Congress Must Support Problem-Solvers of Tomorrow

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, recently, I visited Warrenton High School in a small coastal community in my district in beautiful northwest Oregon.

I met with students who were working on an underwater robotics team. These talented students are running simulation experiments in a pool in preparation for the Marine Advanced Technology Education competition.

This year, students were asked to maneuver their underwater robots to retrieve items like algae and sea urchins from the ocean floor. This hands-on learning fosters collaboration and creativity in students and helps them see the connections between what is in their textbook and how it translates to practical work that can make a difference for our planet.

Perhaps more importantly, this kind of activity builds problem-solving skills and shows students that trial and error is a natural part of growth and discovery and learning.

After visiting the underwater robotics team, I joined students at their school's fish hatchery, where they raise salmon for release into local waterways. This program provides opportunities for students to develop skills in biology, water chemistry, engineering, and natural resources management and contributes to our ability to sustain an economically and culturally important fishery; importantly, it also gives them valuable skills and leadership in management.

In the United States, we face a growing shortage of innovative workers, people who are prepared to tackle the challenges of the future. This is an especially serious problem because we absolutely must grapple with one of the greatest environmental threats this Nation has faced, climate change.

Today, too many students, particularly young women and minorities, lack access and opportunities to engage in this hands-on kind of STEM learning occurring at Warrenton High School. Here in Congress, we must be doing more to foster and support students who have become the problem-solvers of tomorrow. Doing so makes economic sense and environmental sense.

We need smart, passionate students to help understand environmental challenges and changes, to develop the technology to address our growing impact on our planet, and to find more sustainable practices.

Oregon is home to some excellent research universities. The University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and Oregon Health & Science University are all working on a wide range of research and development programs to help combat and adapt to climate change.

These universities are conducting the basic science we need to understand and anticipate changes and trends, as well as the applied science to help use existing information to develop practical tools and technologies to meet the challenges presented by climate change.

They model changes caused by sea level rise; they help shellfish hatcheries adapt to ocean acidification, or they develop new types of biofuel. This is exciting, important research; and we need smart, passionate young people to take up this mantle.

June is National Oceans Month. This month, we recognize the value of our oceans, lakes, and coastline, and we recommit to protecting these bodies of water.

I would also like to recommit to developing and investing in technologies to help stop and begin to repair the damage we have done to our oceans, our coasts, and our ecosystems. Improved and innovative technology development in areas such as renewable energy and water conservation have the power to make a real difference for our planet and for current and future generations, but we can't do it without people like smart, skilled students who will become the workers in the workforce of tomorrow.

Those students in Warrenton, Oregon, and others like them are our future leaders and problem-solvers. Let's help do all we can to make sure that they have the tools and the resources they need today as students and tomorrow as scientists, engineers, and innovators who can meet the complex challenges ahead and turn them into productive opportunities that will better their communities, their States, our country, and the world.

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