Congressional Record, May 19, 2021 — Senate
Summary
Congressional Record, Senate, pages S2752 and S2753, May 19, 2021. Remarks before the vote criticize federal spending, warn that inflation is rising, and cite Larry Summers calling a spending bill the least responsible in four decades. The Senate then passes a joint resolution disapproving the rule submitted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission relating to ‘‘Update of Commission’s Conciliation Procedures,’’ by yeas 50 to nays 48 on Rollcall Vote No. 195. As the Senate resumes the Endless Frontier Act, Cantwell calls up amendment No. 1527, which would strike ‘3’ and insert ‘4’ on page 304, line 18, and says the Commerce Committee passed the bill last week, 24 to 4.
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“Congressional Record, May 19, 2021 — Senate.”
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S2752 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 19, 2021
cannot print your way to prosperity. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- Thune Toomey Wicker
Tillis Tuberville Young
The money has to come from some- pore. Is there objection?
where. Without objection, it is so ordered. NOT VOTING—2
History shows that this is a strategy Mr. BARRASSO. Thank you, Mr. Murkowski Rubio
that eventually backfires. Nations try President. The resolution (S.J. Res. 13) was
to print free money, and they end up President Biden should remember passed as follows:
poorer than ever. Get-rich schemes that by 1980, the American people had S.J. RES. 13
don’t work, never have, and they aren’t had enough. We changed course. We
going to this time either. Inflation is Resolved by the Senate and House of Rep-
thought it was enough of Jimmy Car- resentatives of the United States of America in
going up every single month since the ter, and we elected Ronald Reagan Congress assembled, That Congress dis-
election. President. approves the rule submitted by the Equal
Now, the White House experts tell us It is time to change course again. Employment Opportunity Commission relat-
not to worry. These are the same ex- Let’s create more American energy. ing to ‘‘Update of Commission’s Conciliation
perts that predicted there would be 1 Let’s set down the taxpayer’s credit Procedures’’ (86 Fed. Reg. 2974; published
million new jobs and people working card. Put it away. Cut up the credit January 14, 2021), and such rule shall have no
last month and that the unemployment card. Stop the reckless spending. force or effect.
rate would drop. But much of the $2 American families have been paying (Mr. HICKENLOOPER assumed the
trillion that President Biden signed the price. The people in the middle are Chair.)
into law hasn’t even gone out the door being squeezed. The American people f
yet, and the President is asking for expect and deserve better.
trillions and trillions more. ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT—Resumed
Thank you.
The House of Representatives, the Thereupon, the Senate resumed con-
other night, put out a proposal related I yield the floor.
sideration of the bill (S. 1260) to estab-
to the infrastructure bill, one that I VOTE ON S.J. RES. 13
lish a new Directorate for Technology
am trying to work with the adminis- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- and Innovation in the National Science
tration on. They are requesting $7.1 pore. All time has expired. Foundation, to establish a regional
trillion, an astonishingly high amount The clerk will read the title of the technology hub program, to require a
of money. If the President gets his way joint resolution for the third time. strategy and report on economic secu-
and we keep spending like this at the The joint resolution was ordered to rity, science, research, innovation,
request from the House, inflation is be engrossed for a third reading and manufacturing, and job creation, to es-
only beginning. was read the third time. tablish a critical supply chain resil-
You don’t have to take my word for The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- iency program, and for other purposes.
it. Listen to the liberal economist pore. The resolution having been read Pending:
Larry Summers. He was in the Clinton the third time, the question is, Shall Schumer amendment No. 1502, in the na-
administration as well as the Obama the joint resolution pass? ture of a substitute.
administration. He was Clinton’s Sec- Mr. PADILLA. I ask for the yeas and
retary of the Treasury and played an The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr.
nays.
economic role in the Obama adminis- BOOKER). The Senator from Wash-
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
tration. ington.
pore. Is there a sufficient second?
He warned against President Biden’s AMENDMENT NO. 1527
There appears to be a sufficient sec-
spending spree. He called that $2 tril- ond. Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I
lion slush fund the least responsible The clerk will call the roll. call up amendment No. 1527.
spending bill he has seen in four dec- The legislative clerk called the roll. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
ades—the least responsible spending Mr. THUNE. The following Senators clerk will report the amendment.
bill in four decades. That is before all are necessarily absent: the Senator The senior assistant legislative clerk
this additional spending may be com- from Alaska (Ms. MURKOWSKI) and the read as follows:
ing. Senator from Florida (Mr. RUBIO). The Senator from Washington [Ms. CANT-
Well, this is what he said after The result was announced—yeas 50, WELL] proposes an amendment numbered 1527
April’s inflation numbers came out. He nays 48, as follows:
to amendment No. 1502.
said: The amendment is as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 195 Leg.]
I was . . . worried . . . about inflation . . . AMENDMENT NO. 1527
[yet] it’s . . . moved much faster, much soon- YEAS—50
(Purpose: To improve the bill)
er than [even] I . . . predicted. Baldwin Hickenlooper Reed
Bennet Hirono Rosen On page 304, line 18, strike ‘‘3’’ and insert
That is Larry Summers—Clinton ad- Blumenthal Kaine ‘‘4’’.
Sanders
ministration and Obama administra- Booker Kelly Schatz
tion—commenting on the Biden poli- Brown King
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, we
Schumer
cies. Cantwell Klobuchar Shaheen
come to the floor today after a lot of
People who save money their whole Cardin Leahy Sinema hard work by the Commerce Com-
Carper Luján Smith mittee to pass out the Endless Frontier
lives for retirement are now watching Casey Manchin
Stabenow bill last week—24 to 4. I know my col-
their hard-earned savings go down with Coons Markey
Tester
a stroke of Joe Biden’s pen. Their buy- Cortez Masto Menendez leagues from the committee will be out
Duckworth Van Hollen
Merkley here to speak on this important legis-
ing ability is shrinking. People who did Durbin Murphy Warner
the right thing, who worked hard, and Feinstein Murray Warnock lation, as will the majority leader, Sen-
saved their money are now being pun- Gillibrand Ossoff Warren ator SCHUMER, who authored this im-
Hassan Padilla Whitehouse portant legislation, and our colleague
ished by Biden policies. Wyden
Heinrich Peters from Indiana, Senator YOUNG. We
Under President Biden, we are seeing
more government, more taxes, more NAYS—48 thank them for kick-starting what is a
spending, and, as a result, the Amer- Barrasso Ernst McConnell very important national discussion
ican people are suffering. They are see- Blackburn Fischer Moran about how much we should be investing
Blunt Graham Paul in research and development or what I
ing flat wages, higher prices, and dis- Boozman Grassley Portman
appointing job creation. We see gas Braun Hagerty Risch
would say is American ingenuity or, to
lines. We see people hoarding gasoline. Burr Hawley Romney put it a little more simply, I just say
It sounds like it was in the 1970s. And Capito Hoeven Rounds American know-how, because we are a
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Cassidy Hyde-Smith
President Biden should remember Collins Inhofe
Sasse nation of people who know how to in-
Scott (FL) novate, who know how to use science
those times because he was still a Cornyn Johnson
Scott (SC)
Member of the Senate back then. Cotton Kennedy
Shelby
to transform our economy, and we have
Mr. President, I ask unanimous con- Cramer Lankford done it over and over and over again.
Crapo Lee Sullivan
sent to continue and finish my remarks Cruz Lummis I don’t know. Maybe it came with, in
with an additional 60 seconds. Daines Marshall getting in a boat and coming all the
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May 19, 2021 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S2753
way across the ocean, you had to be an and development. All of that has con- its lowest point in 60 years as a per-
adventurer to begin with. If you had to tinued to make us the world leader in centage of the GDP. I can’t say that we
settle the frontier, you had to be inno- science and technology innovation. It are going to discover the next internet,
vative in your own right. If you had to also helps us create job growth here at but I can say that, if we continue to
continue to expand our country, you home. underinvest in this, we will be short-
had to have a great ability to take The question before us today is, How changing generations of innovation.
risks in order to calculate and move much research and development should There is no doubt that key invest-
forward. our government be doing given how im- ments in research and development in
Yet, somehow, in the United States portant the practical sciences and engi- other parts of the world are certainly
of America, we are blessed with inge- neering are to the next generation of getting attention. Since 2000, research
nuity in our DNA. We as a nation are a Americans? and development in China has grown
nation that has figured out that if we We are here to discuss this proposal by 1,600 percent; in Taiwan and Korea
continue to partner together with by Senators SCHUMER and YOUNG, who, by 400 percent; while, in the United
those great, creative minds, that the as I said, have been working on this States, just by 150 percent. That is in a
investment by both the public sector concept for years because, no doubt, we 20-year window of looking at this issue.
and the private sector and through our have fallen off the pace—that is to say, Americans believe that competition
universities and now our community the pace of scientific research invest- is good, and we believe that competi-
colleges and now research centers— ment at least as a percentage of the tion helps to drive innovation. So you
that we can grow our economy, com- GDP. won’t find me as one on the floor who
pete on an international level, and pro- Even though President Bush, in his is obsessed about other nations as
tect opportunity for future Americans. second term, tried to signal the impor- much as giving a perspective here
So it has been many eras of innova- tance of this investment, he issued a about what the world market oppor-
tion. When I think about it, I think tunity represents. If we are not making
report basically calling the American
about Thomas Edison and the light the investments here in science and
Competitiveness Initiative the leading
bulb, I obviously think about Henry technology and innovation, not only
world innovation agenda. That was in
Ford and automobiles, and in my part are we missing opportunities in our
February of 2006.
of the world, we think about Bill Boe- own country, we are missing opportu-
In fact, at that time, President Bush
ing and aviation. Innovation is so nities around the globe. The rest of the
said:
Nation, in an information age, is not
much part of our DNA that I don’t [T]he role of government is not to create
going to sit by idly, so we have to
think we sometimes absorb the littler wealth; the role of our government is to cre-
ate an environment in which the entre- think about how we move ahead on
things that we might not know about.
People probably don’t know about preneur can flourish, in which minds can ex- critical technology that helps us in all
Nathan Stone Stubblefield, a Kentucky pand, in which technologies can reach new sectors of our economy—how it helps
inventor who in 1902 demonstrated the frontiers. us with supply chains and, certainly,
George Bush had it right. He knew how it helps us with national security.
first wireless transmission of commu-
that this competitiveness issue was What we are talking about here, with
nication using magnets. I know we
starting to challenge us from a com- this bill proposed by our colleague
have a big wireless industry today, but Leader SCHUMER and Senator YOUNG, is
people probably don’t know that, in petitive perspective, and he knew that
we needed to make a bigger invest- more than a doubling of NSF’s budget
1902, a Kentucky inventor basically in 5 years; it is the start of trying to
helped to turn the page on a new gen- ment.
Unfortunately, with the two at- catch up. It is also a $17 billion invest-
eration of technology. People probably ment in energy innovation—a key sec-
don’t know that a Louisiana professor, tempts that we had—the America
COMPETES Act in 2007 and the Amer- tor of our economy in which we need to
J. Lawrence Smith, in 1850, invented make continued transformation. That
the microscope. Think about how much ica COMPETES Act in 2010—it really
represents a 28-percent increase in
that led to the important discussions was a goal by us to basically double the
some of the projects from the Office of
of science and healthcare for us as a NSF budget within a 7-year window.
Science and things like ARPA-E that
nation. People probably don’t know While we started out in the right direc-
could see investment.
that, in Indiana, a State police officer tion, we had a huge economic down- What we are also investing in, which
invented the breathalyzer test, a gen- turn, and these goals were not met. If our colleagues were very adamant
tleman named Robert Borkenstein, we had kept our promises to these about and very convincing, is a new
who basically just said, ‘‘We don’t science agencies, we would have in- tech directorate—that is to say that
know what is happening here,’’ and he vested $80 billion more in innovation our research is very good with basic
introduced and created the investments over the last 14 years than and very good with applied but that we
breathalyzer test. we have done today. actually have to get better with the
That is what America is. America is The challenge that we face now is user implementation of our science and
the spirit of know-how and getting that, after decades of not living up to spur more innovation in a more rapid
things done. what had been outlined for America fashion. So we are investing, between
In fact, a report read: COMPETES, we now know that it is an this new tech directorate and tech
Americans prioritize being a world leader environment in which we are facing hubs, nearly $39 billion to help stimu-
in scientific achievements more than other much more aggressive competition. We late the faster translation of our ad-
global [communities]. have to think about the lack of invest- vancements into real innovation. This
That is from the Pew Research Cen- ment that we did not realize in the is something the committee thought
ter report by Cary Funk and several context of how long it takes to do tech- long and hard about, and we took testi-
other authors last September. nology breakthroughs. mony from experts who have worked
The report goes on to read: Look at just one example, the inter- on innovation issues for many years.
[S]even in ten Americans believe it is very net as we know it today. Literally, in In this bill, we also increase the pro-
important for the United States to be a lead- the 1960s, the ARPANET was first tection of intellectual property from
er in scientific achievements. talked about. It took us to the 1990s to our universities.
Clearly, what makes us different really, with the University of Illinois We are helping our universities do
than other nations is that we are will- and Marc Andreessen, to affect what better tech transfer but also protect
ing to put significant American tax we would later know as hypertext links their intellectual property. In an infor-
dollars on the table to ensure that the and a browser. Today, what it means to mation age, when so much is published
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national investment, the research in us is more than $2 trillion annually to online, if other nations, hungry for de-
science, and the development of our our economy. velopment, can read our research and
ecosystem take place. That investment When you think about the invest- act an effect on it because we haven’t
is matched with a good education sys- ments we are asking our colleagues to patented it, then we need to do a better
tem, capital formation, and, as I said, make today, we have to consider that, job of patenting our innovations and
private sector investments in research in fact, Federal dollars for R&D is near helping our universities.
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S2754 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 19, 2021
Our universities are unbelievable re- to do best—that is, use that ingenuity tion and dramatically increasing R&D
search institutions, and helping them to help create a better future. at a new National Science Foundation
spend more time on tech transfer is I will see if my colleagues want to directorate. Other Agencies in the Fed-
something that we have done in the speak, but we will be coming back to eral Government will also see dramatic
Pacific Northwest. A new program ush- expand on many other layers of this increases in the important research
ered in there literally led to 20 startups legislation. We will be back to talk that they perform.
from research that had been done but about semiconductors. We will be back The Endless Frontier Act, as re-
just hadn’t been translated into new to talk about the new tech directorate. ported by the Commerce Committee, is
areas. We will be back to talk about NASA a major part of this comprehensive leg-
We also are trying to help get more funding. We will be back. islative effort. Other committees have
regional diversity to our research and And that reminds me. If anybody at also been important partners in this
investment dollars. There are about 25 home is saying, ‘‘Well, you know, OK, legislation. In particular, I congratu-
States in our Nation that previously that was interesting; I don’t really late Chairman MENENDEZ and Ranking
qualified for a program that says they know about this; what is American in- Member RISCH of the Foreign Relations
should get a share of research dollars. novation?’’ just go and Google two Committee for producing the Strategic
This legislation says all the money things. You can either look at SpaceX Competition Act, which was reported
being spent here, 20 percent of it should rocket return, which they did in 2015, out of their committee on a 21-to-1
go to that, what is called EPSCoR ef- or Blue Origin. In both of those—the vote.
forts, which is expanding research and New Shepherd and the Falcon, two dif- I also commend Homeland Security
development into those States. ferent approaches—there are literally and Governmental Affairs Chairman
And for the first time, we will have engineers who said: If we are going to PETERS and Ranking Member
over at NSF an office of diversity—an go to space, if we are going to go to the PORTMAN; Banking Committee Chair-
office to focus on the lack of women Moon, if we are going back to the Moon man BROWN and Ranking Member
and minorities in science and to make and go to Mars, we need to figure out TOOMEY; Health, Education, Labor, and
real progress on this issue. how to have returnable rockets. Pensions Committee Chair MURRAY
People see the chart behind me, and, Just go Google those two clips, and and Ranking Member BURR; and Judi-
yes, it is no mistake, the picture we you will see alive and well the spirit of ciary Chair DURBIN and Ranking Mem-
picked. American ingenuity when those engi- ber GRASSLEY for their important con-
The point here is that we know from neers see that rocket returning from tributions to the substitute product.
NSF’s own research that we can’t be outer space and reland because they
I will focus my remarks on the Com-
passive about this. Literally, the Uni- have pulled off an incredible achieve-
merce Committee’s contributions to
versity of Washington got an NSF ment. You will see jubilant joy and ex-
the Endless Frontier Act. Last week,
grant that helped them study why we citement over that accomplishment.
the Commerce Committee held a mark-
are not making more progress with I guarantee you, we will not see ev-
up to consider this legislation. We con-
women and minorities in science and erything that this bill will unleash, but
sidered hundreds of amendments and
innovation, and they came back with: I guarantee you it will unleash things
adopted over 100 of them into the re-
It can’t be passive. You can’t just put that will deliver that kind of excite-
ported bill, including over 20 bipar-
dollars on the table for STEM. You ment for Americans in the future, and
tisan, separately introduced bills. The
can’t just put a few programs in place. we will have to be very thankful that
markup at times was challenging, but
It has to be an active approach to this Congress set the record straight on
in the end the bill passed the com-
changing many aspects to the way we the level of investment we need to
mittee on a bipartisan 24-to-4 vote.
educate in science. achieve to keep us competitive.
I am very proud of the University of Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, the 21st The Endless Frontier Act will en-
Washington on this point because they century will be shaped by the outcome hance U.S. science and technology
made changes, and now of those who of the strategic competition between leadership through key investments in
are teaching in what are considered the United States and China. Like our R&D, regional economic development,
STEM sciences at the University of Nation’s previous contest with the So- and manufacturing.
Washington, 70 percent of them are viet Union, the outcome of this great The bill will accomplish these goals
women or people of color. So we have contest will help determine the world in the following ways: First, it will pre-
changed what the face of teaching that our children and our grand- serve the core basic research mission of
science looks like at the University of children live in. the National Science Foundation. The
Washington, and now we have to There are only two real possibilities: NSF is the world’s gold standard for
change some of the criteria and cur- Either the United States will remain funding basic research, a sector that
riculum so that we can continue to at- the preeminent global superpower or fuels new waves of innovation across
tract more people. This bill is a very we will be replaced by China. This our society. Basic research answers the
good step in that direction. truth is recognized on both sides of the fundamental questions of scientific in-
So what are we trying to achieve? We aisle in this body. The contest between quiry needed to develop major innova-
are trying to achieve what NSF Direc- our two countries will involve every as- tions. The internet, GPS, cell phones,
tor Panchanathan is saying. He is say- pect of national life—including mili- and many other breakthrough tech-
ing that we need, in this next decade tary might, diplomatic skill, economic nologies have their origins in National
and in decades to come, innovation ev- strength, and the deepest values that Science Foundation-funded research.
erywhere, tied to opportunity every- shape our societies. The Endless Frontier Act will author-
where, tied to our universities. That is The scope and complexity of this ize funding increases in NSF’s core
what we are trying to do in advancing challenge calls for bold action, and science portfolio to support the most
this legislation. that is what the Endless Frontier Act promising research proposals. That is
We processed over 100 amendments in is about. This week the Senate has an the first thing.
committee and a broad range of input opportunity to come together on a bi- Secondly, this bill will establish a
from our colleagues. We will, I am sure, partisan basis and move forward on new Directorate of Technology and In-
here in regular order process many legislation, now known as the United novation at the NSF to drive faster in-
more, but, hopefully, these amend- States Innovation and Competition novation in key technology focus
ments and more of the substance of Act. This will make our Nation more areas, such as artificial intelligence, or
this underlying bill we will go into in economically competitive, improve AI, and robotics. We included strong
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detail. We have to remember what our protections for U.S. intellectual prop- coordination measures to ensure that
goals are with this investment—to stay erty and research, and keep us a step programs at the new Technology Direc-
competitive, to create future jobs, to ahead of China in this area of high- torate do not duplicate R&D programs
help our economy by unleashing inno- stakes competition. of other Federal Agencies, such as the
vation, to protect our national secu- This bill does so by increasing re- Department of Energy. These provi-
rity, and do what Americans know how search at the National Science Founda- sions are designed to ensure the wise
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May 19, 2021 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE CORRECTION S2755
expenditure of taxpayer dollars by pre- cations Supply Chain Diversity Pro- Without objection, it is so ordered.
venting bureaucratic turf wars, which motion Act—significant legislation and Ms. CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr.
can slow down innovation. a mouthful, too. President.
Third, this legislation will protect in- Overall, this is a strong bill, but it I yield the floor.
tellectual property and research from can be made better. As I mentioned at
foreign governments—most notably, the Commerce Committee’s markup
f
China. The Endless Frontier Act will last week, although the bill reported
establish a research security office at out of the committee makes important
the NSF and create a clearinghouse to changes to the underlying bill, I regret ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT
share information about security risks. the rushed process that was followed. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen-
It also puts forward policies to protect The underlying bill was introduced ator from Iowa.
controlled information, including a on April 20, just under a month ago.
WORKER SHORTAGE
plan for background checks on re- Only yesterday, Senate Majority Lead-
searchers. er SCHUMER laid down a 1,400-page sub- Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I
In addition, it will take critical steps stitute that not only includes the End- want to give short remarks on three
to guard against Chinese intellectual less Frontier Act, but major legislation different subjects. Probably, for people
property theft by prohibiting NSF from the Foreign Relations, Homeland wanting to speak, it will take me about
funds from going to researchers who Security, Banking, HELP, and Judici- 10 or 12 minutes.
are part of a Chinese talent program or ary Committees. Now known as the Thanks to Operation Warp Speed, ef-
an institution with formal ties to a U.S. Innovation and Competition Act— fective vaccines are available on de-
Confucius Institute. This is a new and USICA, I suppose—this legislation will mand to anyone who wants to take the
important step. make significant changes to our inno- shot. That means individuals and busi-
Fourth, this bill will reduce the geo- vation ecosystem and the missions of nesses are beginning to return to a de-
graphic concentration of R&D in a our Federal Agencies. gree of normalcy we have all been wait-
handful of States and universities. Put A bill of this magnitude would nor- ing for.
simply, this bill will be a game changer mally take a year to write and involve However, as I have made my annual
for the R&D geographic diversity that soliciting input from Members and tour through Iowa’s 99 counties, I have
many of us have sought for years, if stakeholders across our country to heard from business after business that
not decades. America can maintain our craft a consensus package. Clearly, the they are desperate for workers, but job
leadership over China only with a sus- Senate should consider this bill with applicants are scarce. Those that do
tained effort that is national in scope. an open amendment process. apply often don’t show up for inter-
We should tap into the wide-ranging Prematurely shutting down debate views.
talents, expertise, and capabilities of on amendments without this open
Americans across this land, including process would send a false signal to Nationally, the economy added over
Nevada and Mississippi. China and the American people that we 700,000 fewer jobs than were expected
The Endless Frontier Act will help are divided in an area where, actually, last month. This is very concerning, as
address these long-standing disparities we are united and together. a vibrant labor market is vital—vital—
by increasing funding for the Estab- And then, when all is said and done, to a strong economy.
lished Program to Stimulate Competi- the effort will have to be paid for and I get that some individuals, even
tive Research, which we have all come will be subject to appropriations. after being vaccinated, may be leery of
to know as EPSCoR. Participation in I hope the majority’s determination returning to the market after a year of
EPSCoR helps institutions in many to rush this legislation through the staying home to be safe, but the vac-
States and Territories improve their Senate is not designed to use a par- cines have been shown to virtually
research capacities and, therefore, tisan reconciliation bill to appropriate eliminate the chance of serious illness.
compete more effectively for Federal funding for these important initiatives. Hopefully, the recent CDC guidelines
R&D funding. The legislation also in- Science has always been debated in a that reinforce this by easing mask
vests in minority serving institutions bipartisan way in this body. Leaving guidelines will reassure individuals
and builds up research capacity in one party on the sidelines in the appro- that it is safe to return to work.
emerging institutions, which have tra- priation process, which I hope will not However, Iowa employers repeatedly
ditionally received a relatively small happen, would have a detrimental con- informed me that the biggest impedi-
share of Federal research dollars. sequences for the long-term stability of ment to finding workers is the over-
No. 5, this bill will boost regional this legislation. the-top unemployment benefits ex-
economic development through the Re- So on the whole, I am positive and tended as part of President Biden’s so-
gional Technology Hub Program. optimistic about this bill and about the called COVID relief bill.
No. 6, it will support manufacturing process that will get us to the end of I had 13 county meetings throughout
programs, in part, by quadrupling the both parties’ desire. Iowa during our last Senate recess, and
Manufacturing Extension Partnership I thank my colleague, Senator CANT- in all but one of them, this came up as
Program, which already exists. WELL, for her work as chair of the Com- a very important issue.
No. 7, it will help America win the merce Committee to get this bill on The simple fact is this: Under that
‘‘New Space Race’’ against China by in- the floor today, and I look forward to partisan COVID package, many indi-
cluding the NASA Authorization Act, working with her to improve the bill in viduals can earn more if they don’t
which the Senate passed unanimously the next step in the process—an open work than if they do work. That is
last year. The NASA bill allows Con- amendment process wrong in principle and has proven dis-
gress to set priorities and guardrails f astrous in practice, and, as a matter of
for the space Agency’s exploration and
ALASKA TOURISM RECOVERY ACT fact, in American society, a job is very
research programs.
No. 8, this bill will authorize a num- Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask essential and center to the quality of
ber of telecommunication programs to unanimous consent that upon receipt life.
sradovich on DSKJLST7X2PROD with CONG-REC-ONLINE
improve our telecom workforce and from the House, if the text is identical As my Republican colleagues and I
help get all Americans connected to to the text of S. 593 that passed the have warned for months, incentives
high-speed and reliable broadband. Senate, the Senate proceed to the im- matter. If you can earn more not work-
This bill also includes several bills mediate consideration of H.R. 1318, the ing than working, it makes perfect
that I have championed, including the bill be considered read a third time and sense not to work. I don’t blame work-
Rural STEM Education Act, the Ad- passed, and that the motion to recon- ers for taking that deal. I blame gov-
vanced Technological Manufacturing sider be considered made and laid upon ernment policy that puts the indi-
Act, the Improving Minority Participa- the table. vidual workers in this predicament.
tion and Careers in Telecommuni- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there Even prominent liberal economists
cations Act, and the Telecommuni- objection? have acknowledged a problem with
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