This is actually my first speech as chairman of the House Science Committee, so I want to use this opportunity to give you a general sense of where I hope to take the Committee. Actually, though, after serving on the Committee for 18 years and having worked with many of you, the issues before the Science Committee are hardly virgin territory for me. I even think I know the recipe for becoming a popular chairman. My formula was prompted by Clark Kerr's famous advice on how to become a popular university president. I do indeed intend to provide those three items, but I want to go beyond that.
Education is perhaps the most pressing dilemma of the three.
There is the predominance of foreign students in our graduate programs. There is our continual need to increase the number of H-1B visas to meet our employment needs. There is the underrepresentation of women and minorities in science and mathematics. And the list goes on and on. The evidence is easy to adduce because it's been familiar for so long.