Date: 2014-04-08
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. as the ranking member of the Committee on Science. Space. and Technology. I feel compelled to talk to you today about the disastrous effects the Ryan budget would have on our countrys research and development enterprise and. consequently. the disastrous effect this budget would have on Americas future competitiveness. As others have pointed out. the Republican budget cuts nondefense discretionary spending by $1.3 trillion below the baseline 2014 spending level. adjusted for inflation. These are massive cuts on top of a budget that has already had large reductions in recent years. The effects on research and development would be dramatic. The American Association for the Advancement of Science estimates that the Ryan budget would cut civilian research and development by $92 billion from the current baseline and $112 billion below the Presidents budget request. These are striking reductions. Please keep in mind that the National Science Foundations total annual budget is just over $7 billion. The Republican budget cuts more research and development funding every year than the entire annual budget of the National Science Foundation. This is insanity. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have truly divorced themselves from reality if they think these cuts to research and development wont cripple our country for decades to come. Lets talk about what the Republicans want to cut. It is estimated that technological innovation has led to the majority of Americas economic growth since World War II. Much of this innovation has been funded by the Federal Government. Think back to the first grants that NASA gave Robert Noyces upstart company in the 1960s. Of course. he went on to be the founder of Intel. the largest computer chip maker in the world. Or think of the NSF research grant that led to the creation of Google. The very Internet itself was initially funded as a research project by the Department of Defense and rolled out by the National Science Foundation. You can look at virtually every aspect of our hightech industry and the economy and find a connection to Federal research and development funding. To make dramatic and drastic cuts to R&D funding in the name of deficit reduction is truly shortsighted. My friend and former CEO of Lockheed Martin. Norm Augustine. frequently gives the following analogy. When an airplane is overloaded and too heavy to fly. you dont cut weight by chopping off the engines. I think that is a great analogy. because that is exactly what this budget does. It cuts off the engine of American innovation. It would be bad enough if these deep cuts only affected research and development. but the Ryan budget will also painfully cut education funding. Indexed for inflation. that budget would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from precollege and college education programs. Lets put these education cuts in context. In the last international student assessment. U.S. students ranked 26th in mathematics and 21st in science. We are falling behind our economic competitors in STEM education. The Republican solution to this problem is to throw in the towel. These educational cuts sell our children out. plain and simple. Taken together. the cuts to research and education in this Ryan budget paint a dark picture of Americas future. It is a picture where America no longer leads the world in innovation. It is a picture where our children are not prepared for the rigors of a competitive 21st century global marketplace. It is a picture of America in decline. I reject this future. I call upon my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject the Ryan Republican budget that sells America short and. instead. show support for robust education and research funding and a strong American future.