(Washington,
DC) –Today, House Committee on Science and Technology Chairman
Bart Gordon (D-TN) willintroduceThe America COMPETES
Reauthorization Act of 2010. The bill is expected to be
considered under suspension tomorrow. Bills considered under suspension
cannot be amended and need to pass with support from two-thirds of those
present, rather than a simple majority.
The bill is
identical to H.R. 5116 with two exceptions: it reduces the
authorization period from five to three years, and it adopts language
from the Motion to Recommit banning the use of the authorized funds to
pay the salary of federal employees disciplined for looking at
pornography at work. It includes the 52 amendments to H.R. 5116 adopted
on the House Floor.
“The reintroduced America COMPETES
Reauthorization Act is a 50 percent cut in the funding path from
H.R. 5116 as introduced. While I certainly would have preferred the
stability a five-year authorization would have given our science
agencies, I am willing to compromise with the Minority, in the interest
of getting a good bill through the House and to our colleagues in the
Senate. This legislation is too important to our nation’s scientific and
economic leadership to let it fall victim to political gridlock,” said Chairman
Bart Gordon (D-TN). “The bill has a less steep funding trajectory
than the 2007 COMPETES, H.R. 2272, which passed the 110th
Congress 367 to 57, with the support of 143 Republicans, 101 of whom are
serving in the 111th Congress.”
For more
information on the Committee’s work on COMPETES, please visit our website.
