Mr. President, if I might, I wanted to simply comment to this body that something passed with little notice here yesterday. October 29th of 2013 was National Technological Innovation Day. This was recognizing the role that technological innovation plays in the United States economy.
We know that innovation is absolutely essential to developing new medicines and treatments and cures to help us live longer and healthier lives. Innovation is essential to strengthening the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy and making us more competitive. Innovation is essential to allow us to take advantage of new materials and new opportunities in the world, and to access to export markets overseas. Innovation, overall, is the thing that has brought all of what is best about modern life and the modern world.
So, yesterday, in a bipartisan way, we recognized the fact that on October 29th, many, many years ago, was the very first day that DARPANET was able to exchange communications from one computer to another. It was literally the dawning of the modern Internet age. This was made possible, in part, by federal investment in innovation.
I was grateful that Senators Moran and Isakson, and Heinrich and Kirk joined me in recognizing the unique and important role that technological innovation has played in America’s past, America’s present, and America’s future.