WASHINGTON – In recognition of National Lab Day, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, joined U.S. Department of Energy representatives yesterday to highlight the importance of investing in the national lab system to strengthen the innovation economy. As a member of the Senate Lab Caucus, Senator Coons has been a strong advocate for labs across the country, introducing the bipartisan Energy Title of the America COMPETES Act to expand basic energy research and the bipartisan America INNOVATES Act to modernize the national lab system.
Senator Coons’ full remarks below:
"Thank you so much for coming out to the Second Annual National Lab Day on the Hill. Thank you Deputy Secretary Sherwood-Randall. Thank you to the lab directors and the lab staff, and in particular, thank you to the Hill staff who have come today to get a sense of what it is that this remarkable national network of 17 laboratories is doing. I don’t have a national lab in my state, so I have to go pretty far to get to visit one, although everything is close to little ‘ole Delaware. I have so far been to three. I hope to go to my fourth this fall, and every lab I have been able to go to, so far, has inspired me and reminded me of what a unique and powerful national asset the national labs are. I am proud to be part of the Lab Caucus led by Senator Risch, who was here earlier, and Senator Durbin, and as an appropriator, to be actively involved in advocating for the resources that we need to not just sustain, but to grow and improve our network of national laboratories.
"As you heard, I think it is vital to our national security, to our economy, to our place in the world. So it's my hope that members who have perhaps not had a chance to visit a lab because they might be distant from their home states and districts get a chance to get some of the sense of what is going on at the amazing national laboratories here today.
"I do think that we need to renew our focus on the potential of technology transfer, the engagement with private sector partners to further engage in the spin-off impacts, and the job creation and innovation capacities of the national labs. I’m a co-sponsor of two different bills I’ll briefly reference. One with Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, which is the energy title of the COMPETES Act -- the reauthorization of the sort of architecture bill that helped authorizeARPA-E that you just heard about that helps to authorize the Office of Science, and increases federal authorizations by four percent per year over five years for investments in key science. It does so by de-authorizing a number of antiquated programs that were never fully implemented; streamlines, consolidates, and enhances five existing DOE programs; and has strong bipartisan support. Yes, gasp, I know that is unusual here in Congress, especially on anything involving science. But it has strong bipartisan support among business, industry, academia, and members.
"The other bill I’ll mention briefly -- I am a cosponsor with Senator Rubio of America INNOVATES. These bills were both presented before the Senate Energy Committee in a hearing back in June. INNOVATES streamlines science and energy coordination at DOE, and directs some improvements toward best practices in terms of partnering more effectively with the private sector, and giving more flexibility for R&D activities and access to private sector to the cutting-edge facilities that are left.
"In my view, we face a really challenging period in terms of the appropriations and sequester. As a member of not just the Appropriations Committee, but the Energy and Water Subcommittee that is responsible for a lot of the national labs and the Department of Energy, we are wrestling with what to do with sequester and the future of our appropriations. In my view, it would be tragic if we were to simply continue along with sequester. It will make really growing the federal R&D enterprise quite difficult, so I am working with others on the committee to try and find ways that we can significantly increase the investment made available to both defense and non-defense sides of our national budget.
"We have marked up about three quarters of our bills both on the Senate and the House side, and as we all know, there is a critical deadline approaching in September. I hope that the members of Hill staff who are here today will take a moment and really reflect on what a unique national treasure our network of labs represents, and what a tragedy it would be for us to fail to continue to invest in an energetic and robust way in our national labs at a time when our competitors globally are investing even more than we are and growing their investment at a faster rate than we are. We cannot afford to fail to invest America’s national labs."