build America Bonds helped finance Massachusetts' Accelerated Bridge Program, which repaired and rebuilt hundreds of structurally deficient bridges.

Other examples of projects include a new laboratory at UMass Amherst, a new courthouse in Salem, and a new building at the Worcester State Hospital--improving energy efficiency and reducing costs.

I plan to work with my good friends Senator Wyden and Congressman Neal--both leaders on this issue--to ensure we continue to invest in both our infrastructure and our future.

These are the kinds of programs that will put America back to work. I want American workers to build and export wind turbines and solar panels that say ``Made in America,'' instead of the American economy importing millions of barrels of oil a day that say ``Made by OPEC.''

I want American inventors dreaming up the newest energy technologies that convert patent applications for a prototype into job applications on the factory floor. I want American workers repairing our crumbling bridges, roads, and schools.

We are in a terrestrial technology and manufacturing race as important as the celestial race President Kennedy began 50 years ago. These are three of the programs that will put America into a new economic orbit, looking down on our competitors. We should pass all three and put America back to work.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to commemorate one of our nation's greatest heroes, Neil Armstrong, by re-designating the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.

The legislation will also rename the Western Aeronautical Test Range at Edwards Air Force Base as the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range, as a tribute to Dr. Dryden's enduring legacy.

There are few men in history who have made such substantial contributions to our understanding of aeronautics and our solar system.

Neil Armstrong took the most important steps in the history of mankind when he stepped off Apollo 11.

Dr. Dryden shaped the principles and policies that led to the development of the nation's first high speed aircraft.

Their work in the Antelope Valley, outside Los Angeles, helped create one of our nation's most productive high-skilled manufacturing hubs. Their legacy remains today, and it is fitting that their names are attached to these outstanding facilities.

Dr. Hugh Dryden was one of our Nation's first and most prominent scholars in the fields of high speed aeronautics and aerodynamics.

Dr. Dryden began his distinguished career at the Bureau of Standards and quickly rose to become the Associate Director by 1934.

During World War II, Dr. Dryden dedicated his considerable talents to serving armed forces as a scientific advisor, working on aeronautical matters and guided missiles. For his work on these issues, Dr. Dryden received the Medal of Freedom from the Army in 1946 and Presidential Certificate of Merit in 1948--two of our nation's highest honors for civilian service.

Following the war, Hugh Dryden became the Director of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, NACA. Eventually, when the advisory committee was formalized in 1958 and became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, Dr. Dryden served as its first Deputy Director.

Neil Armstrong is another man that inspired Americans to look to the skies. He may have been born in Ohio, but his life's work was done in California.

In his early years he was stationed in San Diego as a Naval Aviator. Although he left the state to pursue an undergraduate degree, he returned shortly thereafter to become a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base.

As a NASA test pilot, Armstrong flew more than 200 different models of aircraft. His experience included work with jets, helicopters, rockets and gliders, and he became one of the best known pilots of the X-15 test plane.

Even before he became an astronaut, Armstrong reached unbelievable heights and speeds. While working with the X-15 from November 1960 to July 1962, he reached a top altitude of 207,500 feet and a top speed of 3,989 mph.

Neil Armstrong logged an incredible 2,400 flight hours as a test pilot at Dryden Flight Research Center before setting his sights even higher.

In 1962, Neil Armstrong became an Astronaut.

His career as an Astronaut began with Gemini 8 in 1966. The mission began with a landmark success--Neil Armstrong and his partner David Scott successfully docked their Gemini capsule with the Agena satellite in orbit. It was the first time two spacecraft linked up in space.

However, shortly after the docking, the spacecraft began to spin out of control. After the spacecraft separated, Gemini and its astronauts were rolling at a revolution per second. The violent revolutions threatened the vision and consciousness of Armstrong and Scott, and so Armstrong made the controversial decision to abort the mission. Gemini 8 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean safely, but only part of its mission had been accomplished.

As a veteran astronaut, Armstrong was an obvious choice for the Apollo missions.

His first assignment was Apollo 11; it was the fifth manned Apollo mission and the first manned landing on the lunar surface. Accompanying Armstrong on the mission were Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins--both accomplished astronauts in their own right.

The Apollo 11 crew launched atop a Saturn V rocket from Cape Canaveral on July 16, 1969. It took more than four days for the crew to reach the lunar surface. Armstrong and Aldrin approached the lunar surface while Collins manned the command vehicle in orbit.

The goal was to find a safe landing zone, which proved more difficult than expected. With only 25 seconds of fuel remaining, the ``Eagle'' landed on July 20, 1969, at the Sea of Tranquility.

As he stepped off Apollo 11, Armstrong uttered his famous words, ``That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.''

Armstrong and Aldrin spent two and a half hours on the lunar surface. They took photographs, inspected the condition of the lander, and planted the American Flag to commemorate their incredible achievement.

It was the first and last time Armstrong would visit the moon. Shortly after Apollo 11's safe return to Earth, Armstrong announced that he did not intend to fly in space again.

But his time in public life was not quite finished. Armstrong toured the world as a celebrity on the ``Giant Leap'' tour. He visited the Soviet Union to meet with the Premier and joined Bob Hope on a USO tour in Vietnam.

Upon his return, Armstrong completed his Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern California.

He worked briefly for the Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPA, and served as Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics at NASA.

In 1971, he returned to Ohio to teach the next generation of engineers at the University of Cincinnati. By the end of his career, Armstrong had been decorated by 17 countries and received many notable honors, including: the Presidential Medal of Freedom; the Congressional Gold Medal; the Congressional Space Medal of Honor; the Explorers Club Medal; the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy; the NASA Distinguished Service Medal; the Harmon International Aviation Trophy; the Royal Geographic Society's Gold Medal; the Federation Aeronautique Internationale's Gold Space Medal; the American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award; the Robert J. Collier Trophy; the AIAA Astronautics Award; the Octave Chanute Award; and the John J. Montgomery Award.

His long list of accolades demonstrates just how incredible and inspirational Armstrong was, not only for California and our nation, but around the world as well.

Tragically, we lost Neil A. Armstrong on August 25 last year. But his legacy will live on and continue to inspire the next generation of engineers, scientists, and astronauts.

In a fitting tribute, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said that: ``As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own.''

Neil Armstrong's work, career, and legacy have inspired many accomplishments and discoveries beyond his own personal achievements. It is only fitting that the Dryden Flight Research Center, which is located at the base where his career quite literally took off, be renamed in his honor.

This is a simple bill that will help to appropriately pay tribute to two individuals who have helped shape and define the space and aeronautical industries. I urge my colleagues to support this bill to re-designate the Dryden Flight Research Center as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center and the Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.