For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 1, 2006
Press Briefing by Administration Officials on American Competitiveness Initiative
Room 450
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
American Competitiveness Initiative
PARTICIPANTS
Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao
Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings
OSTP Director Dr. John Marburger
10:08 A.M. EST
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Good morning, everybody. I'm Margaret Spellings.
I'm the Secretary of Education. And my fellow Cabinet colleagues and I are
thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with you all this morning about
the American Competitiveness Initiative that the President laid out last
night. It is a bold plan that speaks to the needs of Americans throughout
their lifetimes. And addressing these issues will be my friend, Carlos
Gutierrez at Commerce; Jack Marburger at the Office of Science and
Technology Policy; Secretary Chao at the Department of Labor; and Secretary
Bodman at the Department of Energy.
So I'm going to lead off and talk a little bit about the first aspect of
the plan, dealing with education. As you heard the President say last
night, if we ensure that America's children succeed in life, they will
ensure that America succeeds in the world. He gave us a bold and, I would
say, a historic plan to how we're going to do that, starting with
education, but continuing through an American's life.
We have a government-wide plan that involves my fellow Cabinet colleagues,
as I said. And keeping America competitive, of course, starts with an
educated citizenry, an educated workforce. And that begins as early as
kindergarten. We need to make sure that we have citizens in our country
that can do the research work and innovation and so forth. So that's why
I'm leading off today.
Wherever I go around the country -- I talk with governors, business
leaders, policymakers -- and I hear one thing, and that is that we must
improve our K-12 pipeline if we are to be successful as a country, as our
world gets flatter and flatter. And obviously there's a wide and growing
consensus about that. Everyone from the National Academy to the Council on
Competitiveness, the National Governors Association, wide agreement that
this is something that we need to get about the business of.
The keys to innovation, which has been the heart of our country's success,
is creativity and problem solving. And that is what is learned and taught
when students study math and science. We must encourage students to take
more math and science, more rigorous course work, and they must do so with
high-quality curriculum early in their schooling. Whether students are
going to end up as auto mechanics or cancer researchers, we know that ever
increasingly, technical skills are critical to their success.
Last week, Business Week did a great piece and I think it sums it up well
-- it says, "Math will rock your world." And that's more and more true.
Whether you're a policymaker or a media consultant, or a mom, or a
demographer, statistical analysis, the ability to use numbers to inform
your work, is ever more critical. So, in this fast-changing landscape, our
education system must keep pace. And the President, last night, laid out a
comprehensive strategy for ensuring that our system remains competitive in
this world.
We want to give early help to students. We need to work on our elementary
school curriculum, to make sure that while they have strong arithmetic
skills, that we also plant the seeds of higher order thinking, so that they
can go on to high school and be successful there.
We need to bring a research base, as we've done so effectively in reading
instruction. We have many, many programs. We spent $2.8 billion in our
government in 13 agencies, 207 programs pointed at math and science
education. And we have a thousand flowers blooming in maybe a few weeks.
So it's important that we establish for educators a best practice base, a
research base, to make sure that all students are successful in math and
science.
The way we're going to do this, of course, is to train and recruit and
improve teaching in America. We all know you can't teach what you don't
know, and unfortunately, many teachers are teaching in these subjects
without the necessary expertise. Out-of-field teaching occurs often,
especially in those classrooms that serve our neediest students in
low-income communities, Title I schools and the like.
That's why the President called for an additional 70,000 teachers who can
teach rigorous courses, Advanced Placement international baccalaureate
college-level work that not only prepares young people for the workplace or
for college, but also saves moms and dads money as those students do this
more rigorous work in their high schools.
Additionally, the President believes that we ought to recruit individuals
from the community, broadly -- the NASA scientists who ought to be able to
teach part-time in our schools -- a lot of work and a lot of commitment
from industry that can be brought to bear in our classrooms by asking for
30,000 adjunct teachers who can help us spread the information, spread the
wealth around these technical areas of math and science.
As a mother who's living this every day -- I have an eighth-grader who's
struggling with algebra even as we speak -- and as someone who talks to my
fellow soccer moms about this, I know there's a lot of math anxiety out
there. But I think that it's our responsibility to let parents know that
the world that they grew up in, the world that we grew up in is not the
same world that their children are going to be expected to be successful
and competitive in. And it requires more math/science capability. And
that's why it's most critical that we provide these opportunities and these
skills to our children, so that, as the President says, we'll ensure that
they'll succeed in life, so they can help our country succeed in the world.
Now, it's my pleasure to introduce Secretary Gutierrez, who absolutely
understands the importance of cultivating innovation so that these highly
trained students will have places to work and prosper.
Carlos.
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: Thank you, Madam Secretary.
Thank you, good morning. Last night, the President made a truly historic
speech. He laid out a vision not just for the next year or for his second
term, but really a vision that can influence the direction of our country
for many, many years to come. He recognized that we live in a global
economy, and that economy has been developing for many years and it will
continue to get more and more global. And the way to deal with that is not
to retreat; the way to win and to grow and to prosper in this global
economy is to compete and to lead the world.
The first thing the President called for was increasing our research and
development. And as it refers to what we have in the Commerce Department,
which is the National Institute of Standards and Technology, we'll be
adding 600 new scientists. And I should tell you that in the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, we have had three Nobel prize
winners. So this is truly a gem within the federal government.
And what we have is the ability to create public, private sector, and
university partnerships. And that teamwork between the public sector, the
private sector, and our universities is truly a competitive advantage.
One-third of all of the R&D; that we do in the country is done as the
private sector level, but two-thirds is done by -- I'm sorry, at the public
sector level. Two-thirds is done by the private sector. And an advantage
for us will be our ability to link those two together with our universities
to come out with the truly best innovative products that will enable us to
continue to lead the world.
We have 3 billion new consumers that we can now access, that have surfaced
over the past 20 years. But we also have 3 billion new competitors. And
the President mentioned last night that the best way to compete and win is
to open up markets, to continue to have free trade agreements, to continue
to access new consumers. This is not a time to withdraw. It is not a time
for protectionism. This is a time to compete and to show the world that
America can compete with the best of them and win.
The President talked last night, as well, about attracting the best and the
brightest, and the role that immigration has played in our country, and the
role that immigration will continue to play in our country. We have the
advantage over many other countries that we know how to assimilate
immigrants. And we understand that throughout our history, immigration has
brought new ideas, new innovation, new energy, and today should be no
different.
So the President has called for a historic national focus on
competitiveness and innovation; a national movement that should be taken up
by every company in the country, by every community in the country. And he
knows, as he mentioned last night, that we are well up to the challenge.
Thank you. And I'll turn it over to Secretary Bodman.
SECRETARY BODMAN: Thank you, sir. You already heard about our collective
view about the importance of last night's remarks by the President. I
would like to take this opportunity to discuss the role that the Department
of Energy will play in this competitiveness initiative.
To maintain our country's competitive edge we simply have to generate not
just new technologies, but transformational technologies -- technologies
that change the very nature of products. And that -- it's that act that
will continue to provide for the dominance of our economic activities, for
our science and for our technologists. Out of that will come the
development of alternative sources of energy that, in fact, will lead to
the decrease of our dependence on foreign sources of energy. And that is
why the President has committed himself to doubling the federal spending in
the combined offices of the National Science Foundation, the NIST activity
in the Department of Commerce that you just heard about, and the Office of
Science in the Department of Energy. That doubling will occur over the
next 10 years.
Our people who deal in this area -- and they are the professional
scientists and administrators of scientists -- truly believe that this is a
historic opportunity for them and for our department. It is, in effect, a
renaissance for United States science and global competitiveness. Our
department's science -- or Office of Science is the major supporter of
research and development in the physical sciences -- mathematics, physics
and chemistry -- in the federal government; in fact, in the country. And
we have had a growth under the President's leadership in overall research,
but a large part of that has been in the life sciences. And if you look at
the physical sciences and support for research in the physical sciences, it
has been much closer to flat that increasing.
Our department maintains large-scale facilities and instruments that we
build and operate, and out of that -- this is in our group of national
laboratories that we manage -- from that, we have helped contribute to
America's leadership in the key scientific fields that have dominated the
last century, and that we believe will dominate the century that has just
started. In this new century, those are the fields of biotechnology,
nanotechnology, material science, and high-speed computation.
Now, to support this research, the Office of Science develops and nurtures
a highly trained scientific workforce for the civilian economy and for
national security, because there is a link, obviously, between energy
availability, new sources of energy, and our national security. And this
linkage between the private sector and the public sector that Secretary
Gutierrez just talked about is also something that we find very compelling
and an important part of what we do.
So I'm particularly pleased to take note that the competitiveness
initiative that the President announced last night will allow us to support
about 2,600 more researchers in fiscal year '07 than it will in '06. So it
will translate itself into a material change in our ability to provide
resources for supporting the scientific endeavor of our country.
Keeping America competitive also requires abundant and affordable energy.
The President spoke about that last evening. Affordable energy requires
technologies that will provide clean, reliable and economic solutions to
the energy problems that confront us.
For example, sunlight provides, by far, the largest of all carbon-neutral
energy sources that we have to work with. More energy from sunlight
strikes the Earth in one hour than all the energy consumed on our planet in
one year. So we have a lot to work with. Now, we're exploring a number of
novel technologies in the Energy Department -- solar to electric; solar to
fuels -- directly using solar energy to go directly to fuels; as well as
solar to thermal conversions. And that's part of what we're endeavoring to
do.
Fusion energy -- fusion energy on Earth can mimic the processes that power
our sun. Fusion energy promises unlimited, safe and clean electricity for
the world. It's a long way off, but we are starting that process, and have
started the process over the last couple of years.
Other energy sources hold the promise of reshaping our transportation
sector. Biofuels that are derived from plant cells, plant cell walls --
they're otherwise known as cellulosic ethanol -- could lead us from our
current reliance on fossil fuels to clean, new domestic energy sources that
we believe over time will transform our entire economy.
Now, these are breathtaking prospects. They really are -- I guess,
overused the word historic -- we really believe that. They are very
doable, but they're very difficult undertakings, these various initiatives
that I've mentioned. Our department is committed to their success, and the
President is committed to providing the resources that we need to
accomplish our goals.
Science is inextricably linked to our country's economy. It has been for
the last 50 years, and I dare say it will be for the next 50 or hundred
years. The United States has the best scientific resources on the globe.
This initiative will mean that we will maintain that leadership position
with respect to the facilities and resources -- both the people and the
equipment that's available.
I might mention here that we are very mindful of the question of
congressionally mandated projects and support. Our department is
challenged by that. And I would hope that our Congress would take to heart
the President's request that we focus on those areas that we believe, after
a lot of thought and a lot of attention, really will lead us in this
direction, and that we not be hampered by individual projects and programs
that have become all to great a part of our budgets.
The President's American Competitiveness Initiative will continue the
dominance that our country has shown in the past -- will continue into the
foreseeable future. I believe that that future will be a very bright one
for science, and it will be a very bright one for the American people.
I thank you for your time, and I would ask my colleague, Elaine Chao, the
Secretary of Labor, to finish up.
Elaine.
SECRETARY CHAO: One more.
SECRETARY BODMAN: Oh, two more, sorry.
SECRETARY CHAO: Thank you all so much for being here today, and I'm really
so pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the importance of the
President's competitiveness initiative to our nation's workers. And our
nation's workers are our nation's greatest asset.
As the President said last night at his State of the Union address, the
global economy is an opportunity for our nation to take steps to ensure our
continued economic leadership. Helping our nation's workers succeed and
feel more secure in this rapidly changing environment are among this
administration's top priorities.
We can help by giving workers more confidence, choice and control over
their skills, their health care, and also their pensions. And the
President's competitiveness initiative addresses our nation's workforce
challenges directly.
First, it makes a priority the reform of our nation's publicly funded
workforce training system so that it can better serve workers. Second, the
initiative would more -- would aim to more than triple the number of
workers trained with public resources. And the goal is not just to process
them through some system, but rather to actually train them for real jobs
that exist in the 21st century workforce.
And this is so timely because 90 percent of the fastest growing jobs
require some kind of post-secondary education and training. And over the
next 10 years, there will be more than six million new and replacement job
openings in engineering, in science, in technology, in computers, in health
care, and other technical occupations that's going to really require a very
strong foundation in math and science. And as you also heard from
Secretary Bodman, we're going to see increased job creation in
nanotechnology, spacial technology, life sciences, biotech. So we have to
train workers, help train workers for these new jobs that are developing
and that are desperately seeking workers.
And finally, the President's proposal for career advancement accounts will
empower workers by providing them with self-managed accounts to choose the
kind of job training that they're interested in and that they want. So
this will replace the old one-size-fits-all kind of training approach that
really doesn't take into account individual preferences and also local
economic conditions.
This is a worker-centered strategy that's going to hold systems accountable
for achieving concrete, measurable results for workers. And you might be
interested to know also that I've just returned, along with several of my
colleagues in the Cabinet, from a meeting of world economic leaders. And
you might be interested to know that one of the greatest areas of concern
is job creation, and how to match the skills of workers with the emerging
opportunities.
Now, fortunately, our country is leading the way among major industrialized
nations in terms of job creation. Germany and France have permanent
unemployment rate in excess of 10 percent. And job creation in Europe has
basically been stagnant over the last 10 years. In contrast, our country
has produced 4.6 million new jobs since May of 2003; in 2005 alone, our
economy has produced over 2.1 million new jobs. And our unemployment rate
is 4.9 percent.
So the President's emphasis on job creation and worker training are once
again right on target. And if his proposals are enacted, there going to
ensure that our nation's workers will continue to be among the most
competitive, creative, and productive in the world.
And so, with that, I'm going to introduce you to our last speaker, and
that's Jack Marburger, who is the Director of the White House Office of
Science and Technology. Thanks so much.
DR. MARBURGER: Thank you, Madam Secretary. I will end up with a few more
details, particularly on the science side. But I want to emphasize that
this vision that the President portrayed last night in his speech
integrates to an unusual, and I think, unprecedented extent the concept of
an adequately prepared workforce with the role of leadership in science and
technology that we have to have to maintain the vitality of our economy.
The vitality of our economy in the 21st century really demands that we
manage as a federal government the investment in workforce and an
adequately prepared workforce, and the tools that that workforce needs to
maintain American preeminence in science and technology.
And we are preeminent. This year the President will request a record $137
billion for the R&D; budget, which is substantially greater than any other
nation. With 5 percent of the world's population, the U.S. employs about a
third of all the scientists and engineers in the world. With 5 percent of
the world's population, the U.S. funds in public and private sector
together, about a third of all the research and development that is
performed in the world. So we're ahead, but we know that we have to work
to keep up, and to keep up our leadership.
So the President made a strong commitment last night to double within 10
years the budgets of the agencies that have the greatest impact on physical
science, which is the infrastructure for all the sciences. The cost of
this program over 10 years is $50 billion for the R&D; part, but that's
augmented by another program to make it possible for more companies to
participate in the R&D; tax credit. The President has called for years to
make this tax credit permanent, and we hope that Congress will see fit to
recognize the value of doing that and also improving it so that it's more
accessible to more countries.
The major cost of this program for the first year will be in the cost of
the tax credits, $4.6 billion. The cost of the doubling of the physical
science research agencies, priority agencies is $910 billion in the first
year, and extending out over 10 years, that amounts to $50 billion over 10
years -- a major investment in the research infrastructure of our nation.
I do want to say a word about these priority agencies. You've already
heard about the Department of Energy and the NIST research program. The
National Science Foundation is a major player in this program, the American
Competitiveness Initiative. The National Science Foundation is the lead
agency for two of the major physical science research programs in the
nation, the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and the Networking and
Information Technology R&D; Initiative, both of which are interagency
programs that are vital to the economic competitiveness of the future.
And I do want to support the call for the responsible management not only
of these new funds, but of all funds that are identified for research and
development for science and for those areas where we really know to make
our investments in the wisest possible way. We understand the process of
identifying priority programs -- peer review, merit-based reviews and
assessments of proposals that come in from investigators across the nation
with responsible panels and well-planned programs. That's the way to do
it. The United States excels in the productivity of its research because
it has excellent mechanisms for identifying the priority areas.
When Congress designates programs, sometimes those programs fit within
those parameters, and sometimes they don't. The only way that we can
assure the best possible application of these funds is by sticking to the
peer review process and making sure that congressionally designated
programs satisfy the requirements that we have for best practices. So the
President made a strong call last night for Congress to avoid earmarking
this program, and I think it's essential that we support him on this.
So thanks very much for your interest. We've had a lot of interest shown
over the past year from numerous organizations. There's a great deal of
unanimity in what the response needs to be. And I'm just absolutely
pleased that the President has had the vision to bring us all together to
produce an American Competitiveness Initiative that will respond to the
needs of America and keep us strong into the future.
So thanks very much. I will turn it back to Secretary Spellings for
questions.
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: We'll be glad to answer questions, any or all of us.
So anyway, I'm the first one up, so any education questions? Yes, sir.
Q I didn't hear you talk about -- or at least in detail -- about the
immigration aspects that he described last night. Can you tell us what
exactly he's proposing as far as immigration changes?
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Carlos, do you want to speak to some of that? For my
part, I will say that, obviously, student visas are an issue for higher
education institutions very much. And last -- a few weeks ago at the
language -- Strategic Language Initiative, which actually is also part of
the competitiveness initiative, in a way -- our need to be able to have
more speakers of other languages around the world -- the President made a
commitment to the higher education community to address the issue of
student visas so that we make sure that we are encouraging talented young
Americans to stay here and work in this country.
And, Carlos, beyond that, I'll --
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: On the high-skilled immigration, the President has
mentioned that we bring the best and the brightest to our country, we give
them the best education that money can buy, and then we send them home so
they can compete with another company. And what we're saying now is once
they get the degree and once they get the best education in the world,
let's find a way of keeping them here. So that's one aspect of it.
The President also mentioned last night low-skilled immigration, the need
to enforce our laws, the need to have tighter control over our borders, and
also the need to recognize that when there is a willing employer and a
willing employee, a job that an American does not want to take, that we
should be willing to issue a guest worker permit so that these folks don't
have to come in, in the dark of night and hide. And it's just a matter of
recognizing our reality that we are creating more jobs than what Americans
can fill and what they want to fill. So it's actually a great testament to
our economy.
Q If you look at the FY '07 numbers that were in the fact sheet, you've
got $5.9 billion, okay? And then from what you all have said, I'm thinking
that breaks down -- and I just want to double-check -- that that breaks
down into the $4.6 billion on the tax credit for the R&D;, and the $910
million for the education.
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: -- $910 million for research.
Q I'm sorry, research. And then $380 million for education.
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: For education, yes.
Q So the money is education and the R&D; and --
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Tax credit, research and education.
Q Okay. Now, do you guys have those numbers for the 10-year thing,
because it was $136 billion over 10 years. The R&D; part of that is $86
billion. What about the education and --
DR. MARBURGER: The R&D; part of that will be $50 billion for -- the
research part of the $136 billion is $50 billion. And the difference
between $136 billion and $50 billion is the amount associated with the tax
credit and the first year of the education program.
Q So the education is one year?
DR. MARBURGER: The education program funding in this -- in the fact sheet
numbers, has not been included in the out-years. That doesn't mean it will
go back to zero, but that is part of the number that's in your fact sheet.
I'm telling you where that number actually comes from, so it will add up.
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: In fact, let me say that the 70,000 number is a
five-year commitment to get more advanced placement teachers in our
classrooms; the 30,000 number to try to get additional folks with expertise
into our classrooms is an eight-year number. So the President envisions a
long-term commitment. The way we budget in education is on an annual
basis, and the investment this year will be $380 million.
Q Can you tell me how you're going to spend the $380 million?
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: That information will be unveiled as part of the
President's budget on Monday.
Q Following on that, are there going to be any incentives for people to
join this adjunct teacher corps? And if not, how are they going to -- why
would they sign up to teach?
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Yes. There will be resources that will be revealed,
maybe in the President's speech tomorrow, or on Monday. It's certainly
part of the President's budget -- that will speak to the need to incent
folks, baby boomers who are alive and kicking and in good health with a lot
of expertise, to want to come and enter our classrooms, and that we would
envision incentive programs to do that.
Q And likewise, for the advanced placement -- is that following the
Academy recommendation to add $2,000 for advanced training, $100 per
student for every successful --
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: We envision, actually, with the resources for
advanced placement, that we would leverage those with state dollars, as
well as private sector dollars. We think there's a way to get a real
critical mass around those and bring advanced placement and international
baccalaureate programs to scale. Unfortunately, now we have some of our
high flyer best schools in America that offer a full complement of advanced
placement, but those opportunities tend to be less available in inner-city
schools. And we must change that.
And so we envision -- and certainly this is in keeping with No Child Left
Behind's commitment, requirement to have a highly qualified teacher in
every classroom, to offer more rigor, more broadly, and that we would
provide resources and incentives to do that. In fact, later today I'll be
going to Florida; I'll talk with Governor Bush tomorrow -- they are a very
AP-friendly state and we envision states will very much be receptive to
this notion.
Q Secretary Bodman, are those 2,600 researchers going to be mainly at
the labs? And also, there are a number of things that were in the National
Academy's report and in the PACE Act now sponsored by 69 senators that are
not in this initiative. They wanted to double the R&D; tax credit, as well
as extend it, and also -- agency within the Department of Energy. Can you
comment on why those were not included? And then the labs --
SECRETARY BODMAN: The employees will be both in the labs, as well as
universities. So there will be support -- we not only support the
laboratories, but also provide support for universities. So we'll be in
both places.
There are a number of people that have stepped forward -- various
legislators -- you mentioned the PACE legislation. There was a
competitiveness initiative that various private sector organizations here
in Washington sponsored. All of these were very welcome. They were --
they're initiatives, they're programs that we encourage. And we've made
use, we believe, of the best inputs from all sources. The President has
been very adamant on this subject since the day he took office. And the
goal here has been to try to put resources to work in the best possible
way.
So what has been presented to you and has been presented to the country
last night by the President is an initiative that seeks to pick the best
from a number of alternatives. There are some things that, frankly, we
would like to do -- looking at it from a parochial standpoint -- but
tradeoffs have to be made. These have been very tough times, as you know,
from a budgetary standpoint. And I can just tell you that speaking for the
Energy Department, but I also know for the National Science Foundation, and
I think I can speak for Secretary Gutierrez on this, that we're thrilled
with this emphasis on the physical sciences and on research in the physical
sciences. And then we will work on this over time and see what additional
components might be brought and made available.
Q Margaret, on the 30,000, are you talking about them as getting them
certified as teachers, or bringing them into the classroom on some
alternative certification? And if so, are there state-by-state hurdles to
getting people like that into classrooms?
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: We believe that there are ways to provide part-time
talent in our schools so that they have the necessary pedagogical skills,
as well as that expertise. And we need to marry those things together. As
I said earlier, we have many, many math and science classes that are taught
by teachers who are not certified and out-of-field. And so we ought to
access additional resources from the community.
We are seeing places around the country that are already experimenting with
this sort of things. Yes, these are issues that are going to have to be
addressed in the context of local bargaining agreements and state laws and
rules. But just as we have done successfully with Troops to Teachers and
Teach for America and other alternative certification programs, we believe
there's a way to get the very best educational expertise coupled with a
high degree of expertise so that students can benefit from that expertise.
Q Do you anticipate teacher union opposition to this?
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Well, I haven't heard from them yet, but what I would
say to them is that we have a crying need for math and science teachers.
This has nothing -- this will not displace anyone. We need and will take
all the certified math and science teachers we can get. The point is if
we're going to run faster and keep up, we're going to have to access
additional resources in the community. And those with expertise, whether
they're at IBM and retiring, or a NASA scientist, ought to be able to find
ways into our classrooms where they can contribute.
Q Is our Secretary of Education ill-equipped to help her own daughter
with algebra? (Laughter.)
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: There's the point, Ken. We need a math initiative
for grown-ups like me. I'm going to see you like that, Elaine.
(Laughter.)
Q Can you explain how you got the 70,000 figure -- the number of 70,000
teachers that are needed? And how would that fit in with last year's
program, the $1.5 billion high school initiative that was announced?
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: We believe -- the Nation at Risk, more than 20 years
ago, called for the need to provide at least three years of math and
science in every high school in America. And that is the number that it
will take for us to get there to meet that requirement to have more math
and science.
Likewise, as I said, we have models in the advanced placement program and
international baccalaureate that are ways to do that quickly and
efficiently so that we can get those teachers in place as quickly as
possible, coupled with the adjunct teacher initiative.
Q I wonder if you could comment on what you see as the specific
competitive threat posed by both China and India, and also just give a bit
of context about why you're launching the initiative now.
SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Jack, you want to speak to that?
DR. MARBURGER: We're not responding to a threat; we're maintaining a
leadership role. I believe the strength of this nation is such that all
other countries are trying do it the way we do it, and the only way that we
can maintain our leadership role is to do it better. So these initiatives
that the President outlined last night are initiatives to strengthen the
foundations that we understand, that are in place, and that can be more
productive with additional resources.
Getting them to work together, making a long-term commitment that's based
on a vision for a productive and leading role for the United States among
these world economies is what it's going to take -- to galvanize the
American people to pay attention to these things, study math, get parents
to understand the importance of taking action at home to make these things
work is what it's going to take.
So this isn't a specific response to a specific threat. We think that it's
important for the people of China and India to have improved standards of
living. We want them to be able to make products for their own society to
consume, and we want to be part of that market, too. So this is not about
going up against China and India. This is about leading the world with
models and productivity that keep our society strong.
Q I am with TASS, the Russian News Agency, and what I am hearing here
sounds to me like America against the world, which, as Mr. Marburger has
just pointed out, is not the case. Many issues we are facing are global,
and the President was talking about global issues. So my question to you,
maybe to Secretary Bodman, Secretary Gutierrez, will you be using the help
of your international partners, will you be coordinating with your
international partners, especially maybe in the G8, because the G8 this
year has similar priorities, to the energy, to health, to education, all of
those?
DR. MARBURGER: In no sector of federal activities is international
collaboration stronger and with a longer history than in the sciences. We
have bilateral agreements with most of the G8 nations. We have an enormous
collaboration on the facilities that Secretary Bodman's laboratories
operate. We send our people back and forth from all nations to do their
graduate work on these facilities. And we expect that to continue and even
grow stronger. I personally meet twice a year with the G8 science
ministers to discuss these issues, and we expect that this program will
facilitate that.
Q And just if I could add one little thing, specifically the fuel cycle,
nuclear fuel cycle. The idea of President Putin of creating international
nuclear fuel cycle centers for services to everyone on equitable basis
under strict international control. Obviously, it has very much relevance
to what's happening in Iran. It may be relevant to what happens in the
future in other parts of the world.
SECRETARY BODMAN: We will -- we have a great interest in advanced fuel
cycles in the Department of Energy, as do, as you mentioned, a number of
the G8 member nations. We will have a more detailed -- there are two
things I might mention. One, there will be a more detailed discussion
focusing on energy this afternoon, I believe at 2:00 p.m., where I will be
along with the President's Economic Advisor, Al Hubbard. The two of us
will be dealing with the press that are particularly interested in energy
issues. And then we will release the budget, as will the other
departments, on Monday morning, or Monday at noontime, I believe. And we
will, therefore, be in a position to discuss in greater detail at those
times the energy component of it.
But I will just comment that we have a great interest in it, and I think
the combined efforts of all nations will be very important in order to make
progress there. It's a very large undertaking, and we're very hopeful
about it.
Q First, Secretary Bodman, are the 2,600 all at DOE or through DOE? And
then, secondly, for Dr. Marburger, given the President's commitment to
controlling the deficit, did these increases in discretionary spending come
along with cuts elsewhere to pay for them?
SECRETARY BODMAN: First, in terms of the workers, as I mentioned before,
they will be -- the individuals will become employees of the laboratories,
the national laboratories, as well as students and faculty in universities
that will benefit from support from the Department of Energy's Office of
Science as a part of this.
Q -- as well as NIST?
SECRETARY BODMAN: No, that's just the Department of Energy.
DR. MARBURGER: Let me say that next week, when the budget comes out,
you'll have access to science numbers across the board. But I do want to
emphasize this is a prioritization exercise. This initiative takes the
recommendations and actual consensus on the actual need to support physical
science in these times as a foundation for future economic competitiveness,
identifies these three agencies and makes a commitment to increase their
budgets. It does not make that commitment for all of science. Some areas
of science are quite healthy. Some areas of science are in special
situations -- National Institutes of Health has received healthy increases
and funding is maintained at a very healthy level in that area. NASA and
other big science agencies have their own programs, and you'll hear more
about those next week.
Q Secretary Chao, do you have any goals for job creation out of these
various programs? Is there any way to say how many jobs you think would be
created through the various initiatives that you're talking about today?
SECRETARY CHAO: Well, first of all, the government doesn't create jobs,
the private sector does. And so the government has to create the
environment in which job creation is optimized. And making the President's
tax cut permanent is certainly one important factor in job creation.
Reducing the volume of frivolous litigation is another. Tapping the
various programs that the President has proposed for reducing the cost of
health care is another. So right now the economy is producing about
200,000 jobs, on average, per month. So the economy is strong and it's
growing stronger. It's not too hot, it's not too cold, it's just about
right.
Q Dr. Marburger talks about how this is not designed to respond to the
threat from China and India, although I think there are many Americans who
do view that as a threat, or watch a Ford and a G.M. cut 30,000 jobs. So
what do these programs say to those people?
SECRETARY CHAO: Well, as a Chinese American, as an American of Chinese
descent, I have, perhaps, a special view about the competitiveness in a
situation. As Carlos Gutierrez and I can both attest, we're immigrants to
this country. I arrived at the age of eight; Secretary Gutierrez I think
arrived a bit earlier. But our parents suffered a great deal to come to
this country, because this country is the land of golden opportunity. And
it is a land of golden opportunities, and we want to make sure that America
remains the land of opportunity.
You know, we don't hear about people wanting to go to other countries.
Rather, everywhere I go -- when I was Peace Corps Director, when I was
United Way of America president -- the one question I heard is, "How do I
come to America?" And so we want to make sure that America has
opportunities. And the President's program, again -- on creating
opportunity, on decreasing tax rates, decreasing litigious lawsuits that
are plaguing our society -- is to ensure that the role of government is to,
indeed, foster the environment in which job creation can occur will
prevail.
END 10:56 A.M. EST
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