Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the need to drive innovation and competitiveness here in the United States.

I vividly remember watching the Apollo missions on TV and the launch of that 36-story tall Saturn V rocket that took Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the Moon.

The space program not only inspired a generation of Americans, but it also led to incredible advances in science and technology that over the last 50 years have accounted for as much as half of all the economic growth in the United States. These groundbreaking advances firmly established our Nation as an international leader in innovation.

During the height of the space race, America's Federal investment in research and development reached nearly 2 percent of the Nation's GDP. Today, overall Federal R&D spending--the seed corn of our future prosperity--has fallen to a historic low of 0.78 percent of GDP.

With the United States investing less on science, research, and education, and our competitors outpacing us, we are losing our footing in the global marketplace. Congress must increase the Federal investment in R&D to 1 percent of GDP if we want to continue to be leading the world in innovation. This commitment should include a focus on increased Federal support for basic research--an essential component of any kind of innovation economy.

In addition to increased investment, we in Congress need to implement policy solutions that will reassert American leadership internationally. We need to invest in what works. We need to listen to the innovators, academic leaders, and industries that are making the life-changing inventions of the future a reality. To that end, my colleague Senator Cory Gardner and I have convened a series of roundtable discussions on ways to improve the American innovation system. Just last week, our Commerce Committee leaders, Chairman Thune and Ranking Member Nelson, held a productive hearing on ways to leverage the U.S. science and technology enterprise. After receiving input from industry, academia, science organizations, and economic development organizations, Senators Thune, Nelson, Gardner, and I are working to develop new legislation to guide our Nation's research priorities in the coming years and to improve America's innovation system. Through these roundtables, we heard that the stakeholder community agrees that modest, sustained, and predictable increases in Federal research and development investments are absolutely critical to ensuring the economic competitiveness of the United States.

We need continued Federal investment in basic research, while also providing opportunities to commercialize that research. There is basic research that our companies simply cannot afford to conduct, making Federal investment absolutely critical. We also need to work to reduce administrative burdens on researchers so that we can maximize our Federal research investment. We need that investment to be put into the lab and not filling out more paperwork. We need stronger partnerships between government, the private sector, and academia in order to capitalize on discoveries emerging from our world-class research universities, such as the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Michigan State University.

We must also close the significant employment gap in the STEM workforce for women and underrepresented minorities. Women make up less than 50 percent of post-bachelor STEM degree programs and only about one-quarter of the STEM workforce. Underrepresented minorities, including Hispanics and African Americans, make up about 10 percent of the science and engineering workforce. Last month, I joined a number of my colleagues in introducing the STEM Opportunities Act, legislation that would improve inclusion of women, minorities, and people with disabilities in STEM careers. It is a top priority for me to see that a similar provision is included in our bipartisan legislation.

Finally, if we want to continue to be a leader in the global economy, we need to be a nation that makes things. Michigan is a State that builds and grows things, and I will continue to fight to make sure we continue doing that. Investments in advanced manufacturing will support firms of all sizes and support good-paying jobs and help keep them here in the United States. That is why it is one of my top priorities for this legislation that we ensure American manufacturing companies can compete and succeed in the highly competitive global marketplace.

Last month, I joined my colleagues, Senators Coons and Ayotte, to introduce the bipartisan Manufacturing Extension Partnership Improvement Act. The Manufacturing Extension Program, or MEP, is a Federal public-private partnership that helps businesses get their products to market through a variety of consulting services. The MEP Improvement Act would expand and improve the MEP Program to serve small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies, which are a critical part of our economy and our national competitiveness. Including key components of the MEP Improvement Act will be a top priority for me in the new legislation being drafted.

Science and technology are inseparable from the American competitiveness ecosystem. However, we need to focus on the entire ecosystem--from STEM, or STEAM, to basic research, to application and commercialization--and the inspiration that drives ambitious endeavors like exploring space and the other frontiers of science. We in Congress must do our part by supporting and investing in our efforts to drive economic growth, unleash increased productivity, enhance our safety and security, and make the world a better place for future generations.

We are facing big challenges as a Nation, but I am committed to working with everyone--Democrats, Republicans, industry, academia, workers, students, and employers--to increase investments and implement the solutions that will ensure American competitiveness and create more good-paying jobs here in the United States.

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