Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, let me say that the gentleman's amendment takes a step in the right direction. It is a modest step, but one that signals a view towards the horizon that is ahead of us, and I rise in support of his very responsible amendment that would make an investment in our future and move to a more diversified energy portfolio. It does nick an account, our administrative account, which is a bit troubling, but it is not at the level that some of the prior amendments today did, so I support the gentleman's amendment.

I thank him for all of the time he spent on the floor today waiting his turn. Talk about a gentleman of the House, you surely are. So I want to thank Congressman Swalwell for his leadership and for trying to take a step toward the future in offering his amendment today. I urge my colleagues to vote for the Swalwell amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment. And I listened to the gentleman's arguments, and I just want to point something out. The gentleman is saying that private industry will do this in any case.

I have been very engaged in our part of the country with the local companies and inventors that are trying to lead America into the future. And what's interesting about the start of some of these new technologies is, many of these inventors don't have the deep pockets of huge multinational corporations.

And when smaller, high-tech companies start out, maybe these inventors have 10, 20, 30 patents to their name, sometimes they launch from a cooperative effort with a university base. They don't have the funds to do the kind of basic research that's necessary to move their technology forward. They need the help of entities like the Department of Energy.

And so it just doesn't happen by magic that one moves a technology forward. Most businesses don't have the interest or the funding to put into this direct research, basic research. So, for example, with solar, which is something our region of the country knows quite a bit about because it spun off of the glass industry, just getting seven layers of material to adhere takes incredible effort.

If you are a small inventor, if you are a smaller company, I defy you to roll steel so thin, and then find adherents to go with it that will hold electrical charges, and then to invent the electrical materials that go through there.

And by golly, over the last 30 years, they have done it. They have brought the cost of panels down to a competitive rate. Where we are now is storage capacity, moving the electricity from those plates to storage systems that will actually be more efficient, and then onto the grid.

So please don't say that the work that they go through, the Americans who really do invent our future, who often are blocked by the people that sit in this Chamber and can't even imagine what they are up against technologically, don't think that what they do doesn't matter.

And while they're doing this, what do they face, just in the solar industry?

The Chinese dumping 2 million panels globally and pushing down the price, a country that's a Communist country, whose economy is a Marxist market system, a Leninist market system.

And we ask our individual inventors to compete with that, and we do nothing to help them out?

By golly, I'd fight for these Americans any day of the year because I know the next generation will be more independent than today's generation because of what they are doing, and I will do anything in my power to help them.

That is the role of the Government of the United States, to lift up those who are trying to make this country free again and separate us from those countries and those interests that don't share our political values.

And so I want to be a champion for those who are out there fighting for the future. And they're not all big multinationals who have these deep pockets they can just reach into, but they're individual Americans who are taking what they've learned in their company.

And they can't finance it alone. Banks won't necessarily do it because the technology isn't fully developed. They need a partnership. And we're the one partnership at the Federal level that can help lift their technology and bring it forward. I'm proud of them.

And, sir, I oppose your amendment. I think it's a well-intentioned amendment. But you know what?

It doesn't lead us forward, and it really doesn't help those inventors and those companies around this country who are leading us into the future.

I ask the membership to oppose the gentleman's amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time

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