America Competes Act

Floor Speech

AMERICA COMPETES ACT -- (Senate - April 24, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am honored to be a cosponsor of this legislation. All of us understand we have an obligation in Congress to devise policies and means by which the American economy can compete and create good-paying jobs. Whether one lives in Pennsylvania or Illinois or New Mexico or Tennessee, we have lost a lot of good manufacturing jobs over the last few years. We know there have been growth industries. We can look at the whole Silicon Valley phenomena. Whether it is information technology or computers, the United States has taken a leadership position. But in many areas, we are not in leadership positions.

Senators Alexander and Bingaman came together over a year ago to sit down with some of the experts in Washington and talk about what we needed to do to make America more competitive, the next generation of good-paying jobs, the horizons we ought to look to to build for the future. They put together a strong bipartisan bill. If Members read the cosponsors, they will find plenty of support on both sides of the aisle. This may be one of the best examples of bipartisan cooperation we have had in the Senate so far this session. I hope we have more. I am honored to support it and be a cosponsor.

I hope we can move beyond the many amendments that are going to be offered and consider this bill on a timely basis. It is the nature of the Senate that it is a deliberative body. Occasionally, when there is a lapse, we actually break into real debate on the Senate floor. People across the Nation applaud when they hear that happen. In this situation, I am not suggesting that we should not debate amendments to the bill. In fact, I will describe one in a moment. But I am prepared to pull my amendment back because I don't want to stop this bill. I want it to pass the Senate and the House. I want it enacted into law. I hope other Members who have a positive belief about this legislation will think twice about whether they need to gild the lily and add something to a positive and substantive bill.

The issue I would like to speak to is one I believe in very strongly. I have an amendment, but I won't stop this bill to offer it. If it appears to have any objection or resistance, I will save it for another day. It is one that fits into this competitiveness issue.

The United States graduates some of the world's best engineers, scientists, and mathematicians. However, countries such as China and India are catching up. They are educating a higher proportion of their students in these fields.

We have heard the statistics from the National Academy of Sciences report ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.'' In 2004, China graduated 600,000 engineers. India graduated 350,000 engineers. The United States graduated 70,000. In 2004, only a third of the undergraduate degrees awarded in the United States were in science or engineering. In China, the number was 59 percent; in Japan, 66 percent in science and engineering.

Our country can understand when our economic security and our future are at stake, and we have risen to the occasion. I remember back in the 1950s when the Russians launched Sputnik. We didn't think they were capable of that. When they put the first satellite in space, it caused great fear across the United States. As a result, Congress did something it had never done before: It created Federal assistance to higher education. It created a loan program to encourage students to go to college. I know about that program because that is the way I went to college. It was called the National Defense Education Act. I borrowed enough money to get through college and law school, paid it back at a modest interest rate, and believe it was a good investment. I have had a pretty good life as a result of it and maybe have added something to this great country in the process. Thousands of others went through the same experience. Congress responded. We knew we needed to invest in our country by first investing in education.

The same thing is true with competitiveness. We can talk about a lot of actions that might achieve our goals, but education is the starting point. We have documented the technological challenges to our country from many different angles. The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates; the chairman of Intel, Craig Barrett; a journalist, writer Tom Friedman; and the National Academy of Sciences have all told us this. All agree we need to strengthen students' proficiency in science, technology, engineering, math, and foreign languages. The America COMPETES Act invests in the R&D and education our country needs to make sure we remain the world's technological innovator.

In our increasingly global economy, we need more youth to pursue math, science, engineering, technological, and critical foreign language degrees. Our young people also need an appropriate knowledge and understanding of the world beyond our borders. You have heard me speak many times on the floor about one of our Nation's greatest public servants, my predecessor, the late Senator Paul Simon. Paul understood that our country needed to invest in math and science. He also envisioned a United States populated by a generation of Americans with a greater knowledge of the world, a generation of our Nation's future leaders that has been abroad and has a personal connection to another part of the world.

In the months before his untimely death, Senator Simon came to Washington. I met with him. We talked as well with his former colleagues about the need to strengthen our Nation's international understanding in the 21st century. Paul Simon knew that America's security, global competitiveness, and diplomatic effforts in working toward a peaceful society rest on our young people's global competence and ability to appreciate language and culture beyond the United States.

I filed as an amendment to this bill an amendment which we have entitled the ``Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act.'' It is an initiative that honors Paul's commitment to international education and brings his vision one step closer to reality. The Simon Act encourages and supports the experience of studying abroad in developing countries, countries where people with a different culture, language, government, and religion will give a person a different life experience. It aims to have at least 1 million undergraduate students study abroad annually within 10 years and expands study-abroad opportunities for students currently underrepresented.

The Simon Act establishes study abroad as a national priority and provides the catalyst for the education community to commit to making study abroad an institutional priority. An independent public-private entity, the Senator Paul Simon Foundation, would carry out the goal of making studying abroad in high-quality programs in diverse locations around the world routine rather than the exception. Students who were previously unable to study abroad due to financial constraints would be eligible for grants. The grants would also provide colleges and universities and other nongovernmental institutions financial incentives to develop programs that make it easier for college students to study abroad.

We can't afford not to invest in thoughtful Federal initiatives that foster innovation. We must ensure that future leaders understand science and engineering and the world in which they live. The future of our country depends on having globally literate citizens. I believe the Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act would help to achieve that goal.

There is one other area that would be helpful when it comes to competitiveness. Most of us know today what a miracle computers have turned out to be. They really bring so much information to our fingertips which long ago was hard to find. I can recall as a college student walking across the street to the Library of Congress, sending in the little slips of paper and ordering a big stack of books and searching through them to find information which I can now Google in a matter of seconds. That is great. That information is helpful. But if one is going to be able to take advantage of that opportunity, one needs to have access to high-speed computers.

There are many parts of America--Washington and Capitol Hill would be good examples--that have broadband access now. We take it for granted. I represent a diverse State, Illinois, which has the great city of Chicago as our largest city but also has a lot of small towns and rural areas, not unlike Tennessee or New Mexico. It is important for the development of education, health care, and business for us to expand broadband access in America to areas that are currently not served.

I have introduced a bill, which is being considered before the Senate Commerce Committee, on broadband access. I would like to share a statistic which Members might consider. According to the OECD, the United States fell from 4th in the world in broadband access per capita in 2001 to 12th in 2006. As of 2006, the International Telecommunication Union listed the United States 16th worldwide in terms of broadband access. We are now behind South Korea, Belgium, Israel, and Switzerland, among other nations.

In today's highly competitive international markets, our children, businesses, and communities are competing with their peers around the world for jobs, market share, business, and information. It concerns me that with the size and dynamism of our economy, we are falling behind in an area where we should have a natural advantage. As we committed ourselves to a National Defense Education Act to make sure we had trained people, educated people to compete against the Soviet Union in that era and now in the world, we also need to make sure the tools for competition are available.

I will be offering this broadband access act not as an amendment to this bill but at a later date. I hope those representing States across the Nation who believe there are digital divides will join me in making sure this important tool is available to every American.

I yield the floor.

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