The text of the statement as read before the Senate Committee follows. Economic analyses show that since the end of World War II, technology has accounted for more than half of all economic growth in the U.S. Today, increased productivity, driven by technological innovation, receives much of the credit for sustaining the current expansion, which is characterized by low inflation and low unemployment. Federal investments in research increase economic growth and keep the nation on the balanced budget path. Federal investment in research sustains technological innovation. Almost 75 percent of the citations listed in U.S. industrial patent applications reference publicly supported research.
Science is the underpinning of technological progress.
Indeed, basic research, according to economists such as Stanford's Michael Boskin and the late Edwin Madsfield of the University of Pennsylvania, provide extraordinary social returns on the federal investment. Tomorrow's technology is based upon today's research. Although some efficiencies in research have shortened the time to market, many time horizons still run one, two or more decades from research proposal to marketable product. Much of the extraordinary technological growth we have witnessed during the last ten years is based upon research ideas first explored 20 or 30 years ago. The federal investment in research has been declining by most relevant measures.