(Washington, DC) – Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing to review President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 (FY 2014) budget request for research and development (R&D), demonstration, and commercial application programs. Testifying before the Committee was Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson said in her opening statement, “I am pleased that the President remains committed to prioritizing investments in research and development and STEM education in his request. Even in these fiscally challenging times we must set priorities and there are few more important investments we can make than in our nation’s brain power…I applaud the President’s continued commitment to keeping the budgets of NSF, NIST, and DOE’s Office on Science on sustained upward trajectories intitiated in the America COMPETES Act. These agencies, among others, help to ensure our long-term economic growth through their support for cutting-edge research and STEM education.”
Dr. Holdren said in his testimony, “As this Committee has long emphasized, the best approach to supporting across-the-board innovation and long-term economic growth is to invest in a broad and balanced research portfolio – one that will produce not just planned-for and predictable benefits to the Nation, but also the entirely unexpected windfalls for society and the world. This country’s overall prosperity in the last half century is due in great measure to America’s pursuit of this formula and its commitment to a three-way partnership including academia, industry, and government. It is the Administration’s goal that the 2014 Budget be applied to and coordinated with these complementary sectors to maintain the momentum of America’s prosperity for many decades to come.”
Though Committee Democrats were mostly supportive of the President’s R&D budget request, they expressed a number of concerns such as the ramifications of the Administration’s proposed reorganization of Federal STEM education programs and how establishing a new Energy Security Trust would be carried out. They also stressed the importance of investing in a number of specific areas, including those in advanced manufacturing, the I-Corps program at NSF, the National Lab system, and severe weather monitoring.
“The scientists, engineers, and innovators of today make discoveries and develop technologies that generate whole new industries and jobs, improve the quality of life and security of our citizens, and keep our nation thriving in a competitive world economy. They also help to give our children the grounding in science and technology they will need to become the innovators of the future, or simply to be prepared for the high-skilled jobs of the future…Though we have some concerns and disagreements across the federal R&D budget proposal…I look forward to working with the President and my colleagues in the months ahead to make sure that the FY 2014 appropriations bills that this Congress will eventually pass continue to reflect the need to invest in our future,” said Ms. Johnson.
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