Federally Funded Research and Development Sunshine Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1637, the Federally Funded Research and Development Sunshine Act of 2015.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to represent 700,000 north and east Texans. They have sent me here to Washington to pull the curtain back and shine a light into this Federal bureaucracy.

Mr. Speaker, we all know that Federal agencies can be inefficient, ineffective, and resistant to oversight. They don't like to be held accountable, not by the American people or by individuals like me who are elected to represent those folks here in Congress.

As a committed conservative who is fighting to secure the American homeland, I believe that increased transparency is a national security issue, and because of that, every taxpayer dollar that we spend must be scrutinized.

We have to evaluate the government's programs and activities to see if they are worthwhile and to craft reforms that eliminate waste and bolster our national defense. A sluggish national security apparatus simply won't suffice. The American people deserve more.

Congress can't even begin to conduct effective oversight and cut waste, fraud, and abuse if we don't know what is going on behind closed doors. That is why I introduced H.R. 1637. This bill will increase transparency at the Department of Homeland Security by directing the Secretary to give Congress a detailed account each year of the ongoing and completed projects that federally funded research and development centers, or FFRDCs, within the Department of Homeland Security have been assigned.

FFRDCs conduct specialized research and development for the Federal Government. The two FFRDCs within the Department of Homeland Security provide independent analysis of homeland security issues. Currently, the Homeland Security Committee is expected to oversee these FFRDCs; yet the committee doesn't even receive an account of the status of ongoing or completed projects. It is hard to be a vigilant steward of hard-earned taxpayer dollars when you have a blindfold on.

My legislation will enable the committee to have visibility into the scope of FFRDC projects that the DHS has tasked them to meet their mission needs. This detailed accounting will allow committee members to have insight into current research and development projects and be able to further scrutinize them, thereby increasing oversight and transparency of the entire Science and Technology Directorate operation at DHS.

Mr. Speaker, it is important that Congress is aware of the Department of Homeland Security's research and development efforts and funding priorities to ensure that it is meeting the mission needs of its components, and this bill today will shed light on those activities.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense bill. I think that we all agree that we can support increased transparency and a stronger, more secure homeland.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source