Floor Statements

Mr. President, let me also speak to the Unemployment Compensation Act we passed. Last week, Congress passed important legislation to help nearly 4 million Americans whose eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits expired on the 28th of December.

Three million of these Americans are now entitled to an additional 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits through the first half of 2003. Another 780,000 will receive the remainder of the original 13 weeks that they were entitled to under the temporary extended unemployment compensation program. This is good news. I, as most of my colleagues, I am sure, announced in my State that this was good news for unemployed workers and we needed to thank the President and thank all who helped to get that done.

The bad news, though, is that this legislation did not help an estimated 1 million Americans who have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits and are no longer eligible for assistance. The fundamental problem in the United States, in my State of New Mexico as well as other States, is that jobs are being lost and, unfortunately, no new net jobs are being created. The economy is not getting better. It is getting worse.

Americans are caught in a downward economic spiral economically that began 2 years ago. It shows no signs of improvement.

The problem with the legislation we passed this last week is that it simply ignored these million people who do not have jobs today and who likely will not have jobs anytime soon. These are people who have played by the rules, who, through no fault of their own, find themselves without a job. Many of them are trying to get the skills necessary to be able to take another job, but we have cut off any benefit to them.

I believe we need to help these people in a tangible way. Providing extended unemployment benefits in a time of crisis is the least we can do. Unemployment insurance offers, at most, a subsistence level of existence. No one gets rich on unemployment insurance. It seems to me we should be able to offer some financial security to our friends and neighbors when they need it most.

In my home State, I have seen this issue most directly in those who have become unemployed in my home county of Grant County where the copper mine and smelter have essentially shut down. The workers in that mine and smelter have found themselves unemployed. The unfortunate reality is that many of those people lost their jobs before March of this last year. Accordingly, they have run through the 39 weeks of unemployment compensation they could receive, and we have failed to add to that and provide any additional assistance to them.

Back in the early 1990s, we passed a series of bills over a 2-year period specifically designed to help people who had no chance of obtaining jobs until that economy improved. Most Americans during that period--this was 10 years ago, when former President Bush was in the White House--were entitled to at least 52 weeks of unemployment insurance coverage. Some Americans in high employment States were entitled to even more.

I don't understand why we are not willing to step up and do that same thing again in this current economic circumstance. In fact, the economic circumstance we find ourselves in today is at least as bad as what we faced in the early 1990s.

We could be using this as an opportunity to retool and make our country stronger economically. Instead, we are pretending the problem does not exist and pretending that these workers will somehow or other fend for themselves. The policy makes no sense to me. I don't think it is good strategy. It is not good economics.

I add my voice to that of other colleagues who spoke last week who argued that we need to do more for those who are out of work. I hope if the economy continues to suffer as it currently is, we will revisit this issue and provide these extended unemployment benefits out to 52 weeks for unemployed Americans.

Offering extended benefits to Americans who have exhausted their unemployment benefits is a step in making this country stronger. I urge that course on my colleagues.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague, Senator DeWine, to introduce legislation which will help maintain our leadership in a field Thomas Edison invented over 100 years ago, lighting.

The title of this bill is the Next Generation Lighting Initiative, or NGLI. The NGLI's purpose is to develop a partnership between our government, industry, and the research community, to enable the U.S. lighting to illuminate our surroundings using energy efficient semiconductors. This bill is structured along the lines of the well known government--industry semiconductor partnership called SEMATECH which the Congress authorized in the 1988 National Defense Authorization Act.

Lighting currently accounts for roughly 19 percent of the energy use in the United States. Lighting is a $40 billion dollar global industry. The United States occupies roughly one-third of that market. Today's lighting market primarily consists of two technologies. The first technology is incandescent

lighting, that's the one Thomas Edison invented over 100 years ago. Incandescent lighting relies on running a current through a wire to heat it up and illuminate your surroundings, but only 5 percent of the electricity in a conventional bulb is converted into visible light. The second type of lighting is fluorescent lights, which use a combination of chemical vapors, mainly mercury, to discharge light when current is passed through it. Fluorescent lights are six times more efficient than a light bulb.

In 1998, electricity from lighting cost about 47 billion dollars, which accounted for about 100 million tons of carbon equivalent from fossil energy plants.

Today, this paradign is changing, because some scientists recently made a leap ahead in lighting research. Technology leaps displace, very quickly, traditional markets. We know the stories all too well, the horse courier, the telegraph, the telephone and finally the Internet.

That's why we are proposing this legislation, because some advances have been made in the areas of solid state lighting that require a national investment that no one lighting industry can match. This emerging technology has the capability to disrupt our existing lighting markets. So quickly in fact, that other countries have formed consortia between their governments, industries, laboratories and universities. Solid state lighting is being taken very seriously around the world.

Let me describe solid state lighting. The best examples are red light emitting diodes, or ``LED's'', found in digital clocks. LED's produce only one color but they do not burn up a wire like a bulb and are seven times more efficient.

Until recently LED's were limited to yellow or red. That all changed in 1995. In 1995, some Japanese researchers developed a blue LED. Soon other bright colors started to emerge, such as green. That is when things started to change. Because, white light is a combination of red, blue, the recent Japanese breakthrough, and green or yellow. The recent Japanese breakthrough of that simple blue LED has now made it possible to produce white light from LED's ten times more efficient than a light bulb.

If it's successful, white light LED's will revolutionize lighting technology and will disrupt the existing industries. It's imperative that we move quickly on these advances. We need a consortia between our government, industry, research labs and academia to develop the necessary pre-competitive research to maintain our leadership role in this field.

I'd like to mention one other technology that will change lighting. That technology is found in your cell phone and on your computer screen. It's called conductive polymers. Three Nobel Prizes were just awarded for this technology. Conductive polymers offer the possibility of covering large surface areas and replacing fluorescent lamps. These materials will not only provide white light, but can display text or programmed color pictures. These technologies can be Internet controlled to adjust building lighting across the country.

Let me describe the Next Generation Lighting Initiative Act. If enacted, it will allow our country to capture these revolutionary mergers between lighting and information. It will supply the necessary pre-competitive R&D which no one industry alone can provide, and, which we as holders of the public trust of basic research owe a duty to further. It will keep the United States in a leadership role for commercial lighting and promote energy efficiency that is ten times that of incandescent lights and twice that of fluorescent lights. We need to enact this legislation now.

The Next Generation Lighting Initiative authorizes the Department of Energy to grant up to $460 million over ten years to a consortium of the United States lighting industry and research institutions. The goals of the Act are to have a 25 percent penetration of solid state lighting into the commercial markets by the 2013. The Next Generation's consortium will perform the basic and manufacturing research. The lighting industry will take this R&D and develop the necessary technologies to make it commercially viable.

This is precompetitive research. It is research that no one industry by itself can perform and which we have a duty to promote together with industry. It has implications for our country's energy policy far broader than economic competitiveness. The potential reduction in energy consumption makes it a national initiative. Once the pre- competitive research is transitioned to industry then it should be terminated, we think that will take about 10 years.

If this initiative is successful, then by 2025, it can reduce our energy consumption by roughly 17 billion watts of power or eliminate the need for 17 large electricity generating plants. That's as much as 17 million homes consume in a single day. That's more homes than in California, Oregon, and Washington combined.

Almost all of the language of this bill was worked out in detail with the House during the 107th Congress as part of the energy bill conference. We feel it is not only bipartisan but bicameral, and we hope that in this Congress it becomes law.

So let me conclude, by saying that the Next Generation Lighting Initiative will carry that U.S. lighting industry into the twenty-first century. It capitalizes on technologies that have the potential to displace our lighting industry. This Initiative will reduce our nation's energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The research necessary to advance this technology requires a national investment that must be in partnership with industry.

I encourage my colleagues to review this bill, offer their comments, and join us in its support. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

There being no objection the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record as follows:

Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague, Senator DeWine, to introduce legislation which will help maintain our leadership in a field Thomas Edison invented over 100 years ago, lighting.

The title of this bill is the Next Generation Lighting Initiative, or NGLI. The NGLI's purpose is to develop a partnership between our government, industry, and the research community, to enable the U.S. lighting to illuminate our surroundings using energy efficient semiconductors. This bill is structured along the lines of the well known government--industry semiconductor partnership called SEMATECH which the Congress authorized in the 1988 National Defense Authorization Act.

Lighting currently accounts for roughly 19 percent of the energy use in the United States. Lighting is a $40 billion dollar global industry. The United States occupies roughly one-third of that market. Today's lighting market primarily consists of two technologies. The first technology is incandescent

lighting, that's the one Thomas Edison invented over 100 years ago. Incandescent lighting relies on running a current through a wire to heat it up and illuminate your surroundings, but only 5 percent of the electricity in a conventional bulb is converted into visible light. The second type of lighting is fluorescent lights, which use a combination of chemical vapors, mainly mercury, to discharge light when current is passed through it. Fluorescent lights are six times more efficient than a light bulb.

In 1998, electricity from lighting cost about 47 billion dollars, which accounted for about 100 million tons of carbon equivalent from fossil energy plants.

Today, this paradign is changing, because some scientists recently made a leap ahead in lighting research. Technology leaps displace, very quickly, traditional markets. We know the stories all too well, the horse courier, the telegraph, the telephone and finally the Internet.

That's why we are proposing this legislation, because some advances have been made in the areas of solid state lighting that require a national investment that no one lighting industry can match. This emerging technology has the capability to disrupt our existing lighting markets. So quickly in fact, that other countries have formed consortia between their governments, industries, laboratories and universities. Solid state lighting is being taken very seriously around the world.

Let me describe solid state lighting. The best examples are red light emitting diodes, or ``LED's'', found in digital clocks. LED's produce only one color but they do not burn up a wire like a bulb and are seven times more efficient.

Until recently LED's were limited to yellow or red. That all changed in 1995. In 1995, some Japanese researchers developed a blue LED. Soon other bright colors started to emerge, such as green. That is when things started to change. Because, white light is a combination of red, blue, the recent Japanese breakthrough, and green or yellow. The recent Japanese breakthrough of that simple blue LED has now made it possible to produce white light from LED's ten times more efficient than a light bulb.

If it's successful, white light LED's will revolutionize lighting technology and will disrupt the existing industries. It's imperative that we move quickly on these advances. We need a consortia between our government, industry, research labs and academia to develop the necessary pre-competitive research to maintain our leadership role in this field.

I'd like to mention one other technology that will change lighting. That technology is found in your cell phone and on your computer screen. It's called conductive polymers. Three Nobel Prizes were just awarded for this technology. Conductive polymers offer the possibility of covering large surface areas and replacing fluorescent lamps. These materials will not only provide white light, but can display text or programmed color pictures. These technologies can be Internet controlled to adjust building lighting across the country.

Let me describe the Next Generation Lighting Initiative Act. If enacted, it will allow our country to capture these revolutionary mergers between lighting and information. It will supply the necessary pre-competitive R&D which no one industry alone can provide, and, which we as holders of the public trust of basic research owe a duty to further. It will keep the United States in a leadership role for commercial lighting and promote energy efficiency that is ten times that of incandescent lights and twice that of fluorescent lights. We need to enact this legislation now.

The Next Generation Lighting Initiative authorizes the Department of Energy to grant up to $460 million over ten years to a consortium of the United States lighting industry and research institutions. The goals of the Act are to have a 25 percent penetration of solid state lighting into the commercial markets by the 2013. The Next Generation's consortium will perform the basic and manufacturing research. The lighting industry will take this R&D and develop the necessary technologies to make it commercially viable.

This is precompetitive research. It is research that no one industry by itself can perform and which we have a duty to promote together with industry. It has implications for our country's energy policy far broader than economic competitiveness. The potential reduction in energy consumption makes it a national initiative. Once the pre- competitive research is transitioned to industry then it should be terminated, we think that will take about 10 years.

If this initiative is successful, then by 2025, it can reduce our energy consumption by roughly 17 billion watts of power or eliminate the need for 17 large electricity generating plants. That's as much as 17 million homes consume in a single day. That's more homes than in California, Oregon, and Washington combined.

Almost all of the language of this bill was worked out in detail with the House during the 107th Congress as part of the energy bill conference. We feel it is not only bipartisan but bicameral, and we hope that in this Congress it becomes law.

So let me conclude, by saying that the Next Generation Lighting Initiative will carry that U.S. lighting industry into the twenty-first century. It capitalizes on technologies that have the potential to displace our lighting industry. This Initiative will reduce our nation's energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The research necessary to advance this technology requires a national investment that must be in partnership with industry.

I encourage my colleagues to review this bill, offer their comments, and join us in its support. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

There being no objection the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record as follows: