Dreier Cosponsors An Amendment That Expands Science And Math Education Programs

March 29 , 2006

Mr. Chairman, I thank my friend from Washington for yielding. I would like to congratulate her on her great commitment when it comes to this issue of America's competitiveness. We all know that President Bush stood right here in this Chamber and, in his State of the Union message, talked about the need to ensure that the United States of America remains competitive.

I believe that, frankly, that vision that the President put forward is really one of the underlying priorities and the reason for us with this legislation to continue to pursue it.

If we look at the economic standing that the United States of America has today with a 4.8 percent unemployment rate, GDP growth last year that was at 3.5 percent, 4.8 percent projected GDP growth for the first quarter of this year, and the fact that household net worth has jumped 8 percent in the last calendar year, that being in 2005, to a level of $52 trillion and recognition contrary to what we often hear around here, prosperity has improved in virtually every single demographic bracket.

What does it say? It says that we as a country are doing something that is right.

One of the things that we learned throughout our Nation's history and one of the things that we clearly learn with the vision that is put forth with this amendment that Miss McMorris is offering is we cannot sit on our laurels. We cannot as a Nation be complacent with all of those great things that we are able to point to, that we have accomplished in the last several years when it comes to economic growth and our competitiveness in the world.

What we need to do is we need to make sure that we have policies that keep us on the cutting edge. Nothing is more important in pursuit of that policy than our ensuring that we have the best quality education, the best teachers, and that we pursue science, technology, engineering and math, the so-called ``stem package.'' I believe that is exactly what we are trying to do with this amendment. I hope very much that we are able to see strong bipartisan support for this.

As I said when I stood here earlier today, I hope very much that we will be able to see strong bipartisan support for this underlying legislation. I congratulate my friend for her fine work.

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