Stop Trump's Chaos--Stand Up for Science

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise with my Democratic colleagues, frankly, to call out the dangerous and draconian antiscience agendas of this current administration. Since day one, this administration has unleashed chaos on our national scientific enterprise, undermining our Nation's competitiveness, our health safety, and the dignity of research and how it is conducted. It is coming at a time that will, frankly, move our country in the wrong direction, and it will cost us.

In just over 100 days, we have seen the firing and rehiring of experts, the illegal impounding of congressionally authorized and appropriated research funding, and the future of our STEM student pipeline jeopardized. Frankly, it has created a chilling effect across our scientific research enterprise.

For the science enthusiasts watching at home, allow me to clarify that, yes, we support our national scientific research enterprise, our National Science Foundation, and our National Institute of Standards and Technology.

In this country, we also have the National Institutes of Health. Some of us are old enough to remember when we passed a DARPA for health research, ARPA-H, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.

While much of my remarks will be dedicated toward our hard-nosed scientific research funding, I do want to make mention of what it means to have our health sciences under attack right now as well because doctors and researchers, particularly in the medical fields, are feeling extraordinary pain.

These aren't just talking points. This isn't just fear-mongering. This is the cessation of scientific research, health research, special projects dedicated toward combating cancer, pilot projects being suddenly halted. It is a blow to patients. It is a blow to medical researchers and physicians.

My colleagues tonight are going to join me in speaking about the antiscience agenda that is in full swing in the United States of America and what it means. Tonight, I am going to speak about Michigan. I am going to speak about the harm of this chaos and the antiscience agenda that it poses to the incredible State of Michigan.

The State of Michigan is known for its manufacturing prowess. Yes, we have great healthcare institutions as well, but we are known as the place that has put the world on wheels for our best-in-class workforce. We are, of course, also known for the beauty of our Great Lakes. We are known as a place that has the most number of first robotics teams in the Nation. Also, that we are a hotbed and a place that people and businesses come to to expand, to grow, and to tap into our engineering talent.

Mr. Speaker, you can't have a shop floor without research and development. You can't have incredible manufacturing and incredible innovation without scientific research and development.

It is about problem-solving. I know this from my time in the Obama administration. I know this from my time working in a scientific research lab. That innovation takes place on the shop floor and in the heart of Michigan's manufacturing capabilities.

We are so proud of public-private partnerships. We are so proud of how the government can provide seed funding through the National Science Foundation and support for our National Institute of Standards and Technology through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program.

My friend Mike Coast, the former leader of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center, Michigan's MEP, and I are overdue for a conversation. He is ringing the alarm bell about what these cuts will do for Michigan and what this means.

From growing up and from my upbringing, I saw this story of what it means to have a strong and vibrant manufacturing economy. It is intertwined with the Nation's scientific research enterprise and appropriated dollars.

I have visited my friends in over 250 unique small businesses, small manufacturers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and training centers. The innovation story is powered by Michigan's incredible workforce, our hardworking men and women, and those large concentrations of engineers that we have. They are from Grand Rapids, Flint, Saginaw, Lansing, and, of course, all over southeast Michigan, from Detroit to Macomb County and throughout Oakland County.

All of this goes hand in hand from the lab to the shop floor, to the classroom, to the tinkering in the garage, or in Michigan--because we do have those cold winters--in our basements. People are innovating, designing, and doing.

I woke up on a Saturday morning to a headline that the National Science Foundation is canceling more than 400 STEM grants. What does it mean for Michigan? What does that mean for our schools that are not fully funded? What does it mean when we are competing on the world playing field?

We need to have these scientists. We need to have these technologists. We need to have engineers and mathematicians. The student pipeline is absolutely essential, Mr. Speaker.

Because of this Trump-Musk antiscience agenda undermining the symbiotic relationship and threatening Michigan's future in advanced manufacturing, environmental protection, and next-generation mobility technologies--news flash, we had 40-plus new factories built and developed in Michigan last year alone--the chaos continues to set us back.

These aren't false threats. They are now a reality. It is blow after blow. It is self-inflicted chaos at a time when we don't need it, when it is not going to work for Michigan and not going to work for this country.

Michigan is a national leader in public university research, with nine public institutions in the great State of Michigan ranked as top- tier universities. They are what we call R1 research universities. We also have R2 universities. They all rank in that top nine.

This also includes Oakland University, which is located in my district and where my parents met, and it is part of my origin story. They have a very robust engineering department that relies on these National Science Foundation grants, basic scientific research, technology readiness 1 through 9.

What does that mean? We need to have basic scientific research. We need to have the scientific method, of course, dictating and governing how we conduct research in the United States of America.

University of Michigan and Michigan State University recently came forward with what it would mean to see these grants and the relationship between our universities and our government shrink.

I will hold this up. In fact, that was also in The Detroit News, that the MSU president has spoken about the partnership between research universities and innovation driven by government. We need these things.

At Wayne State University and Michigan Technological University, it is the same thing. They conduct over 90 percent of the State's academic research, totaling more than $3 billion. We want to compete. We want to be a driver of the moonshot of this century.

Every day, Michiganders reap the benefits of these universities, these small businesses, the entrepreneurs, and the small business innovation research grants. I walk out my door, and people are practically coming up to me, saying that this is where they want to grow and go. The STEM talent is so mission critical to all of us.

Just the three largest research institutions created an economic impact of nearly $24 billion for the State of Michigan. This is personal for us, and this is very real. Our universities are where tomorrow's breakthroughs are going to begin, breakthroughs that our automakers are going to rely on, breakthroughs to compete in the global marketplace, and also breakthroughs to win on the battlefield.

We are in a race for technological and, frankly, innovation dominance. These cuts that have come through from the stroke of a pen in the Oval Office have sincere, grave, and real results that are harmful.

As a lawmaker, I choose to use my time to continue to craft the legislation on quantum and on reauthorizing NSF and NIST that I am so proud to see making its way through the Committee on Science. I hope that my colleagues will join in to pass those bills.

Today, we use our voices to call out the harms of an antiscience agenda, the setbacks it means for equity, the setbacks it means for disadvantaged students, women, and students of color, and what this means for our manufacturers that rely on the diversity of a fully educated, skilled, and trained workforce, something that I see happening every single day in my incredible home State.

It is that grit that Michiganders bring to everything that I know will get us through, and it is with tremendous honor, Mr. Speaker, that I sit and stand with my colleagues tonight as we speak out.

I thank him for leading with me tonight.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Subramanyam, a new freshman member on the Committee on Science and Member of this very body. As we can tell, he is already leading in an extraordinary way.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Beyer for his great leadership in Congress and for his continued dedication to education as he is getting a degree in artificial intelligence.

Mr. Speaker, we also have another very well-degreed Member of Congress, Dr. Bill Foster, whom I have been so proud to serve alongside for many years in this Chamber and, of course, for many years on the Science Committee where we have passed a lot of bills together.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Foster for his always wise and important words.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Whitesides for his comments. How lucky the people of California are to have his representation and how lucky the United States Congress is to have his expertise.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Foushee for her ongoing leadership for women in the sciences and for HBCUs that are also so important to our STEM scientific research enterprise.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to pass the floor over to the congresswoman from New Mexico (Ms. Stansbury).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank our science nerds and enthusiasts for their work, just as Ms. Stansbury so nicely laid out.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Tonko for his years of leadership on the Scientific Integrity Act, still very essential legislation for this country.

What a profound honor it is to be with colleagues in this democracy sharing these views.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Subramanyam) to close us out. He is such a leader, and I am so proud of him for helping with this Special Order hour.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEVENS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks.

We will continue to use our voices. To every scientific researcher, science student, and American wondering, we have your back. We will use our voices. We will not be silent in the face of these cuts.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source