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[PDF Download of Speech]
NASULGC Meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
and Chairman Bart Gordon
C. D. Mote, Jr.
President, University of Maryland
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 11-1:15 PM
Capitol Room
Thank you. Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Gordon, presidents from the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the American Association of Universities (AAU), the Science Coalition, and other distinguished guests.
On behalf of our universities across our land it is my privilege to thank Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman Bart Gordon for your determined support of science education and scientific research. Support for scientific research and education are critical to our economic recovery and our future as a nation. Speaker Pelosi's three highest priorities have been science, science and science. She shares our vision that national investments in science will create the next generation of high paying jobs, inspire innovation and enable the advances that improve quality of life. Innovation will come from highly-educated people who will discover and apply new knowledge to our critical problems. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act supports the scientific research and education needed to contribute maximally to growing the economy. Thank you, Speaker Pelosi, for your unwavering commitment to science education, scientific research, and the application of science. Chairman Gordon, thank you, for your tireless leadership on the House Science Committee and for your vision of what science can achieve. Your upfront sponsorship of the Rising Above the Gathering Storm committee places you first in line at the front door to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Gordon have lobbied for science funding for years. The 2007 report Rising Above the Gathering Storm by the National Academies Press laid out the direction that was fulfilled by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The report called for advancing math and science K-12 education, doubling the NSF research support budget, support for research infrastructure, recruitment of the best and brightest to science, and support for industrial R&D through tax credits. It also identified Energy as the ubiquitous need for our country, proposed ARPA-E that was just funded and supported DOE Science. The allocations to research and science education in the stimulus package are answering the call that so many of us have been working for.
University contributions will be transformed by these research opportunities. To give one example, the University of Maryland is working with NASA and NOAA to create a national service center to monitor climate trends and to make climate impact predictions. Maryland Professor Antonio Busalacchi testified yesterday at the House Appropriations Committee's Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee on predicting climate change impacts over periods from months to years.
Our nation will recover from this recession by putting people back to work in high-quality, well-paying jobs. Many will go back to work in jobs that currently do not exist, and in companies that do not exist today. It is the highly-educated, scientifically and technically prepared people graduating from our universities who will create those jobs and those companies, positioning our nation for a brighter future.
Thank you, Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Gordon for this watershed moment for science and engineering in our country.
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