Issue Position: Invest in Research

Issue Position

San Diego knows the transformative economic power of scientific research. The wireless technologies invented here spawned QUALCOMM, our largest private employer, created thousands of high-wage jobs and changed the way the world communicates. Similarly, SPAWAR supports jobs and investment in basic research for military applications -- the kind of research that led to the development of the internet and GPS. And every day on Torrey Pines Mesa, researchers at Salk, Scripps Research, Sanford Burnham, UCSD, and elsewhere use grants from the National Institutes of Health to find cures to Alzheimer's disease and cancer. These scientific investments have transformed our world and raised the quality of life for millions; equally important, they've also created good-paying jobs for San Diegans.

In fact, according to a recent study, San Diego's innovation technology sector accounted for more than 141,000 jobs in 2013 -- about 10% of the region's total workforce. Notably, the average wage in this sector is more than $100,000 (more than double the region's average salary), and each support an additional 1.6 local jobs. These industries are critical to our local economy, and San Diego deserves a representative who recognizes the importance of ensuring that they continue to thrive.

But Congress is wavering on these investments. Scientific research funding is not keeping pace with inflation, and is even being cut. Disappointingly, the funding budgeted for research is increasingly allocated to serve politics or bureaucracy, and not to support the most rigorous and promising scientific advances. Combined with draconian sequestration cuts, investment in San Diego's research and innovation economy has been in decline. We want the next Google or Qualcomm or the next medical breakthrough to happen in San Diego, but without serious commitment to maintain and aggressively increase investment, that next innovation could be created by a UCSD graduate ... in China or England rather than San Diego, or California.

In Congress, I'm fighting alongside other San Diego representatives for adequate and consistent funding for scientific research. Investing in research is one of the best ways we can drive American competitiveness and job creation while improving San Diego's international profile as a growing innovation hub.

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