Issue Position: Jobs and the Economy

Issue Position

"Some of the most creative and innovative minds in the country call the 33rd District home. One in six jobs in Los Angeles come from the creative and tech sectors. CA-33 is home to five colleges, including UCLA and USC's Viterbi Information Technology Institute, plus leading biotech, tech, aerospace, financial services and media companies. There is something the federal government can do that no private sector company can. And that is to make continuing investments in basic research, such as at institutions like UCLA, with no expectation of any rate of return. And eventually these investments pay off in dramatic ways for our economy. The biotech industry largely started because the federal government kept funding research on recombinant DNA technology until the breakthroughs got to the point where the private sector was able to take the knowledge and run with it. GPS was invented at Los Angeles Air Force Base and the Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded nonprofit, after years of research funding. As a member of the House Budget Committee, I am going to do everything I can to increase funding for basic research across all of our scientific disciplines."

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