Concurrent Resolution on the Budget, Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, the amendment that I have just called up
that is pending before the Senate deals with what I think is a critical
issue for this country; that is, making sure we can continue to move
forward with innovation to grow the economy.

There certainly are many debates that are going to be held as to how
we get the productivity in this country to increase, how we create more
middle-class jobs and grow the economy from the top to the bottom. But
I think there is broad consensus that what has really driven our
economy--really through the centuries but certainly most recently in
the United States--has been innovation. It is about innovation,
creating the next big thing, the big products that transform people's
lives. In order to do that, companies that come up with these ideas
need to have patent protection so that the effort they put into that
product, the money they put into that product, they are able to protect
as they market that product and get a return on their investments.
Unfortunately, however, the backlog of patent applications at the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office has become completely unacceptable.

The America Invents Act made a number of very important changes to
our patent system that targeted the reducing of the backlog and driving
innovation. At the time that act was passed, there were more than
700,000 patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Those applications had an average review time of 3 years or longer
before the applications were granted patent protection. Three years is
simply an unacceptable amount of time to wait as these inventors who
are trying to get their patent protections--they have to wait several
years before they can bring those products to the market and have the
protections of patents.

What makes it even more unacceptable is that these folks who are
applying for these patents pay a user fee. They pay a fee in order to
have this work done. Yet, with sequestration and other types of budget
maneuvering, the patent office actually cannot fully utilize the fees
that are generated by the people who are paying these fees. So, in a
sense, this is an innovation tax. People who are innovating pay a tax
while they are innovating, when what we should be doing is accelerating
their ability to bring these products to market, create jobs, and
advance the economy.

The backlog now, after the passage of the act, still stands at
600,000, with an average review time of 2.3 years. So we have made some
progress, but we still have a long way to go.

So in order to reduce the patent application backlog, the U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office needs the ability to access all of the fees it
receives in order to hire additional examiners and administrative
patent judges. That is what this amendment before us does--it gives the
patent office the resources it needs in order to do its job
effectively. The end result is a stronger American economy. I urge my
colleagues to adopt this amendment.

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, this amendment is similar to the previous
amendment in that it focuses on innovation. It focuses on what this
country does best, which is create new products and advance the
knowledge with scientific discoveries and new inventions.

This amendment, however, deals specifically with scientific discovery
and technological breakthroughs that drive our economy. We have known
throughout human history that the drivers of that have been the big
breakthroughs, whether it is the cotton gin or the internal combustion
engine or the railroads. These have been inventions that have
transformed the entire planet.

We need to continue to have those innovations, but in order to do
that, we need to invest in basic scientific research. Investments in
basic research have resulted in countless innovations that improve our
day-to-day lives and support the Nation's overall productivity and
competitiveness.

The Federal Government has long played a crucial role. This has
always been, in the past, a very bipartisan issue, that the Federal
Government invest in this basic, cutting-edge research and development.
However, we have seen a very I think disturbing trend over the last few
decades as R spending has fallen. The amount of money which the
Federal Government puts into basic scientific research now is less than
1 percent of GDP. This is simply unacceptable. We have to look at basic
scientific research as the seed corn for our economy. We need to invest
in seed corn so we can harvest the rewards of that investment.

This amendment would strengthen Congress's ongoing commitment to
responsibly increasing investments in science, technology, and basic
research and help ensure U.S. science and technology leadership in an
increasingly competitive world.

I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this amendment to show our
commitment to investing in basic scientific research so we can continue
to make the U.S. economy the strongest in the world.

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, this amendment deals with another critical
aspect of growing our economy. Certainly innovation and basic
scientific research are the real drivers of long-term economic growth,
but another very important aspect of that is international trade. The
United States has the best workers in the world. We have the best
entrepreneurs. We have the best innovators. We need to be in a position
that we can continue to promote trade across the world.

So I rise to offer an amendment that will support trade and travel
through our U.S. ports of entry. As we all know, trade and travel drive
economic development. In fact, they generate over $2 trillion in
economic impact and support nearly 15 million jobs nationwide. However,
it is unfortunate to say that many our busiest ports of entry are in
need of modernization in order to safely and efficiently process
travelers and goods.

I speak about this with firsthand experience. In Michigan, our
manufacturers and agricultural producers rely on efficient trade with
Canada, which is our Nation's largest export market, our top customer,
as well as our closest ally. However, existing infrastructure at our
ports of entry often does not allow for the most efficient processing
of trucks and cargo. We have two major crossings in Detroit--in
Windsor, Canada, as well as Port Huron in Sarnia. Both of those trade
areas need additional investment in their customs plazas to efficiently
handle the trade between our two countries.

Those investments are important investments in the future of this
country and important in order to make sure we continue to expand trade
and economic activity. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to support
this amendment.

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