New Democrat Coalition Members Respond to Vote on House Science Committee R&D Bill
The New Democrat Coalition’s leaders on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee issued the following statement in anticipation of the full committee markup of the FIRST Act, a bill to reauthorize federally-supported research and development programs:
“When America’s leading academics, researchers and engineers called for the United States to double its commitment to research and development over the next seven years in the Rising Above the Gathering Storm report, we took that call seriously,” the statement read. “Our international competitors are not standing still; they are pouring resources into the cutting-edge technologies that will drive global economic growth in the decades to come.
Unfortunately, the FIRST Act, as written, fails to invest adequately in this key national priority and unfairly politicizes scientific research. If the funding levels under this bill became law, R&D would barely keep pace with inflation. We offered several reasonable New Dem amendments to improve the bill while operating under current fiscal constraints. We cannot support the bill as it is written, but we are committed as New Dems to work with our colleagues to improve the FIRST Act in a bipartisan fashion to truly invest in R&D before the bill reaches the floor.
Government has a legitimate role to play by investing in the long-range technological development efforts that the private sector cannot or will not. That is why we are pleased to see that the funding level for the National Science Foundation in the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Act far exceeds the level in the FIRST Act. We firmly believe that the reauthorization of key federal research and development is a critical opportunity to reaffirm the principle of investment in scientific advancement, and we look forward to completing that work in a bipartisan manner.”
The above statement was supported by the four New Democrat Coalition Members on the Science, Space and Technology Committee – Reps. Derek Kilmer, Scott Peters, Ami Bera, and Elizabeth Esty.
The New Democrat Coalition released principles for the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act – the alternative to the FIRST Act – in November of 2013.
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