Chairman Gordon Comments on President’s Budget Request

(Washington, DC) – Today, the White House released a summary of the President’s FY11 Budget Request.

House Committee on Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) offered the following statement:

“I applaud the president’s commitment to R&D. I’m pleased to see continued increases for the agencies in COMPETES: National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, as well as substantial funding for DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy. Half of the growth in our GDP since World War II has been related to the development and adoption of new technologies. Creating new technologies–especially new energy technologies–and getting them to the market is critical to maintaining our nation’s competitive edge, meeting our growing need for energy, reducing carbon emissions, and establishing U.S. leadership in these emerging fields. Ultimately, this is the path to grow our economy out of a deficit. I look forward to working with the White House and my congressional colleagues to find the most efficient ways to invest our limited federal funds, as well as ways to attract additional private-sector investments. The reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act is a key priority for the Committee this year, and I am pleased to see support from the White House to keep the agencies on a path towards doubling, as was set forth in the original legislation.

Turning to NASA, the space agency’s budget request represents a radical departure from the bipartisan consensus achieved by Congress in successive authorizations over the past five years. This requires deliberate scrutiny. We will need to hear the Administration’s rationale for such a change and assess its impact on U.S. leadership in space before Congress renders its judgment on the proposals.”