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+ - BUILDING BACK THE U.S. RESEARCH ENTERPRISE: COVID IMPACTS AND RECOVERY
+
+[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
+[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
+
+
+ BUILDING BACK THE U.S. RESEARCH
+ ENTERPRISE: COVID IMPACTS AND RECOVERY
+
+=======================================================================
+
+ HEARING
+
+ BEFORE THE
+
+ COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE,
+ AND TECHNOLOGY
+ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
+
+ ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
+
+ FIRST SESSION
+
+ __________
+
+ FEBRUARY 25, 2021
+
+ __________
+
+ Serial No. 117-2
+
+ __________
+
+ Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
+
+ [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
+
+
+ Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov
+
+ __________
+
+ U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
+43-446PDF WASHINGTON : 2022
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY
+
+ HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas, Chairwoman
+ZOE LOFGREN, California FRANK LUCAS, Oklahoma,
+SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon Ranking Member
+AMI BERA, California MO BROOKS, Alabama
+HALEY STEVENS, Michigan, BILL POSEY, Florida
+ Vice Chair RANDY WEBER, Texas
+MIKIE SHERRILL, New Jersey BRIAN BABIN, Texas
+JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York ANTHONY GONZALEZ, Ohio
+BRAD SHERMAN, California MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida
+ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado JAMES R. BAIRD, Indiana
+JERRY McNERNEY, California PETE SESSIONS, Texas
+PAUL TONKO, New York DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida
+BILL FOSTER, Illinois MIKE GARCIA, California
+DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey STEPHANIE I. BICE, Oklahoma
+DON BEYER, Virginia YOUNG KIM, California
+CHARLIE CRIST, Florida RANDY FEENSTRA, Iowa
+SEAN CASTEN, Illinois JAKE LaTURNER, Kansas
+CONOR LAMB, Pennsylvania CARLOS A. GIMENEZ, Florida
+DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina JAY OBERNOLTE, California
+GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin PETER MEIJER, Michigan
+DAN KILDEE, Michigan VACANCY
+SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania
+LIZZIE FLETCHER, Texas
+VACANCY
+
+ C O N T E N T S
+
+ February 25, 2021
+
+ Page
+
+Hearing Charter.................................................. 2
+
+ Opening Statements
+
+Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Chairwoman,
+ Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of
+ Representatives................................................ 8
+ Written Statement............................................ 9
+
+Statement by Representative Frank Lucas, Ranking Member,
+ Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of
+ Representatives................................................ 10
+ Written Statement............................................ 11
+
+ Witnesses:
+
+Dr. Sudip Parikh, Chief Executive Officer, American Association
+ for the Advancement of Science
+ Oral Statement............................................... 13
+ Written Statement............................................ 15
+
+Dr. Christopher Keane, Vice President for Research, Washington
+ State University
+ Oral Statement............................................... 25
+ Written Statement............................................ 27
+
+Dr. Felice J. Levine, Executive Director, American Educational
+ Research Association
+ Oral Statement............................................... 45
+ Written Statement............................................ 47
+
+Mr. Thomas Quaadman, Executive Vice President, Center for Capital
+ Markets Competitiveness, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
+ Oral Statement............................................... 53
+ Written Statement............................................ 55
+
+Discussion....................................................... 68
+
+ Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
+
+Dr. Sudip Parikh, Chief Executive Officer, American Association
+ for the Advancement of Science................................. 112
+
+Dr. Christopher Keane, Vice President for Research, Washington
+ State University............................................... 116
+
+Dr. Felice J. Levine, Executive Director, American Educational
+ Research Association........................................... 127
+
+Mr. Thomas Quaadman, Executive Vice President, Center for Capital
+ Markets Competitiveness, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.............. 132
+
+ Appendix II: Additional Material for the Record
+
+Report submitted by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson,
+ Chairwoman, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S.
+ House of Representatives
+ ``Issue Brief: U.S. R&D Community Pandemic Recovery
+ Lagging,'' American Physical Society....................... 142
+
+Letter submitted by Representative Bill Posey, Committee on
+ Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives.. 147
+
+
+ BUILDING BACK THE U.S.
+ RESEARCH ENTERPRISE:
+ COVID IMPACTS AND RECOVERY
+
+ ----------
+
+
+ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021
+
+ House of Representatives,
+ Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
+ Washington, D.C.
+
+ The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:01 a.m., via
+Webex, Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson [Chairwoman of the Committee]
+presiding.
+[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
+
+ Chairwoman Johnson. And without objection, the Chair is
+authorized to declare recess at any time.
+ Pursuant to House Resolution 8, today, the Committee is
+meeting virtually. I want to announce a couple of reminders to
+the Members about the conduct of the remote hearing. First,
+Members should keep their video feed on as long as they are
+present in the hearing, and Members are responsible for their
+own microphones. Please keep your microphones muted until you
+are speaking. And finally, if Members have documents they wish
+to submit for the record, please email them to the Committee
+Clerk, whose email address was circulated prior to the meeting.
+ Good morning and welcome to today's hearing. I want to
+thank our distinguished panel for joining us today and remind
+them that there are probably two of the names that I'll get a
+little bit mixed because I'm from Waco, Texas, and I only speak
+Waco English. But I want to thank our distinguished panel for
+joining us today.
+ This week our Nation passed yet another heart-wrenching
+milestone. More than a half million of our friends, neighbors,
+family members, frontline workers, and fellow citizens have
+succumbed to COVID-19 since the disease first touched our
+shores a little more than a year ago. Even as vaccines are
+being administered around the country, help has come too late
+for them and for the more than 2,000 Americans who continue to
+die each passing day. Those numbers are staggering, yet we must
+remember it would have been even worse if not for the
+sacrifices that Americans have been making to bring this virus
+under control.
+ The necessary mitigation measures undertaken by
+individuals and by businesses, institutions, and organizations
+of all types have created enormous disruptions to every sector
+of American life, including agriculture, manufacturing,
+hospitality, education, sports, transportation, and health care
+as we have attempted to slow this deadly spread of the virus.
+Scientific research has not been spared.
+ We are here today to discuss the state of the U.S.
+research enterprise one year into this pandemic, and to explore
+what is needed to get things back on track. For my colleagues
+who are new to the Committee, let me say a few words about the
+critical role research plays in our society. For decades,
+federally funded research has generated new ideas and spurred
+breakthrough innovations, which fuel our economy and create
+jobs, inspire new generations of young people to pursue
+science, improve public health and education, and keep us a
+step ahead of our global competitors. Our research system is
+the envy of the world, and many nations have tried hard to
+emulate it.
+ In this hearing we will examine the ways in which the
+pandemic has slowed the pace of research and innovation and
+reversed hard-earned gains in expanding our STEM (science,
+technology, engineering, and math) workforce. I am deeply
+concerned about the long-term consequences for the American
+people if we don't make these investments necessary to address
+the needs of our science agencies, universities, researchers,
+and students.
+ Even before the pandemic, years of stagnant funding
+dramatically eroded our standing as the leader in science and
+innovation with countries like China nipping at our heels. It
+is not enough to recover simply to maintain the status quo. We
+must grow the research enterprise so that we can boldly tackle
+the urgent challenges ahead of us.
+ For these reasons, I did not hesitate to join my
+bipartisan colleagues in the House in cosponsoring the RISE
+Act. I was also pleased to be joined by Ranking Member Lucas in
+reintroducing the Supporting Early Career Researchers Act,
+which is focused specifically on keeping the best and brightest
+in research careers that they have already worked so hard for.
+I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will continue
+to join me in advocating for their passage and the real funding
+for those two bills.
+ In that regard, I look forward to learning from the expert
+panel about the specific challenges and needs one year into the
+pandemic, including any recommendations for updating these
+bills. Well, we have a lot to consider today, and I again want
+to thank our witnesses for appearing with us today.
+ [The prepared statement of Chairwoman Johnson follows:]
+
+ Good morning and welcome to today's hearing. I want to
+thank our distinguished panel for joining us today. This week
+our Nation passed yet another heart wrenching milestone. More
+than half a million of our friends, neighbors, family members,
+front-line workers, and fellow citizens have succumbed to
+COVID-19 since the disease first touched our shores a little
+over one year ago. Even as vaccines are being administered
+around the country, help has come too late for them and the
+more than two thousand Americans who continue to die with each
+passing day.
+ Those numbers are staggering, yet we must remember it would
+have been even worse if not for the sacrifices Americans have
+been making to bring the virus under control. The necessary
+mitigation measures undertaken by individuals and by
+businesses, institutions, and organizations of all types have
+created enormous disruptions to every sector of American life,
+including agriculture, manufacturing, hospitality, education,
+sports, transportation, and health care as we have attempted to
+slow the deadly spread of the virus. Scientific research has
+not been spared.
+ We are here today to discuss the state of the U.S. research
+enterprise one year into this pandemic, and to explore what is
+needed to get things back on track. For my colleagues who are
+new to the Committee, let me say a few words about the critical
+role research plays in our society. For decades, federally
+funded research has generated new ideas and spurred
+breakthrough innovations which fuel our economy and create
+jobs, inspire new generations of young people to pursue
+science, improve public health and education, and keep us a
+step ahead of our global competitors. Our research system is
+the envy of the world, and many nations have tried hard to
+emulate it.
+ In this hearing we will examine the ways in which the
+pandemic has slowed the pace of research and innovation and
+reversed hard-earned gains in expanding our STEM workforce. I
+am deeply concerned about the long-term consequences for the
+American people if we don't make the investments necessary to
+address the needs of our science agencies, universities,
+researchers, and students. Even before the pandemic, years of
+stagnant funding dramatically eroded our standing as the leader
+in science and innovation, with countries like China nipping at
+our heels. It is not enough to recover simply to maintain the
+status quo-we must grow the research enterprise so we can
+boldly tackle the urgent challenges ahead of us.
+ For those reasons, I did not hesitate to join my bipartisan
+colleagues in the House in cosponsoring the RISE Act. I was
+also pleased to be joined by Ranking Member Lucas in re-
+introducing the Supporting Early Career Researchers Act, which
+is focused specifically on keeping the best and brightest in
+research careers that they have already worked so hard for. I
+hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will continue to
+join me in advocating for their passage and for real funding
+for those two bills. In that regard, I look forward to learning
+from the expert panel about the specific challenges and needs
+one year into the pandemic, including any recommendations for
+updating those bills.
+ Well, we have a lot to consider today, and I again want to
+thank our witnesses for appearing before us today.
+ I now yield to Ranking Member Lucas for his opening
+statement.
+
+ Chairwoman Johnson. Before I recognize Mr. Lucas for the--
+his opening remarks, I'd like to present for the record a
+report from the American Physical Society entitled ``Issue
+Brief: The U.S. R&D Community Pandemic Recovery Lagging.''
+ Thank you. And now I will ask for Mr. Lucas for his
+opening statement.
+ Mr. Lucas. Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson, both for being a
+pleasure to work with and for holding this hearing. I believe
+that today's topics, restarting American research, is one of
+the most important issues we face at this moment. In September
+we heard from students and academics about the far-reaching
+impacts of COVID shutdowns. Those problems are only getting
+worse as Congress continues to ignore this problem in COVID
+relief bills. American research universities support nearly 7
+million jobs, and hundreds of thousands of those are directly
+supported by research funding. As research funding dries, those
+jobs are threatened.
+ The research itself is also suffering. When COVID hit,
+labs across the country had to close or dramatically limit
+their operations to provide for safe social distancing. It's
+estimated we're losing between 20 and 40 percent of our
+research output, which we absolutely cannot afford if we want
+to keep pace with China.
+ The Chinese Communist Party is determined to overtake us
+in the industries of the future, areas of science and
+technology that will drive economic growth and national
+security in the years to come. The longer our research remains
+stalled, the more likely it is we'll fall behind our foreign
+adversaries on technologies like artificial intelligence,
+quantum information sciences and advanced manufacturing. The
+consequences of that would be devastating.
+ In addition to our loss of research, we're facing the loss
+of our researchers. Graduate students and post-docs are
+particularly vulnerable to lab closures right now. Research
+interruptions make it difficult to complete their studies and
+graduate on time. And universities have instituted hiring
+freezes, making it difficult to find work. Our STEM pipeline
+and future competitiveness could be irreparably damaged if we
+don't act quickly.
+ Unfortunately, we can't just flip a switch and restart the
+research work that's been halted by the pandemic. There's a
+cost involved in getting back up and running. Scientists need
+to cultivate new samples; field researchers need to reacquire
+equipment, permits, and tools; and labs need to figure out how
+to safely use and sterilize expensive and delicate equipment.
+ For a time, research will cost more and take longer to
+conduct. We need to plan for that. But our science progress is
+worth that investment. That's why I was so disappointed that in
+the $4 trillion in COVID spending that Congress has already
+passed, not one cent has gone to research itself. In the
+massive and partisan $1.9 trillion budget reconciliation
+proposal being considered this week, billions and billions of
+dollars are going to special interests that already have $1
+trillion in unspent funding sitting in the Treasury from
+previous COVID packages. And yet in all that spending, only
+$600 million was allocated to helping the research industry
+recover from the pandemic. That's less than half a percent.
+ We've relied on American science and scientists to combat
+COVID, but we're not giving them the funding they need to
+resume the work that's been stopped by the pandemic. We need to
+act now.
+ I'm a proud cosponsor of the RISE Act, which would invest
+$25 billion in restarting American research. It provides the
+funding needed for researchers to complete work that was halted
+due to the pandemic. And it will allow Federal science agencies
+to make awards to research universities, independent
+institutions, and national laboratories.
+ I'm also proud of the Supporting Early Career Researchers
+Act Chairwoman Johnson and I reintroduced at the start of this
+Congress. This bill creates a new postdoctoral fellowship
+program at the National Science Foundation to help support
+early career researchers.
+ Both of these bills enjoy strong bipartisan support, which
+is why I'm hopeful that we can move forward on them sooner
+rather than later. In the meantime, I'd like to thank our
+witnesses for being here today. I'm looking forward to learning
+more about the challenges facing our research industry and to
+hear your ideas about how we can support American scientists
+and technology.
+ And with that, Madam Chair, again, thank you. And I yield
+back.
+ [The prepared statement of Mr. Lucas follows:]
+
+ Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson, for holding this hearing. I
+believe that today's topic--restarting American research--is
+one of the most important issues we face at this moment. In
+September we heard from students and academics about the far-
+ranging impacts of COVID shutdowns. Those problems are only
+getting worse as Congress continues to ignore this problem in
+COVID relief bills.
+ American research universities support nearly 7 million
+jobs, and hundreds of thousands of those are directly supported
+by research funding. As research funding dries up, those jobs
+are threatened.
+ The research itself is also suffering. When COVID hit, labs
+across the country had to close or dramatically limit their
+operations to provide for safe social distancing. It's
+estimated that we're losing between 20 and 40 percent of our
+research output, which we absolutely cannot afford if we want
+to keep pace with China.
+ The Chinese Communist Party is determined to overtake us in
+the industries of the future-areas of science and technology
+that will drive economic growth and national security in the
+years to come. The longer our research remains stalled, the
+more likely it is that we'll fall behind our foreign
+adversaries on technologies like artificial intelligence,
+quantum information sciences, advanced manufacturing. The
+consequences of that would be devastating.
+ In addition to our loss of research, we're facing the loss
+of our researchers. Graduate students and post-docs are
+particularly vulnerable to lab closures right now. Research
+interruptions make it difficult to complete their studies and
+graduate on time. And universities have instituted hiring
+freezes, making it difficult to find work. Our STEM pipeline
+and future competitiveness could be irreparably damaged if we
+don't act quickly.
+ Unfortunately, we can't just flip a switch and restart the
+research work that's been halted by the pandemic. There's a
+cost involved in getting back up and running. Scientists need
+to cultivate new samples, field researchers need to reacquire
+equipment, permits, and tools, and labs need to figure out how
+to safely use and sterilize expensive and delicate equipment.
+ For a time, research will cost more and take longer to
+conduct, and we need to plan for that. But our scientific
+progress is worth that investment. That's why I'm so
+disappointed that in the $4 trillion in COVID spending that
+Congress has already passed, not one cent has gone to research
+relief.
+ In the massive and partisan $1.9 trillion budget
+reconciliation proposal being considered this week, billions
+and billions of dollars are going to special interests that
+already have $1 trillion in unspent funding sitting in the
+Treasury from previous COVID packages. And yet in all that
+spending, only $600 million was allocated to helping the
+research industry recover from the pandemic. That's less than
+half a percent.
+ We've relied on American science and scientists to combat
+COVID, but we're not giving them the funding they need to
+resume the work that's been stopped by the pandemic.
+ We need to act now.
+ I'm a proud cosponsor of the RISE Act, which would invest
+$25 billion in restarting American research. It provides the
+funding needed for researchers to complete work that was halted
+due to the pandemic. And it will allow federal science agencies
+to make awards to research universities, independent
+institutions, and national laboratories.
+ I'm also proud of the Supporting Early-Career Researchers
+Act Chairwoman Johnson and I re-introduced at the start of this
+Congress. This bill creates a new postdoctoral fellowship
+program at the National Science foundation to help support
+early career researchers.
+ Both of these bills enjoy strong bipartisan support, which
+is why I'm hopeful that we can move forward on them sooner
+rather than later. In the meantime, I'd like to thank our
+witnesses for being here today. I'm looking forward to learning
+more about the challenges facing our research industry, and
+hear your ideas about how we can support American science and
+technology.
+ Thank you.
+
+ Chairwoman Johnson. Our first witness, Dr. Sudip Parikh,
+is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for
+the Advancement of Science--we call it AAAS--and the Executive
+Publisher of the Science family of journals, a position he has
+held since January 2020. Prior to his current position with
+AAAS, Dr. Parikh served as Senior Vice President and Managing
+Director at DIA Global, the General Manager of the Health and
+Consumer Solutions Business Unit and Vice President at
+Battelle.
+ Our next witness, Dr. Christopher Keane, Dr. Keane is Vice
+President of Research (VPR) and professor of physics at
+Washington State University (WSU) where he has served since
+2014. Prior to his positions there, he served in multiple
+leadership positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
+and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Nuclear
+Security Administration. Dr. Keane is also Chair of the
+Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU)
+Council on Research Executive Committee.
+ Our third witness, Dr. Felice Levine. Dr. Levine is
+Executive Director of the American Educational Research
+Association (AERA). Her work focuses on research and science
+policy issues, the scientific and academic workforce, and
+diversity and inclusion in higher education. Dr. Levine is
+engaged in a multi-method study of the impact of COVID-19 on
+early career education researchers and doctoral students.
+ Our next witness, Mr. Thomas Quaadman, Mr. Quaadman is
+Executive Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center
+for Capital Markets Competitiveness, the Chamber Technology
+Engagement Center, and the Global Innovation Policy Center. In
+his role with the Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness,
+he works to create and execute legislative, regulatory, and
+judicial strategies to reform the financial regulatory system
+and support policies for efficient capital markets.
+ Our witnesses should know that you will each have 5
+minutes for your spoken testimony. Your written testimony will
+be included in the record for the hearing. And when you have
+completed your spoken testimony, we will begin with questions,
+and each Member will have 5 minutes to question the panel. We
+will now start with Dr. Parikh.
+
+ TESTIMONY OF DR. SUDIP PARIKH,
+
+ CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
+
+ FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
+
+ Dr. Parikh. Thank you. Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking Member
+Lucas, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the
+opportunity to testify today. As the CEO (chief executive
+officer) of the American Association for the Advancement of
+Science, or AAAS, and the Executive Publisher of Science
+magazine, I have the privilege of representing 120,000
+scientists and engineers from every discipline, from
+agriculture and artificial intelligence (AI) to x-ray
+crystallography and zoology, who work tirelessly to advance
+science and serve society for the benefit of all.
+ And here's what they tell me. It seems strange to say it
+during a pandemic, but we live in wondrous times. The pace of
+discovery and innovation has never been faster. We've seen,
+we've seen the methane-covered mountains of Pluto. We have felt
+the gravitational ripples caused by colliding black holes. We
+have detailed extensive changes to our climate and environment.
+We've advanced quantum computing to the brink of broader
+utility and the creation of jobs and harnessed gene editing to
+potentially cure sickle-cell anemia and other diseases, not to
+mention the thrill of landing a rover on Mars in high-
+resolution no less.
+ Despite failures in our public health response to the
+pandemic, the biomedical research enterprise has never worked
+more quickly to understand and address COVID-19. The record-
+shattering number of submissions to the journal Science and
+other peer-reviewed publications for COVID, it speaks volumes
+about the speed and intensity with which researchers are
+responding to this crisis. And they haven't stopped in other
+areas either.
+ But we also live in uncertain times. Multiple intersecting
+challenges have the potential to become global crises. The
+COVID-19 pandemic is not going to be the last time that science
+is essential to society's triumph over existential threats.
+Addressing future public health concerns like Alzheimer's,
+climate change, food and water insecurity, and other
+challenges, some of which aren't even emerged yet, will require
+addressing short-term funding challenges and long-term support
+for science.
+ But we can't do things the way we've always done them
+either. The cadence of emerging crises and the pace of
+discoveries requires permanent elevation of scientific advisors
+to the front ranks of policymaking. And at the same time, we
+need to more fully engage diverse communities with an
+intentional emphasis on those that have been ignored,
+marginalized, or harmed by scientific advancement.
+ Today's hearing is incredibly timely. We are at an
+inflection point. As I said, we live in wondrous times for
+discovery, but that's a lagging indicator of previous
+investment. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and slow erosion
+of investment, our Nation's universities and laboratories, the
+foundation of our innovation ecosystem, have faced an eroding
+capacity to nurture ideas, discoveries, and, most importantly,
+a highly skilled, diverse pool of STEM talent. And this is
+happening just as our global competitors are pouring investment
+into the sciences. What we do now could determine who benefits
+from scientific discovery in the form of better jobs and
+improved health.
+ Scientists and engineers have risen to the challenge of
+COVID-19, but this success has come at a price. Lab workers
+have been forced to work in shifts, and this limited lab time
+has slowed research. Lab budgets have been strained by the need
+to extend salaries. With needed safety measures in place, human
+subjects research has been particularly challenging. And field
+expeditions have been canceled or curtailed.
+ Early career researchers have been hit especially hard.
+For undergraduates in STEM, summer research programs were
+widely canceled, creating challenges in applying and
+progressing to grad school. For graduate students and
+postdoctoral researchers, job searches were suspended, leaving
+them in incredibly precarious positions of waiting for the job
+market to return.
+ Mental health has also been a continued concern. For women
+and underrepresented minorities in STEM, the pandemic has just
+further exacerbated already existing disparities. One recent
+survey found that female scientists and scientists with young
+dependents reported that their ability to devote time to the
+research has been substantially affected. Another found that
+students of color at research universities, as well as low-
+income and working-class students, were more likely to
+experience anxiety and depression, food and housing insecurity,
+and much higher rates of financial hardship.
+ Science involves problem-solving and collaboration. Every
+time a research project is shuttered or delayed or a promising
+scientist drops out of the workforce, it raises the question
+what discovery or development that could have made us safer,
+led to better jobs, or healed the sick has been lost?
+ This is the time to act. The wisdom and foresight of
+Congress in investing in science and engineering (S&E) has
+enabled America's global leadership. I look forward to
+discussing with you how we can ensure a future where the
+descendants of Native Americans, pilgrims, enslaved peoples,
+Ellis Island arrivals, and everybody else working together can
+come together to address the coming crises and build a better
+future for all Americans. Thank you.
+ [The prepared statement of Dr. Parikh follows:]
+ [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
+
+ Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Dr. Christopher
+Keane.
+
+ TESTIMONY OF DR. CHRISTOPHER KEANE,
+
+ VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH,
+
+ WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
+
+ Dr. Keane. OK. Good morning. Chairman Johnson, Ranking
+Member--Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking Member Lucas, and Members
+of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify
+today before the Committee regarding the contribution of the
+Nation's universities to building back the U.S. research
+enterprise and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. My name is
+Christopher Keane, and I'm Vice President for Research at
+Washington State University. In my capacity as VPR at WSU, I
+serve as Chair of the Association of Public and Land-Grant
+Universities Council on Research.
+ I want to highlight the work that WSU and our fellow
+public and land-grant institutions are doing to support our
+public health and economy during the pandemic, the impact the
+pandemic has had on our research enterprise, and the role
+Congress can play in mitigating the challenges research
+institutions across the country face.
+ The Nation's public and land-grant universities, echoing
+the last speaker, indeed, have risen to the challenge in the
+campaign against the coronavirus. This includes conducting
+research relevant to COVID-19, testing, support of campus and
+community vaccination efforts, and other activities needed to
+return students to school and support the safe resumption of
+university programs while ensuring the health of our
+communities.
+ Working with local, State, and national public health
+officials, industry, and other organizations, universities are
+making adjustments to meet the needs of our students,
+researchers, and communities. For example, WSU's Washington
+State Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL) has been
+modified to conduct CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement
+Amendments)-certified--that's the FDA (Food and Drug
+Administration) approval process--testing for the SARS-CoV-2
+virus. To date, WADDL has processed over 67,000 samples from
+surrounding residents, including about 25,000 samples from WSU
+faculty, students, and staff. WSU has provided cold storage for
+vaccines and is also partnering in the delivery of over 12,000
+doses to residents in eastern Washington.
+ The university has continued to face severe impacts right
+now, including delays and disruptions to undergraduate and
+postgraduate education, revenue losses, and increased
+operational costs; amplification of gender, racial, and other
+previously existing inequities; disruption of the flow of
+talent, infrastructure impacts; food and housing insecurity,
+unfortunately; lack of childcare, and other factors. These
+impacts directly undermine our ability to support the
+fundamental research that drives innovation. Indeed, economists
+estimate innovation provides 50 percent of annual U.S. GDP
+(gross domestic product) growth.
+ One story, at WSU Vancouver, one of our assistant
+professors recently shared this tale, quote, ``At the start of
+the pandemic, my children and I were targeted with racial slurs
+just because we were Asian American, and we didn't cause the
+pandemic. Add to that the emotional stress I have from
+homeschooling my special-needs child, and I just don't have the
+energy or ability to produce research papers. After many months
+of non-productivity, I finally chose to give up sleeping. I now
+regularly have resumed some sleeping, only getting 2 or 3 hours
+a night just so I can keep writing papers and stay on track for
+my career.'' That's a real story, and there's numerous others.
+ WSU and the Nation's academic community are grateful for
+the Federal assistance provided by Congress over the past year.
+As Congress considers additional stimulus and recovery funding,
+I urge the Committee to pass the RISE Act that will provide $25
+billion to Federal research agencies to support projects at
+independent research institutions, public laboratories, and
+universities throughout the country. The funding would also
+support early career researchers and graduate students,
+researchers and disciplines not fully covered such as human
+subject research and field work and vital facilities.
+ Making full use of all our national talent is critical to
+recovery, advancing the U.S. research enterprise, and remaining
+competitive globally. China's current annual R&D (research and
+development) expenditure growth exceeds that of the United
+States by roughly $60 billion, which in fact is double the
+total request for the RISE Act. So even if all the RISE Act
+funding were applied to federally funded research--and there
+are many other costs as well, of course--China would remain on
+a path to exceed U.S. R&D expenditures in the near future,
+ultimately threatening our position as the world leader in an
+innovation economy.
+ We also need to encourage students to follow a career path
+in research, and I urge the Committee to support the Early
+Career Researchers Act. This will provide the financial support
+necessary for young researchers to be hired who may be
+otherwise lost to our national enterprise due to the current
+crisis.
+ On behalf of the Nation's public and land-grant
+universities, I appreciate the opportunity to speak here today
+and express our thanks for the support provided by the
+Committee and Congress. The resources you have provided are
+allowing our research universities to meet the challenges of
+COVID-19. The pandemic, however, has emphasized and in many
+cases amplified many of the existing shortfalls I have
+outlined. I urge the Committee to support the RISE Act to
+advance the research enterprise at our universities and the
+fundamental research and new ideas it drives, allowing the U.S.
+innovation economy to flourish and better the lives of all
+Americans.
+ Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I
+look forward to answering any questions you may have.
+ [The prepared statement of Dr. Keane follows:]
+ [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
+
+ Chairwoman Johnson. Sorry I didn't unmute. Thank you very
+much for your testimony. Dr. Levine.
+
+ TESTIMONY OF DR. FELICE J. LEVINE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
+
+ AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
+
+ Dr. Levine. Thank you very much, Chairwoman Johnson,
+Ranking Member Lucas, and Members of the Committee. I
+appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today.
+ As we reach the 1-year mark of COVID-19 hitting the United
+States with full force, the disruptions to the lives of early
+career scholars and doctoral students in higher education
+institutions have proven to be drastic, persistent, and far-
+reaching. The harsh conditions are taking their toll on
+research progress, research, researchers, and academic careers,
+as my colleagues have just also addressed. It also exacerbated
+gender and racial inequities that may have long-lasting effects
+on future generations of researchers.
+ Almost at the onset of the pandemic, scholars of the
+American Educational Research Association and the Spencer
+Foundation determined that it was essential to use our research
+expertise to gather information about the experiences and needs
+of early career scholars and doctoral students. We decided to
+undertake two studies, the Focus--the COVID-19 Focus Group
+Study, and the COVID-19 Impact Survey. The Focus Group Study
+report was just released in late January and is based on
+systematic study of 12 focus groups of early career scholars
+and doctoral students. We were able to hear their voices. The
+survey is a national study of some 6,000 doctoral students and
+early career scholars engaged in education research. The data
+collection just ended several weeks ago, and data analysis is
+about to begin.
+ Today, I share just a handful of topline findings and
+facts that are prototypical of our results, along with other
+studies noted in my written testimony. They convey a reality
+that those committed to scientific progress, U.S. science
+leadership, inclusive scientific literacy, and diverse
+workforce must confront.
+ First, we learned from our focus groups that scholars are
+facing research derailments and delays, uncertainties, and
+ambiguities. This finding is consistent with our survey data.
+Approximately 70 percent of both early career scholars and
+doctoral students said COVID-19 had substantially slowed
+progress on critical research tasks, 45 percent of the doctoral
+students reporting extending their doctoral completion day as
+one indicator of the impact of those delays.
+ Second, systemic racism in particular after the killing of
+George Floyd has led to a dual pandemic and added professional
+pressures for scholars of color. They are experiencing not only
+emotional distress and exhaustion compounded by being asked to
+take on more work to help their institutions address these
+issues. And we need to understand how to strike a balance in
+that arena.
+ Third, scholars, especially women, face uncertainties and
+barriers to research productivity while juggling family and
+home. This theme was dominant in both focus groups and the
+survey. Seventy percent of female doctoral students and 74
+percent of female scholars with childcare responsibilities
+reported a significant increase due to COVID-19 of these
+responsibilities.
+ Fourth, researchers are increasingly concerned about their
+employment status and careers. Our survey data show that nearly
+24 percent or a quarter had already reported experiences of
+reduction or loss of income due to COVID-19.
+ Fifth, scientific progress, as we know, depends upon three
+C's and a lot of A's of course, cumulative knowledge,
+collaboration, and connection. Yet another dominant focus group
+theme and survey result is a loss of opportunities for
+collegial exchange. Forty-six percent of the doctoral students
+and 57 percent of the early career scholars reported a great
+deal of loss, and over 80 percent of both groups referred to
+the absence of that kind of exchange and interaction as
+affecting and shaping their careers.
+ However stark these data are, findings like these are
+helpful for the work that you are doing. Together, we have an
+opportunity to do better. AERA and our peer associations
+strongly support the RISE Act. It would provide a much-needed
+infusion of funds to address the cost of disruptions to
+research grants, provide financial support and flexibility for
+researchers, and help cover expenses to ramp research back up.
+ AERA also strongly endorses the Supporting Early Career
+Researchers Act for all the reasons set forth by the Members
+and also from my colleagues. It will establish a new National
+Science Foundation (NSF) fellowship program to help early
+career researchers in the STEM pipeline in flexible and
+appropriate and essential ways.
+ We are at a pivotal time to support the next generation of
+researchers and the research enterprise that relies on them.
+The risk to their futures and to our country that reaps the
+benefits from science are far too great to miss this
+opportunity.
+ Thank you, and I look forward to participating in the
+question-and-answer session that follows.
+ [The prepared statement of Dr. Levine follows:]
+ [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
+
+ Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Your testimony
+was very complete. Mr. Thomas Quaadman.
+
+ TESTIMONY OF MR. THOMAS QUAADMAN,
+
+ EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
+
+ CENTER FOR CAPITAL MARKETS COMPETITIVENESS,
+
+ U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
+
+ Mr. Quaadman. Good morning, Chair Johnson, Ranking Member
+Lucas, and Members of the Science, Space, and Technology
+Committee. Thank you for your bipartisan leadership on key
+research and development initiatives and for the opportunity to
+discuss the role R&D is playing in fighting the COVID-19 virus
+and how R&D can help the American economy keep its leading edge
+in an increasingly competitive international marketplace.
+ R&D is a wide-ranging process that advances the strategic
+interests of the United States, improves the health and well-
+being of all Americans, and gives our consumers access to high-
+quality products that allows them to enjoy the highest standard
+of living in a global economy.
+ As you know, there are three areas of research: Basic
+research, which is theoretical in nature; applied research,
+which is directed at a specific aim; and development, which is
+used to create new products or improve existing products.
+ The American R&D infrastructure revolves around three
+pillars made up of the Federal Government, academia, and the
+private sector. Generally, the Federal Government, often
+working through academia, tends to focus on basic research, the
+business community leads on development, and all three play
+significant roles in applied research.
+ Intellectual property (IP) rights provide a basis for
+collaboration and technology transfer among all three. This
+infrastructure thrives as a result of long-standing and strong
+bipartisan support from Congress, including funding and the
+passage of key bills last year. Other long-standing laws such
+as the Bayh-Dole Act and the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act
+make the U.S. intellectual property system the most reliable in
+the world. These bipartisan initiatives have made the United
+States the global leader in R&D since the start of World War
+II.
+ While we know many past accomplishments, America's R&D
+leadership has been on full display in the effort to combat
+COVID-19. Pfizer and Moderna developed and deployed highly
+effective vaccines in less than a year, and Johnson & Johnson
+will soon follow suit. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are
+based on new technology called mRNA that allows a person's RNA
+to be programmed to produce vaccines. This treatment can be
+revolutionary in treating other diseases such as cancers and
+chronic conditions that impact millions of Americans. MRNA was
+based upon decades of academic and private sector R&D.
+Artificial intelligence shaved off months if not years of
+research to narrow the scope for researchers to target other
+drugs that can be used to treat and prevent COVID-19. This took
+an all-nation approach. There have been over 1,100 clinical
+trials in all 50 States covering over 410 congressional
+districts.
+ While we must still defeat the pandemic, the tools are
+coming online to do so. This would not have been possible
+without the long-term R&D efforts by life sciences companies or
+the short-term laser-focus bipartisanship in the Federal
+Government, academia, and the private sector.
+ Despite these successes, America's global R&D leadership
+is in peril. Currently, 70 percent of spending in the United
+States is performed by the private sector. In the mid-1960's 70
+percent was undertaken by the Federal Government. Federal
+Government R&D spending has fallen to 2.8 percent of the
+budget, its lowest point in 60 years, and has gone down
+consistently since the 2008 financial crisis. China has been
+closing the gap rapidly. Since 2000, U.S. R&D spending has
+grown by 4.3 percent annually while Chinese spending has grown
+by 17 percent annually.
+ A key factor of future competitiveness is R&D intensity or
+the share of R&D spending to the economy. Currently the United
+States ranks 10th. We believe there are concrete bipartisan
+steps that can reverse these negative trends and maintain
+America's leadership in research and development. This can be
+done by enacting and passing the RISE Act to mitigate the
+impact of COVID-19 on our national research enterprise and lay
+the foundation for future discoveries and innovation, ensure
+that recently enacted R&D legislation including the National
+Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act, CHIPS for America Act,
+and the Energy Act of 2020 are fully implemented and funded.
+Increase funding for the Technology Modernization Fund and
+other programs in order to digitally transform government.
+Modernizing government platforms will enable greater real-time
+collaboration and strengthen the Federal Government's research
+capacity. Identify additional opportunities to reverse the
+decline in Federal investments in R&D with a focus on basic
+research, maintain the ability of private companies to
+immediately deduct R&D expenses, enable the private sector R&D
+investment to a recommitment to the patent system. These steps
+will be critical for the United States to remain a leader in
+areas such as semiconductors while establishing a commanding
+position in areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum
+computing. In doing so, we can recover from the impacts of the
+pandemic and lay the foundation for the United States to lead
+the industries of tomorrow. I'm happy to take any questions you
+may have.
+ [The prepared statement of Mr. Quaadman follows:]
+ [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
+
+ Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. We've had
+fantastic testimony. And let me just say that many of the
+questions that I've had you have touched on. We know this,
+we'll now begin our questioning, and I'll yield myself 5
+minutes.
+ The COVID-19 crisis has affected research across the
+board, but some disciplines have been harder hit than others.
+Experimental researchers have had limited access to their
+laboratory equipment and have experienced a larger disruption
+of their work than researchers working on theoretical science
+and computing. Perhaps more importantly, the STEM pipeline has
+been harmed by this crisis. Graduate student training and
+mentoring has suffered from limited access to library space,
+laboratory space, collaborators, and field sites. We are seeing
+elevated rates of anxiety and depression among graduate
+students, particularly among marginalized groups.
+Undergraduates aren't getting the hands-on research experience
+that inspired them to pursue STEM as a career, and universities
+are instituting hiring freezes to save money, which has
+resulted in a 70 percent drop in the faculty job market.
+ As a result, some early career researchers are facing the
+difficult decision to leave research in order to support their
+families. Women researchers have taken on the majority of the
+additional childcare responsibilities that have arisen due to
+the pandemic, and this has resulted in slower research progress
+for women compared with their male counterparts, which
+threatens to widen the gender gap in STEM faculty
+representation, reversing years of incremental progress.
+ A recent Council on Government Relations model estimated
+that research output dropped by 20 to 40 percent since March of
+2020. The study estimates that the financial impact is tens of
+billions of dollars across the research enterprise.
+ What I would like you to help us focus on is while the
+CARES Act provided some funding for science agencies, it fell
+well short of the need and was focused specifically on COVID
+research. And likewise, the funding being considered as part of
+the current reconciliation package is focused on COVID-related
+research. The bill text should be published probably very soon,
+but the RISE Act will help, I think, tremendously.
+ But what I'd like each of you to point out, we've got all
+the problems on the table and all the concerns. Please give us
+some direct recommendations that we can utilize and make sure
+that we don't deteriorate this enterprise anymore. I can start
+wherever you'd like. Dr.--yes. Is Dr. Levine still----
+ Dr. Levine. Yes, I'm here. I can----
+ Chairwoman Johnson. OK.
+ Dr. Levine. I can start first. Yes, I can. You know, I
+think you have [inaudible] joined the research community in
+your command of exactly what we seek for supporting the
+research enterprise from high-energy physics to education
+research from field sites and studies to experimental studies
+in the social and behavioral sciences. And the money and the
+support for flexible funding is really imperative. Not only do
+we need to widen the net of those who can receive particularly
+early career flexible kinds of grants, for example, those that
+were part of the National Science Foundation Career-Life
+Balance (CLB) supplemental funding offered ways of
+supplementing for the kinds of things that researchers have
+lost. They may need childcare support. They indeed may need
+some additional counseling. They may need bandwidth to do some
+of the social networking worldwide that has been limited.
+ The one thing I would say as a concrete recommendation
+while I praise CLB, it is a supplement. Now, were this kind of
+initiative also to be able to be an early career funding
+mechanism, you would really be able to widen the scope of
+scientists across fields of science. Every field of science has
+taken a hit. And that has also affected building capacity in
+scientific fields. If I can say for one moment, the deep
+commitment of this Committee for science education and capacity
+building at the K-12 level, at the undergraduate level. We need
+to ensure the talent pool is there to be able to do that
+teaching across levels of education. They are doing it multi-
+fold in the past year since the onset of COVID-19.
+ But we hear reports that for those who are teaching, for
+example, in universities and colleges in more rural locations
+where the bandwidth may be for their students, that the
+students ride and sit in a car with the children in the
+backseat, and they are trying to do online learning. So this
+has wide-ranging opportunities for this Committee to grapple
+with in a way that not only advances the enterprise of science
+but also the next generation of scientists. And that's why I
+mentioned science literacy. You need to have those skills to
+develop a modern workforce.
+ Dr. Keane. Yes, Chairwoman Johnson, if I could add into
+that, this is Chris Keane, thank you for your great summary of
+the situation, by the way. It was very helpful. Just a couple
+things.
+ Again, I support the RISE Act, but in thinking about
+financial relief, I think it's important to bear in mind there
+are sort of three issues. First, there's direct--relieving
+direct costs of the pandemic, which tend to squeeze budgets for
+hiring and everything else.
+ Secondly, there's the 20 to 40 percent you mentioned,
+which really has to do with the cost of delay for existing
+projects and displacement of our researchers. Just getting that
+work done and making up for that loss of productivity in the
+short term is vital so we don't lose much of our workforce as a
+result of this crisis.
+ And then the third component of relief is basically the
+longer-term investment in the R&D enterprise. Again, I would
+just point out as a stat that, you know, the $25 billion
+proposed in the RISE Act is less than half the gain that China
+is making on our [inaudible] expenditure figure every year. And
+so when you add up those three areas, direct relief from the
+pandemic, you know, addressing the 20-40 percent impact on our
+researchers, as well as the long-term issue of enhancing
+research expenditures and funding generally, it's a big
+request. We really appreciate your help on this.
+ And just one other point I'd mention we haven't covered
+yet, the--with respect to diversity and inclusion needing the
+full benefit of our talents in the United States, that's vital.
+One thing we need is more data to support that actually, and I
+believe the STEM Opportunity Act if I recall correctly calls
+for collecting that data, so I'd urge you, via that act or some
+other means, to increase the amount of data that we collect on
+diversity, inclusion, and equity so we can better assess our
+situation. Thank you.
+ Mr. Quaadman. Chair Johnson, if I could just quickly add
+as well, you know, we fully support the RISE Act, which is
+important to address human capital issues, also fully agree as
+well in terms of the need to help increase Federal research
+dollars, particularly around basic research.
+ Additionally, we also think it is very important that we
+also engage in things like IT (information technology)
+modernization within the government, which is one of the things
+the pandemic has shown is how we have a great need for IT
+modernization.
+ And just lastly, the bipartisan leadership that you and
+Congressman Lucas and this Committee have shown last year in
+the passage of the artificial intelligence legislation, as well
+as the America Energy Act, and other legislation, those need to
+be fully funded and implemented for us to start to deal with
+some of the longer-range issues as well.
+ Chairwoman Johnson. Well, thank you very much. My time has
+really expired. I've enjoyed your input and want more, but I've
+got to now ask Mr. Lucas if he'll do his 5 minutes of
+questioning.
+ Mr. Lucas. Thank you, Madam Chair. As we've heard today,
+Mr. Quaadman, the impacts of the COVID pandemic will be
+particularly detrimental to basic research. And given the
+fundamental role basic research plays in facilitating applied
+and developmental research and subsequently new and improved
+products and services it creates, the losses will likely limit
+industries' future capacity to innovate and commercialize
+innovation stemming from scientific advances. Can you discuss
+how this threat is impacting industry and may impact the United
+States' future economic competitiveness?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Yes. Thank you, Ranking Member Lucas. This
+is all to do with America's long-standing competitiveness. We
+have both China and the European Union, which are greatly
+increasing their research funding as a means to dislodge
+American global leadership. While our competitors have also
+faced some of the constraints because of COVID-19, we really
+need to address some of the issues in terms of funding. We also
+need to address other ancillary issues such as the ability to
+[inaudible] R&D expensing by the private sector so that we can
+continue to grow the private-sector role in this as well.
+ But I would just raise one last point as well. The country
+that leads in innovation is the country that also sets the
+rules and builds the products that are based upon that
+innovation. That is the traditional role the United States has
+played, and that is not a role that we would want to cede to
+other countries that may not share the same values that we do
+in terms of coming up with those rules.
+ Mr. Lucas. Continuing with you, Mr. Quaadman, on February
+2nd the Executive Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce,
+Neil Bradley sent a letter to President Biden and Members of
+Congress. And in this letter he warned against the use of
+reconciliation to pass the American Rescue Plan and stated,
+``Such an approach will certainly make it more difficult to
+reach bipartisan agreement on other policy priorities.'' Can
+you elaborate on why the majority's budget reconciliation
+process has been so detrimental in any progress toward
+bipartisan solutions for American families, businesses, and
+communities?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Yes, thank you for that question, Ranking
+Member Lucas. First off, the four COVID relief bills that have
+passed before this legislation were bipartisan in nature. We
+believe that, you know, with the Democratic view of relief
+being broad-based and for Republican views that it be more
+targeted and temporary, that a synthesis of those views will
+lead to better legislation.
+ Additionally, we don't think that the political well
+should be poisoned where we have to deal with other important
+pieces of legislation that are going to have to be bipartisan
+in nature such as infrastructure.
+ The last point I would say with the reconciliation
+process, what the reconciliation process does is it creates the
+dollar figure, and then the policy needs to follow that dollar
+figure. We would rather see that we come up with what the right
+policies are and then determine what the dollar figure is after
+that.
+ Mr. Lucas. Dr. Keane, in essentially my last question, in
+your written testimony you highlighted the important role land-
+grant institutions have played in working in close
+collaboration with local, State, and national public health
+authorities officials to ramp up COVID testing. And I will
+acknowledge I'm especially excited to hear about the great work
+Oklahoma State University did in developing testing capacity
+for both its campus and the State of Oklahoma. Can you please
+discuss the mission of land-grant institutions and how it
+becomes even more important when facing this pandemic or
+pandemics of this type in the future?
+ Dr. Keane. Thank you, Ranking Member Lucas, for that very
+nice question. Yes, I completely agree with you that the
+mission of our land grants is just--its importance has been
+highlighted by this pandemic. As you know, that mission is
+threefold: teaching, research, and service. And never have they
+been more important. And in fact on the teaching side our
+faculty and staff have risen to that challenge despite rising
+enrollments and getting used to the virtual world, extra
+[inaudible]. They have risen to the challenge and continue to
+educate our students.
+ In the research world we've heard about, as you discussed,
+the things we've done in testing as a service that's provided
+to our local communities, and that's been very important. For
+example, here in Washington State the WSU, our testing facility
+is looking at the community in terms of supporting the spread
+of disease and the community understanding that, but also we're
+directly testing wastewater from our elementary schools, which
+supports the ability of our schools to open in fact. So there's
+a direct community benefit there.
+ And finally, in service, the third part of our mission
+through extension, that's a huge part of what we do here in
+Washington State, at Oklahoma State, and many other land
+grants. We have a presence in every county where we aid our
+citizens every day and numerous other programs in that area.
+ So all in all, the pandemic has just highlighted this
+critical mission of service, research, and teaching at the land
+grants in numerous ways. The APLU has a particular report on
+this subject. There's more information and numerous specific
+examples on their website [inaudible] and our other land-grant
+institutions, so thank you for the opportunity to express the
+importance of these institutions.
+ Mr. Lucas. And probably it's underappreciated how
+important President Lincoln's signature on the Morrill Act in--
+--
+ Dr. Keane. Yes.
+ Mr. Lucas. --1862 and the ability for non-wealthy
+Americans, average Americans scattered around to begin the
+availability of a public education. Thank you, Doctor. I yield
+back, Madam Chair.
+ Staff. Ms. Stevens is next.
+ Ms. Stevens. Great, thank you. This has been a very
+thorough hearing so far, and the testimonies have been
+absolutely tremendous.
+ I represent Michigan, and we've seen this at Oakland
+University with 59 percent of Oakland University's research
+labs being operational, 25 percent face-to-face, and the
+impacts at the university level. Tom, in particular, I
+appreciated your testimony where you touched on the collective
+R&D efforts coming from the Federal Government, the Federal
+Government corporations, as well as from universities. And we
+know we're continuing [inaudible], right? We funded the NSF,
+you know, as a government and appropriated it, and we certainly
+also appreciate the Chamber's support of the American rescue
+package and the triage work that we need to do to continue to
+save lives and bring our economy back. Thank you for your
+partnership there.
+ Dr. Parikh, I would love to talk with you. You have a--
+just a fabulous background, and we so appreciate your
+leadership of AAAS. You know, we love the publication. I get it
+every week. Your testimony was quite thorough. One of the
+things I'd love to drill down on with you is regarding what
+we're actually talking about here, which is our basic R&D
+spend, right, in terms of what's being lost with the
+applications. Have you at all taken a look at the TRL, the
+technology readiness levels, particularly as we're in that, you
+know, early stage of technology readiness and that as we move
+forward to application? Because we do the basic R&D, and we
+know we're losing it. You know, we love your formula. You know,
+if we've got a formula down on the percentage, but have you at
+all taken a look at the technology readiness levels at all in
+terms of the impacts of COVID-19?
+ Dr. Parikh. We haven't specifically, but we have a team
+that can do that kind of analysis. I'd be happy to come back to
+you with that. What we have--when you think about it, it's--in
+its simplest form, it's a conveyor belt, right? And so as this
+thing--as we have things that are moving from basic research,
+through development, through applied, through product, when we
+have this disruption that is COVID-19, it's the same thing with
+people. What ends up happening is you get a logjam in that
+conveyor belt. Yes, we have the funding for next year. You
+might ask, well, why can't we just use the funding from next
+year to continue this work? You can except there are students
+that are piling up behind the students that are currently here.
+There are products piling up, there are technologies piling up,
+and we've got to make sure that we're unclogging that conveyor
+belt.
+ Ms. Stevens. Yes, we want to take a look at that because
+as we move into the application phase--and where I am in the
+world of this is, you know, intensive automotive, right, what's
+taking place with the proliferation of electric vehicles,
+autonomous vehicles. We're obviously also [inaudible] with the
+supply chain disruptions and what we've seen taking place with
+this chip shortage. Now, I've got a bill on that, the Resilient
+Supply Chain Task Force Act, which helps us monitor the ongoing
+health of our supply chains.
+ But the next phase of what we're looking at here is
+production, and we have got to be making in America. We know
+this, but you don't just get to say let's make it in America,
+right? You have to do the basic R&D.
+ Dr. Parikh. Absolutely.
+ Ms. Stevens. Then you got to look at your technology
+readiness. So I'd really love for you to follow up with me on
+that.
+ And I'm going to be generous to my colleagues because I
+love them and there's a great group here on both sides of the
+aisle that's here today. And I got about a minute left, but we
+got a lot of people online, so I'm going to cede the rest of my
+time, Madam Chair, and I will also say Chairwoman Johnson is
+spot on with having this hearing right now, and thank you. I
+yield back.
+ Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Next?
+ Staff. Mr. Perlmutter is next.
+ Chairwoman Johnson. OK.
+ Mr. Perlmutter. Don't we want a Republican to go before
+me?
+ Staff. I'm sorry, sir. Mr. Brooks is next.
+ Unidentified speaker. And I may be next as well?
+ Staff. Mr. Posey is next.
+ Mr. Posey. Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson and Ranking
+Member Lucas, for holding this hearing. It's important to
+ensure that American science and technology research remains
+the best in the world.
+ This pandemic has dramatically disrupted life for
+Americans, and we need to do whatever we can to return things
+to normal.
+ My question is for all of the witnesses. You know, as
+mentioned, there's been significant disruptions in our STEM and
+research pipelines to our universities by COVID-19 pandemic,
+but perhaps the most concerning disruption has occurred far
+earlier in this vital pipeline. Just last week in our last
+hearing we heard about some of the effects of school closure on
+our students. My colleagues and I drafted a letter to our
+wonderful Chairwoman requesting a hearing on the concerns that
+too many of our K-12 schools remain closed when science says
+that they can reopen safely. Even before COVID-19 universities
+were concerned that U.S. students were not prepared for the
+rigor of STEM education that are necessary to advance America's
+research and development projects in schools as opposed to
+others where schools are already reopened, as in China. What
+will happen when an entire generation of American students are
+further behind than their international peers? You know, will
+our U.S. colleges and universities simply fill the STEM slots
+with more foreign students? I think it's around 36 percent
+right now. Should K-12 schools be reopened or should we just
+accept the damages to the U.S. STEM research pipeline as part
+of the pandemic's cost? And you can respond I guess in the same
+order that you gave your opening testimonies with Dr. Parikh
+first.
+ Dr. Parikh. Thank you, Mr. Posey. K-12 education is so
+critical to the science and engineering enterprise. We have to
+have a broad pipeline at the beginning because every signal
+that is sent to a young student accumulates over time. And so
+when a young person is told, you know, maybe science is not for
+you, maybe you're better at the arts or you're better at
+something else, that really hurts us every time that happens to
+a young girl, every time it happens to a young man, every time
+it happens to somebody who has grown up on a farm or every time
+it's happened to somebody who's grown up in an inner-city. And
+so we've got to make sure that we're sending the right signals.
+ On opening schools, it's a complex question. I will leave
+that to my public-health counterparts as opposed to me, a
+biochemist, but what I would say is that all the things that
+can be done to get us to the place where we can--vaccination,
+doing the right public-health interventions like wearing masks,
+maintaining social distance, doing all those things will get us
+there faster than not doing those interventions. I think it's
+critically important to do that.
+ But education, we have got to make sure we're investing in
+that K-12 group beyond just the pandemic. We've got to get them
+doing science, and we've got to get kids doing science that are
+not our usual suspects because if we do that, we're never going
+to compete on sheer numbers with China. We've got to have all
+of our kids working toward STEM education and STEM fields.
+ Mr. Posey. Dr. Keane?
+ Dr. Keane. Yes, I--this is Chris Keane. Thank you for that
+question. As--you know, land-grant universities, as part of our
+service mission, as I mentioned earlier, do a lot of activities
+to support our K-12 education. Our extension programs provide
+programs for K-12 students, and also we take opportunities just
+to invite K-12 students in to see the exciting things that we
+do in research and education, get them excited about going to
+college----
+ Mr. Posey. I don't want to cut you short, but we're short
+on time. Just kind of like your response to the questions I
+asked if possible.
+ Dr. Keane. OK. I'll--yes, I'll stop there then. Sorry
+about that. I would just point out that, you know, our--like I
+said earlier our testing activity directly supports return to
+school. Thank you.
+ Mr. Posey. Thank you very much.
+ Dr. Levine. Well, thank you for the opportunity of being
+able to speak to K-12 education. I just want to underscore with
+what Dr. Parikh opened with that we want to use--and indeed the
+great investment of work on COVID-19 at the Institute of
+Education Sciences in the Department of Education, Education
+and Human Resources Directorate at the National Science
+Foundation--that COVID work. In addition to the work at the CDC
+(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the health
+sciences this research also gives us wisdom and understanding
+about how to implement a return to school in safe and secure
+ways that include the collection of data so that we know what
+happens in real time, the possibility being discussed, so, for
+example, a PULSE survey around education, around absenteeism
+that would continue to implement measures of testing and to
+take the wisdom also of educators, teachers, counselors, and
+the school system about what can work in what ways.
+ And we clearly need to go back to innovating. And this is
+an opportunity for both research and education to innovate in
+such a way that we can--that we can bring our children back
+into a school environment to interact with their peers, to be
+able to not only engage in science, which is extraordinarily
+important, but in the other ways in which in the K-12 system
+children are learning about ways of working together,
+collaborating together, so important for the STEM workforce,
+and we need to recognize that there were tremendous inequities
+[inaudible].
+ And how we do this, the kind of queuing that I must say my
+colleague the biochemist spoke wonderfully about expectancy of
+things and implicit bias so that in my generation the most
+accomplished of my peers was a woman who wanted to go to
+medical school but it was implicitly and explicitly discouraged
+as ``not for women,'' and she ended up going to law school and
+being a great lawyer and having a wonderful career. That kind
+of expectancy effect and sadly implicit bias continues in
+particular for persons of color and for women.
+ Mr. Quaadman. Mr. Posey, I'll be very quick. I know your
+time is expired, but, you know, the letter that Chambers sent
+to Congress this week on the American Rescue Plan included a
+section in there regarding school reopening, which we support.
+We made a suggestion of money being set aside solely for
+covering the expenses of those school reopenings and dealing
+with COVID cleanups and protecting children from COVID, but
+that the opening decisions need to be left to the States and
+the local districts.
+ Staff. Thank you. And Mr. Perlmutter is next.
+ Mr. Perlmutter. Thank you. And just a couple questions
+because we do have a lot of people in the queue. I represent
+the suburbs of Denver, and we have a lot of laboratories,
+national labs, Energy, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric
+Administration), NIST (National Institute of Standards and
+Technology), USGS (United States Geological Survey) in the
+area. And as an example--and I'd like to get kind of an answer
+from all of you--the retooling costs associated with sort of
+reducing, you know, the number of researchers in a lab, so, for
+instance, the National Renewable Energy Lab has some 2,500
+employees and contractors, and when they had to shut down more
+or less in March, April, and May of last year, they went from,
+say, 2,500 down to 100 and then have been gradually returning
+the workforce.
+ So I know as part of this package we're trying to make up
+for some of those lost costs. Have any of you thought about the
+retooling cost to get our labs back and operating at 100
+percent? And maybe, Mr. Quaadman, you want to kind of take a
+cut at that first and then I'll go to the other panelists?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Sure, thank you very much, Mr. Perlmutter,
+and that's--that is an excellent question. And we view this
+that there are probably going to have to be multiple things
+that are going to have to be done. Clearly, the RISE Act, which
+we support and I think everybody here supports, is an important
+part of particularly protecting that human capital talent and
+making sure we're getting that back up and running, but you
+also make an excellent point in terms of the technology in the
+labs. We believe that there's more that is going to have to be
+done there. Additionally, putting more of an emphasis around
+basic research and applied research is going to be an important
+part of that.
+ So we believe dealing with some of these short-term
+problems can actually help us pivot to also address some of the
+long-term problems, so we think this focus that this hearing is
+having today is an important start of that process.
+ Mr. Perlmutter. Thank you. Dr. Parikh, do you have any
+thoughts on that?
+ Dr. Parikh. I do, thank you, Mr. Perlmutter. Well, first
+of all, the research going on at NREL (National Renewable
+Energy Laboratory) is so important to the Nation. You know,
+going down to 100 people for a time in March means that when
+there's an experiment going--there are--every type of
+experiment--every type of experiment has--that is a long-term
+experiment has constant check-ins by people. As much as the
+technology is powerful, it requires people checking things in.
+And because we had to shut down so quickly, planning was tough,
+right, so if we had tissue culture that was ongoing, we would
+take that down and we would--instead of having many, many petri
+dishes full of tissue culture, we would take it down to one and
+freeze it and save it for when we come back. But then when you
+come back, you got to grow it back out again before you can do
+any research at all. And that takes time, it takes people, and
+it takes reagents, it takes the lab space, and so it takes
+funding, it takes resources. And so as Dr. Quaadman said, the
+investment that we make here at this sort of inflection point
+is going to pay short-term dividends and long-term dividends.
+ Mr. Perlmutter. Thank you. I'd like to change the subject
+just a little bit for Dr. Levine and Dr. Keane in terms of the
+students. So in the front range of Colorado we have the School
+of Mines and University of Colorado. CSU (Colorado State
+University) has a big infectious disease lab that has been
+operating. In terms of the talent pool and this pipeline of
+young scholars, again--and you've answered this already, but
+just specifically what has sort of this delay of a year done to
+that pipeline? And I'd start with you, Dr. Levine.
+ Dr. Levine. Well, I think the delay of a year has had
+several adverse impacts. One, even the workforce, the talent in
+labs, structured labs or even the broader laboratories of field
+research doing intervention studies, while there's been a
+tremendous amount of really exciting work ongoing, as Dr.
+Parikh underscored earlier, innovation and collaboration to try
+to do things in a very different way, there is that loss of not
+working hand-in-hand, not being able to bring in, not having
+the support to bring in the postdocs, the layered way in which
+science occurs.
+ The laboratory is an environment where the undergraduate--
+I started my research career as an undergraduate working with
+doctoral students, working with postdocs and with faculty. That
+kind of exchange does not happen and has not happened in the
+same way, and it's going to take an investment. It's also going
+to take an investment in things like REUs, research experiences
+for undergraduates, and that kind of investment can make a
+difference. But I think the consequence is substantial.
+ Mr. Perlmutter. Thank you, Doctor. And Dr. Keane, I'm
+sorry, my time is expired. Somebody else will get to you.
+ Staff. Thank you. Mr. Sessions is next.
+ Mr. Sessions. Thank you very much. And I want to thank
+each of our panelists for being here today. Certainly, Dr.
+Keane, Dr. Parikh, Dr. Levine, thank you. Thomas, thank you, I
+think it's Quaadman, we appreciate you being here.
+ The question that I have focuses on giving people money
+while we're still closed, and I'd like for you to address that
+in your own way because I think this money should be given when
+people open, not when people stay closed. Anyone of you,
+please.
+ Mr. Quaadman. Well, Mr. Sessions, I--you know, I guess I
+could take an early crack at that. Look, we believe--this is
+one of the reasons why I gave the answer that I did to Ranking
+Member Lucas is that we think that there should--there needs to
+be a discussion of, you know, the broad range of potential
+policy initiatives that we need to address the COVID vaccine.
+So part of the reason why we do need broad-based relief is to
+deal with small businesses that are teetering on the brink of
+closure, some permanently----
+ Mr. Sessions. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I made a mistake, Tom.
+As it relates to the RISE bill.
+ Mr. Quaadman. Sure. So I was just going to get there. And
+with the RISE Act what we need to do is to make sure that we
+are keeping the human capital in place, that we can have that
+human capital move forward as we open up those labs so that we
+can flip that switch and get things up and running because,
+unfortunately, what has happened over the last year is because
+there's some work that can be done, right, in terms of research
+paper or the like, but there's other type of experimentation
+which cannot be done, and we need to get up and running as
+quickly as possible not only to keep pace with our competitors
+but actually to get up and running before they can.
+ Mr. Sessions. Yes, well, I understand competition, but I
+also heard our panelists say it's up to States and local
+people, universities. For instance, I represent a small
+university, Texas A&M down in College Station, that is one of
+the leading, I believe, research and development universities
+in the world. But my point is if they make a decision to stay
+closed, let's say, until January of next year, that means that
+they have students that are dropping out, that means students
+that are going somewhere else. The question is do we fund them
+before they open?
+ Dr. Parikh. Mr. Sessions, if I may, the students we're
+talking about funding here are the graduate students in the
+sciences and engineering and, you know, they are--they're
+working right now. They are writing research papers. They are
+doing what they can with labs at half capacity and that sort of
+thing. The challenge becomes this conveyor belt that I've been
+talking about. So you have these students are working right now
+and we've got to keep them--they're in this holding pattern.
+And then we got students coming up right behind them. And if we
+lose those students because they say, you know what, I don't--
+science and engineering is hard enough anyway. I'm not going to
+make a whole lot of money when I first graduate, maybe I should
+go be a lawyer, I should go into something else, when that
+depletion of that human capital that Dr. Quaadman was talking
+about is so critical to us right now because every other nation
+on earth is investing in that human capital. If we bleed that
+human capital in the short term, the money appropriated a year
+from now won't do the same thing as the money appropriated
+today.
+ Mr. Sessions. OK. I do understand this, but we're kind of
+dancing around this. Look, I spent a number of years at Bell
+Labs in New Jersey. My son just finished medical school a
+couple years ago. I get graduate medical education (GME). I do
+get these are the brightest and best. Why do we want to delay
+anything or make it more difficult? That's not my point. Should
+a university or a program receive money before they open?
+ Dr. Keane. So, Representative Sessions, thank you for that
+question. This is Chris Keane. Just--I know time is short, just
+a quick example. So, as you've heard, we have continued a lot
+of operations virtually, but take a laboratory just as a very
+simple example. A laboratory had to close because of COVID. On
+the other hand, some of the students and faculty could go home
+and write papers and write grant proposals and do other work
+that they, you know, normally wouldn't have the time to do if
+they were in the lab, so these folks do a lot of critical work,
+and so they can do [inaudible] of work at home.
+ Mr. Sessions. OK. Let the record reflect that we're not
+sure about whether--I know people are doing work. I did work
+during this, too. I think we ought to consider that the
+inducement for going back to work, because that's a question,
+you get the money when you produce that, and that means you
+make a series of decisions about your workforce including
+making sure they all have the COVID vaccine. We've heard
+testimony in this Committee how the vaccine works, and just a
+week or two ago we heard that the vaccine is the No. 1 thing
+you can do. And then you have a safe workplace, a whole lot of
+other things. I'm just saying in my mind going back I don't
+mind funding that, but I do have problems with not finding a
+way to get back to work, which is what we were paying for. So I
+appreciate the opportunity for each of you. I would expect you
+to be advocates, as I am, for the sciences, for GME, graduate
+medical education, graduate education, and all of the
+mathematic and physics programs. But I think we ought to put a
+caveat in there when you go back to work.
+ Thank you very much. I yield back my time, Madam Chairman.
+ Staff. Mr. McNerney is next.
+ Mr. McNerney. Am I recognized?
+ Staff. Yes, sir.
+ Mr. McNerney. Thank you. Well, I want to thank the
+Chairwoman for holding this hearing and the Ranking Member,
+very good, and also the panelists. I appreciate your work here.
+ Dr. Keane, in your testimony you state that in order to
+comply with Federal grant financial timeframes, many projects
+are having to close out without meeting their stated goals.
+What is needed to help grant awardees get the time and
+resources needed to make up for the COVID-related setbacks?
+ Dr. Keane. Thanks for that question, Representative
+McNerney. I think--it's a great question. I think the comments
+you've heard from the Committee and elsewhere about the 20 to
+40 percent, which was developed by a number of our APLU
+members, that's sort of--that's an estimate, you know, of the
+loss of work due to delay. I think one can make some estimates
+of what the financing is to recover that, I think that
+basically is a short summary of what's needed.
+ Mr. McNerney. Well, thank you. Well, Dr. Keane, in normal
+times before the pandemic, the life of a science researcher may
+have been professionally rewarding but was financially
+challenging. And I speak from personal experience here.
+Graduate students must forgo well-paying jobs for about a
+decade while their peers move ahead financially. And meanwhile,
+the grad students have no assurance at all of landing a modest
+or secure job at the conclusion of their studies. And I know
+Dr. Parikh sort of talked about this, but how does the pandemic
+impact this dynamic?
+ Dr. Keane. Yes, well, it's--yes. No, I was going to say,
+certainly, Representative McNerney, the pandemic has been
+difficult on graduate students, postdocs and others, and it's--
+we've lost some critical talent there. And so we've tried to
+adapt by doing various things virtually and things of that
+sort, but it is a significant issue.
+ Mr. McNerney. Well, thank you. Mr. Quaadman, I'm
+interested in understanding what's worked in leveraging R&D to
+help us bring the virus under control. In your testimony you
+mentioned the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium.
+How did that collaboration come about, what did it accomplish,
+and what lessons do you think could be applied to future
+crises?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Thank you very much, Mr. McNerney. And I
+appreciate the promotion but I'm not a doctor. I have a J.D.
+but not a doctorate.
+ But first, I would also like to thank your leadership and
+the leadership of Mr. Gonzalez of the Artificial Intelligence
+Caucus as well, which has been very critical.
+ I actually think the COVID-19 High Performance Computing
+Consortium is a very interesting development, right, where we
+had the private sector through Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft
+combining with National Science Foundation, Department of
+Energy, along with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology),
+UT (University of Texas) Austin, and the University of
+Wisconsin where they created a sharing mechanism of computing
+power to help in terms of research regarding COVID-19.
+ Part of the challenge that we have with R&D is also to
+ensure that smaller actors and smaller businesses have some of
+that access to let's say computing power as an example in terms
+of their R&D. So if we can create similar sharing mechanisms--
+and frankly, the National Artificial Intelligence Act that was
+passed last year creates some frameworks like this--it actually
+allows us to have a much more comprehensive approach to R&D,
+and we hope that is replicated elsewhere.
+ Mr. McNerney. Well, thank you. Well, last week, millions
+around the globe watched in high definition as NASA (National
+Aeronautics and Space Administration) successfully landed the
+Perseverance rover on Mars. Landing a rover on another planet
+is a huge accomplishment in any time but must be more difficult
+under a pandemic. Dr. Parikh, how have conditions under COVID
+challenged this type of high-pressure mission-critical event
+for large, distributed research and engineering teams?
+ Dr. Parikh. It's been incredibly challenging, and that's
+why it's even more compelling and more inspiring to watch the
+video from last week. The way it's happened is that people have
+had to work in the same that we are, right? They're working
+over Zoom, they're working over Webex in contrast to being in
+the same room, drawing on a piece of paper, and that makes it
+harder. But I can tell you that the inspiration that comes from
+watching these engineering teams double-check and triple-check
+their work because they are having to work this way, I think it
+also just highlights what a small team of diverse people can do
+in competition with gigantic teams around the world is just
+extraordinary to see that type of inspirational work. And the
+science that's going to come from it is amazing as well. But
+just the engineering feat of landing on Mars is--look, my
+kids--my 11-year-old, that's what gets him excited about
+science. They like biochemistry, but they love that.
+ Mr. McNerney. Well, they don't want to go to Mars
+themselves. At any rate, I want to yield back and I thank again
+the Chairwoman for yielding to me.
+ Staff. Mr. Webster is recognized.
+ Mr. Webster. Thank you, Chair. I had a question to Dr.
+Parikh. So we're in competition not with just ourselves but
+with other countries, especially in the area of STEM and, you
+know, trying to make sure we're there, we're setting the pace,
+we're out front, all of that, and somebody was talking about
+losing potential STEM stars to a law degree or some other
+profession. Are we also losing to our competition? Are there
+countries that we're losing out or people are getting
+[inaudible] research dollars, something like that, and moving?
+Is that happening?
+ Dr. Parikh. It is happening. So we see--just overall, you
+know, the NSF puts out the science and engineering indicators,
+and the U.S. global share of science and engineering
+publications has always been ahead of everybody else. Well,
+that is not true anymore. China has overtaken us. It's also
+been in terms of number of S&E degrees that are awarded. But
+they also have very, very targeted programs to recruit stars
+from Europe and from the United States and then to also keep
+talent within their borders.
+ And, look, there are challenges to that in terms of
+intellectual property and that sort of thing, but even if
+everything was fair, what it says is they've got--they've got a
+plan, and plan beats no plan almost every time, and so we have
+to have a plan. We have to be making sure that we are doing our
+absolute best to recruit the best talent from the United States
+whether it be from the farm belt, the sun belt, or the coast,
+and also the best talent from around the world. We have been
+the beneficiaries of a crossroads of talent here in the United
+States, and we cannot let that pass. We are still right there
+at the top, but we are in danger. We are in real danger of
+losing that position because all these successes that we've
+talked about, they're lagging indicators of previous investment
+and all the stuff that's gone on for the last 30 years. It's
+not a--it's not any guarantee of what's to come.
+ Mr. Webster. Thank you, sir.
+ Dr. Levine. If I could amplify just on that, I really want
+to underscore that our leadership edge in science has been very
+well-served by the United States really being an international
+leader in the international community of science, so we lose
+our competitive edge when scientists and scholars and students
+from other parts of the world don't look to us as the educative
+environment to do what they do best. And whether they remain in
+the United States or they go to other locations, that
+significantly affects not only the knowledge we produce but the
+sense of centrality we are in the international community.
+ I'm not an economist by training, but my sense of some of
+the work on patents is that when a country has had the highest
+participation of the international community in our higher
+education system, that we have--that has enabled discoveries in
+our own country. And that's just one example of something I
+think we need to really be looking at and a point I earlier
+wanted to make but you've asked the right question at the right
+time.
+ Mr. Webster. OK. Well, there's this conveyor belt that's
+jammed up all over the place and there's STEM students in high
+school and all the way to postdoctorate, all that, so shouldn't
+we put our money where the bleeding is and try to stop the
+bleeding if we're prioritizing? Is that a good statement to
+make?
+ Dr. Parikh. I think that's absolutely a good statement. We
+should prioritize. We should prioritize. And I think human
+capital is right there at the top. Making sure that we have the
+supply chains fixed as well is right there after it and by
+supply chains I mean, in terms of bringing back the
+infrastructure, bringing back the technology, bringing it back
+online. But human capital is at the top of my list.
+ Mr. Webster. All right. I yield back.
+ Staff. Mr. Tonko is next.
+ Mr. Tonko. Thank you. And I thank you, Madam Chair, and
+our Ranker for today's hearing. It's so apropos that we be
+talking about the future here--through this lens. And to all of
+our witnesses, thank you.
+ Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen and
+experienced for ourselves the impact this virus is having on
+work, on America's workers throughout our economy, and on
+workplaces across the country. For many, video meetings and
+conference calls had to quickly become the status quo. For
+others, much of their work simply cannot be done remotely.
+ The ability of scientists to advance their research
+remotely depends in large part, I believe, on the nature of
+their project and their discipline. For instance, research
+involving computations, data analyses and modeling and
+simulations lends itself more easily to work from home, but it
+is difficult if not impossible to conduct research requiring
+physical and biological samples and specialized equipment
+outside of a laboratory.
+ And so, Dr. Parikh, what areas of scientific inquiry have
+been most negatively impacted by COVID? And how are you seeing
+the researchers adapting to that?
+ Dr. Parikh. Yes, thank you for the question, Mr. Tonko.
+You are absolutely right. You laid it out very well in terms of
+the challenges to field research, the challenges to clinical
+research, the challenges to research that happens in a lab
+bench because, you know, if you've been in these laboratories
+you know that, especially in the successful ones, they're
+dense, right? We have graduate students and postdocs and
+scientists who are working together, and they're dense for a
+reason. We want them talking. We want them collaborating. We
+want them to run into each other on the way to the restroom and
+talk about math and physics and biology at the same time
+because that's where the excitement comes from. And so that--we
+are definitely hurting in the experimental sciences and in the
+clinical sciences.
+ And in the places where we have pivoted our critical
+sciences to COVID, it's an opportunity cost, right? We have
+work going on in Alzheimer's and work going on in cancer and
+work going on in sickle-cell anemia. That's got to keep going
+as well, and we've got to make sure that we're able to ensure
+that continues.
+ But I don't want to underestimate the impact also on
+things like physics. You know, being able to continue work on
+some of these amazing radio telescopes, you know, our ability
+to contact to the Voyager space probes was affected by this. We
+couldn't send 30 people to Australia to work on the antenna. We
+could only send five or six. And so there's a real cost across
+the sciences, but the experimental sciences are definitely
+where the biggest challenges are.
+ Mr. Tonko. Thank you. And, Dr. Parikh, again, for fields
+of inquiry that have been able to adapt more easily to working
+remotely, do you see any opportunities where this could spur
+greater collaboration and innovation?
+ Dr. Parikh. Oh, my gosh, you know, we have seen--if
+there's been one upside to the pandemic, it has been that
+collaboration from peer to peer in the United States and around
+the world has just grown exponentially. You see young
+scientists talking to one another in the United States, in
+Europe, in China, in Japan. They're having conversations. And
+look, we need that because, again, COVID is not our last
+crisis, and we need to know that these scientists who are able
+to talk to each other right now, that's a relationship, and
+that relationship is going to continue for the next thing and
+the next thing and the next thing, and that is--that's
+incredibly important. We've got to keep up our part of it,
+though, as the United States and make sure we've got wonderful
+scientists here bringing everybody to us.
+ Mr. Tonko. Thank you. The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in
+many setbacks, and it will take our enduring commitment to help
+America's scientific research community recover. And to this
+end, last year, the Federal Government provided guidance, as
+well as administrative and salary flexibilities for
+universities and COVID relief legislation, including that which
+funded support research agencies. But based on your testimony--
+and I can confirm this based on my conversations with research
+institutions in my district in upstate New York--greater
+support is needed.
+ So, Dr. Keane, in your testimony you mentioned the
+administrative flexibilities that the Office of Management and
+Budget (OMB) provided to universities from March to September
+of last year. To what extent did these flexibilities from our
+Federal agencies, especially related to grant commitments, help
+mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic?
+ Dr. Keane. Thanks, Representative Tonko, for that
+question. Those flexibilities were very important to our
+faculty, students, and staff. They allowed things, for example,
+to, you know, to cover cost of PPE (personal protective
+equipment) and other unusual items. They allowed salaries to be
+paid. Under certain conditions [inaudible] working at home
+perhaps on different project than the contract. So it was
+essential to help transition through. And there's been a lot of
+interest as part of the recovery package trying to do something
+along those lines for--thank you.
+ Mr. Tonko. Well, thank you, Dr. Keane. And with that, my
+time has wound down, so I yield back, Madam Chair.
+ Staff. Mr. Garcia is next. Mr. Garcia, you are muted. Mr.
+Garcia, you are muting and unmuting. I'm not sure if you're
+using a spacebar or if you're using----
+ Mr. Garcia. There we go. Can we--can you hear me now?
+ Staff. Yes.
+ Staff. Yes, sir.
+ Mr. Garcia. OK. All right, thank you. I apologize for
+that.
+ Dr. Parikh, I think you hit on something earlier that we
+all kind of glossed over, and that's the RISE Act deters the
+proliferation of lawyers, and I think we should rename it as
+such.
+ I want to focus in the realm of national security. We have
+roughly 44, 40 percent of our national R&D project is coming
+out of the national security realm, the labs, the DARPAs
+(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencies) of the world.
+National security is relative, right, so as we either
+accelerate or decelerate relative to China and other threats,
+that's where threats will manifest, and that's where our
+weaknesses will become vulnerabilities. How are we able to
+compare how we're doing within classified realms, especially--
+but through our labs like DARPA and, relative to, say, the
+Communist Chinese military science research steering divisions?
+Do you have any insight how we're doing at the national
+security levels of both military and similar infrastructure
+investments? And I think, Dr. Keane, it sounds like you were
+touching on this earlier, but let's start with you.
+ Dr. Keane. Yes, thank you. Thank you for that question,
+Representative Garcia. I think your question points out the
+vital importance of the research enterprise and the
+universities produce the young talent that goes to work in the
+national security enterprise. I have my own personal experience
+that's in the nuclear weapons program where there is just
+tremendous issues, you know, bringing in talent. As you
+probably know, the big labs right now, Livermore, Los Alamos,
+and so on are trying to hire 1,000 people a year to support the
+refurbishment of our stockpile, so this just speaks to the
+important mission that our universities and research ecosystems
+play in training these professionals to handle these national
+security challenges.
+ Mr. Garcia. Yeah, but I think what I'm asking is how much
+insight do we have relative to China? Are they struggling in
+the same way that we are percentagewise? I think you mentioned
+that the rise of investments from the Federal Government on our
+side represents about half of what----
+ Dr. Keane. Yes.
+ Mr. Garcia. China is accelerating to our pace of over the
+last couple of years. That statement there, one, where is the
+data behind that statement, and how do we assess how much of an
+impact either COVID or the lack of investments writ large
+outside of COVID are having relative to the Chinese
+infrastructure investments?
+ Dr. Keane. So I don't have any data relative to Chinese
+infrastructure, Representative Garcia, but the data I quoted is
+from the NSB (National Science Board) indicators 2020. If you
+look at that, you'll find a plot that basically shows R&D
+expenditures by country with China rising rapidly and the
+others, including the United States, relatively flat or only
+moderately rising.
+ Just a quick statistic, you know, from I believe it was
+2000 to 2017 China's average annual rate of increase has been
+17 percent in expenditures, and ours is 4, 4.5 percent. That
+pretty much summarizes it.
+ Mr. Garcia. OK. And then so how do we ensure that these
+significant investments that we're making in the COVID packages
+are actually also gaining traction in the classified programs
+area, significant military development efforts that may not be
+enveloped in DOD (Department of Defense) programs of record
+quite yet? Some of these are at the university level, some of
+these are in labs. How do we ensure that these big dollars,
+these chunks of money being spent on COVID are actually still
+going through in support of our national security interests?
+ Dr. Keane. Well, quickly, I'll say the university side,
+our primary connection was training workforce and so improving
+our infrastructure allows us to train better people in all
+fields, and people's careers change when they enter the
+national security word, so we do the fundamental training. I'll
+leave it to others to comment on the infrastructure in the
+national security world.
+ Dr. Parikh. Mr. Garcia, I can speak a little bit to this.
+You know, the--there are two things at play here. One is the
+funding you're talking about in terms of how do we make sure
+that the national security research apparatus also sees some of
+this funding? I think that's very important. You're right.
+Approximately half, almost half of the--of our research dollars
+end up in some way going through national security.
+ My thought here is that we need to make sure that part of
+the scientific enterprise also sees these dollars because
+it's--that will also flow to the universities because they are
+the workhorses of that enterprise as well.
+ The other impact is on people, and if you look at China,
+you know, you were noting those dollars. The other thing to
+note is that they produce lots of scientists and engineers. And
+so when Dr. Keane talks about we need 1,000 hires a year at our
+national laboratories, it's easier when you're producing a lot
+more talent. And we're bringing that talent--we have to import
+some of that talent in addition to what's on the ground here,
+so we've got to do--it speaks again to that human capital
+aspect but also making sure that the full half of our
+enterprise that is defense-related needs to also see that
+funding.
+ Mr. Garcia. Yes. Yes, OK.
+ Dr. Levine. If I could just add, one of the things that I
+think supports that infrastructure that we're talking about at
+the national security level is that if you look at the National
+Science Foundation indicators, locations like China have also
+invested substantially in building the talent pool to study the
+human resource issue, meaning the social and behavioral
+sciences have really grown in locations like China.
+ One of the areas internationally that is so central is
+work on the workforce. We've more or less disinvested in
+research on the workforce, and we support that activity, the
+investments in each of the Defense Departments and the social
+and behavioral sciences is not what it was 10 years ago, and
+there's often debates about really important activities like
+the Minerva Research Initiative that not national security
+research, but the knowledge base from that done in universities
+really has a tremendous value to our national security
+interests, I think that's part of the mosaic that you're asking
+about.
+ Mr. Garcia. Yes, absolutely. OK. Thank you all. I yield
+back.
+ Staff. Mr. Foster is next.
+ Mr. Foster. OK. Am I audible and visible here?
+ Staff. Yes.
+ Mr. Foster. Well, thank you. And thank you to our
+Chairwoman, Ranking Member, and our witnesses.
+ I'd like to speak a little bit about Federal careers as
+potential jobs for early career researchers. Drs. Keane and
+Levine, you both highlighted in your testimonies that there
+were high levels of uncertainty in students and postgraduates
+with regard to future research opportunities due to COVID.
+ Now, pre-COVID, as my colleagues know, I was very active
+as a leader of the National Labs Caucus where I would drag my
+colleagues on visits to the national labs, including the
+national security labs. And during these visits, we would often
+arrange luncheons with young scientists and engineers who were
+getting things done, having a wonderful time, but there were
+simply not enough of them.
+ It was reasonably suggested by a professor friend of mine
+that there might right now be a real appetite amongst
+graduating STEM students, both graduate and undergraduate, to
+take STEM jobs in the government. Part of this is because of
+the Administration's renewed emphasis on science and scientific
+integrity and policy but also due to the genuine bipartisan
+support in this Committee and in Congress for ramping up
+Federal science funding over the next decade, which might make
+a career path in the Federal oversight of a growing science
+program more appealing than it may have been previously.
+ So, first, do you believe that this appetite exists? And
+if so, how do we capitalize on it?
+ Dr. Levine. I think that's a tremendously important
+question and I'm going to say opportunity. I should, I suppose,
+disclose that I myself went to the National Science Foundation
+as a visiting scientist for 3 years and stayed for 11. The
+opportunities with the scientific workforce within government,
+including actually in many State governmental agencies and
+institutions, is just enormous, and I think that having an
+understanding of those career ladders, that you are not
+stepping out, you're stepping in, that these are significant
+science jobs where you can have very productive careers and
+that kind of synergism also between the academy and higher
+education and these laboratories needs to be amplified and
+supported, postdoc programs and other instruments that at this
+point in time, if the jobs are there, I think it's a great way
+of bringing some of the silos--you know, some of the silos
+together, and I [inaudible] raising it.
+ Mr. Foster. Yes. Well, do you think, for example, a
+virtual job fair highlighting the STEM jobs that are available
+across the many agencies of the Federal Government would be
+well-received right now?
+ Dr. Levine. Absolutely. Absolutely love it. And some of
+the agencies we work with at the American Educational Research
+Association--we're planning for our annual meeting, you know,
+those kinds of opportunities, whether they're visiting
+physicians or longer-term physicians, we're seeing a lot of
+handshake around that. And one of the things that's most
+important to understand is as the jobs have been delayed,
+denied, put on a back burner, including in higher education,
+the biggest concern of early career scientists is they don't
+know what jobs are real and what jobs are not real, so it's
+kind of incumbent upon us to collectively have this as a
+priority both in universities and [inaudible]----
+ Mr. Foster. On a sort of related issue, over the last four
+years, there's been a well-documented wave of early retirements
+of STEM professionals in government, you know, with a
+tremendous loss of accumulated experience and knowledge. Many
+of these were frankly driven by frustration over policies and
+proposed budget cuts, which we now are hopeful are going to be
+reversed. And so what do you think of standing up a program to
+call back some of these early retirees just for a couple years
+with the explicit goal of mentoring a next generation of
+younger and more diverse Federal STEM workforce?
+ Dr. Levine. I think it's a terrific idea. Every year as I
+get older and older, I underscore how terrific that is. I think
+that that--a loss of our sort of talent pool even in higher
+education institutions strapped for resources. And that's not
+to say those faculty leaders aren't remaining active as
+scientists, but having some kind of bring-back-mentoring kind
+of model I think is----
+ Mr. Foster. Yes. Yes, even if it's just a half-time job,
+my feeling is that a lot of people would be more than happy to
+pass their accumulated wisdom to the next generation, you
+know----
+ Dr. Levine. And let me say the National Academy of
+Sciences really capitalized on that kind of model in a
+noncrisis situation. Scientists from government may work in
+direct study panels and have various kinds of mixed models. I
+think you've hit--you know, you've pointed to something really
+important.
+ Mr. Foster. All right. Well, thank you, and it looks like
+my timer is down to zero. And I yield back.
+ Staff. Ms. Kim is next.
+ Ms. Kim. Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson, and Ranking Member
+Lucas, for holding this important hearing. I am concerned that
+many of the lockdown and remote learning measures has worsened
+our students' low scores in math and science. Students in
+grades K through 12 are the future of our STEM talent pipeline,
+and if they do poorly in subjects like math and science, our
+talent pool would eventually decrease, along with our
+competitiveness. As our Nation looks to recover from the COVID-
+19 pandemic, we should not forget our STEM students.
+ So I would like to pose a question to all witnesses. How
+has the COVID-19 crisis impacted our future domestic STEM
+workforce pipeline, and what are the implications of the
+potential loss of talent for the United States research and
+innovation ecosystem and economic competitiveness? Well?
+ Dr. Levine. One of us? I suppose we worry. I--you know,
+this is a--kind of a point that's been implicit, I think, of
+all four of our presentations, that we, you know, we worry
+about what that means in terms of everything from special
+services that will help deal with some of the socioemotional
+kinds of crises, and tensions, and ambiguities that early
+learners are experiencing as family members have died or lost
+their employment, and how--so that the development of the math,
+and science, and engineering talent pool needs to be understood
+in the ecosystem of--in which students and early learners live.
+We need to be considering what kind of programs that we offer
+wrapped around, and opportunities equitably and inclusively,
+around the school year having, or around that--the--this band
+of time off. What happens with after school programs? How do we
+invest in early education programs so that they are rich
+learning environments, and how do we both measure and
+accommodate learning loss?
+ Staff. Miss----
+ Dr. Levine. That's a need for--that's a real need for
+data, also, that would be adjunctive to developing models of--
+I'll say models of accelerated compensation for loss this year.
+ Ms. Kim. Yeah, following up on that, Dr. Levine, over the
+last few years we have made some progress in increasing the
+number of women in STEM, and when I served in the California
+State Legislature, I had been one of the strong proponents of
+especially young girls coming to Sacramento, and in our
+capital, to also demonstrate the work that they're doing. So
+this is something that I have a great passion on. But how has
+the pandemic disproportionately impacted women in academic
+research, and what steps can this Committee take to address and
+tackle those roadblocks?
+ Dr. Levine. Well, I--the major way is the context in which
+students, graduate students, undergraduates, early career
+scientists, the context in which they live, and the
+disproportionate burden, particularly on women of color. Broad
+family responsibility. We'll see this in a number of
+preliminary--kind of top level findings from our survey, and
+also our focus groups, as disproportionate child care
+responsibilities, so that, at the end of the day, one is
+struggling with how to put the package together, and to, you
+know, keep the family all aware of what--one illustration was
+in one of the focus groups someone started the conversation by
+saying, I'm a faculty member, and I--I'm building upon the work
+I'm doing in kindergarten teaching, and I thought, I wonder
+whether she was a kindergarten teacher. And then she was
+talking about the fact that she was--she had a 5-year-old, and
+she was spending a big proportion of her day learning how to be
+a kindergarten teacher.
+ So that has consequences not only for her performance as a
+scientist, and her ability to engage at the level at which she
+is capable of performing, but it also affects, you know, let's
+put it this way, the role modeling of the fact that is cueing
+about the roles of women. Now, that's not to say that men with
+family responsibilities aren't also doing a very substantial
+share. It's just the data also show a--kind of a
+disproportionality where that stands.
+ Ms. Kim. Well, thank you. I yield back. I notice my time
+is up now. Thank you very much.
+ Staff. Mr. Beyer is next.
+ Mr. Beyer. Thank you very much, and, Madam Chair, thanks
+so much for pulling this together, all of our witnesses. Very
+grateful, very fascinating.
+ Dr. Parikh, I have an intuitive question for you. We've
+heard through all the different testimonies about how
+detrimental and deleterious the COVID crisis has been for
+research, for the careers, or--et cetera, but we've also seen
+an historic commitment to biology and to genetics through the
+COVID crisis. Fastest ever vaccines to display--mRNA vaccines.
+How do you balance the 20-year leap forward in biological
+sciences against the downsides of the COVID pandemic on
+research?
+ Dr. Parikh. It's an excellent question, Mr. Beyer. You
+know, the--if you had asked 2 years ago could we produce a
+vaccine from, you know, from sequence, to putting it into
+millions of people in a year, there wouldn't have been many
+people that said yes. There wouldn't have been many people at
+all that said yes. I would not have said yes. And so the
+progress that has been made and demonstrated by the biomedical
+research community is incredible, and it's inspiring to young
+people, right? There are people now--there are young kids who
+say, you know, I want to be, if not Dr. Fauci, then that other
+scientist. You know, but what I would say is, in doing that,
+we've raised expectations. We've raised expectations, and
+here's the problem, is that going into these fields is really
+tough. And so you've got young people who say, yes, I want to
+follow in Dr. Fauci's footsteps. Here's the problem, is that I
+run into this clogging the system that says, you know what, if
+you can't afford it when the pandemic happens, and you're a
+graduate student in Cambridge, and you don't have a family
+safety net to take you back in, then how are you going to
+continue your graduate studies on that, you know, that very
+small stipend?
+ So we've got this paradox--I mean, incredible inspiration,
+and yet the reality of the scientific career doesn't quite
+match up to that yet. And part of what--yeah, part of what this
+Committee can do is to help make those things align and match
+up.
+ Mr. Beyer. Let me interrupt you, only because we're
+limited to 5 minutes, but I'd love to have the other 30-minute
+conversation on this.
+ Mr. Quaadman, I come at this from a Ways and Means Member,
+with my pals Dan Kildee and Gwen Moore, and I'm concerned
+about, No. 1, the impact of TCJA (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act), that
+dropped the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21, 22, a quarter
+don't pay anything. I noticed in your statistics that
+corporations paid 400 billion in R&D last year, and I looked it
+up, and there was $525 billion in stock buyback, so 25 percent
+more in stock buybacks than in research. Do you think moving
+back to having stock buybacks pre-authorized by the SEC
+(Securities and Exchange Commission) could move us in the right
+direction on research and development?
+ Mr. Quaadman. So, first off, I would say, as I said in my
+testimony as well, we do think it is important for that portion
+of the tax reform bill to be addressed so that we can continue
+the real time expensive R&D expenses. The only thing I would
+say in terms of stock buybacks, it's a little bit of an apples
+and oranges situation, because you have certain businesses that
+are not involved in R&D, that all they can do is actually give
+their money back to their investors. So I believe this is
+something that the SEC is going to probably be looking at after
+Gary Gensler is confirmed as chair, so we will have to see if--
+I think it's a little bit of an apples and oranges issue.
+ Mr. Beyer. By the way, Tom, I agree with you on the
+immediate expensing of R&D expenses, and that was just one of
+the things--it wasn't a policy decision. It was forced by the
+Byrd Rule in order to get TCJA through reconciliation, which I
+hope we can fix. But, Tom, a larger question--while listening--
+going through statistics, and our--your notion that our Federal
+R&D, the 2.8 percent's the lowest it's been in 60 years as a
+percentage of GDP, GDP increased from 2010 to 2020 by 22
+percent, and our Federal R&D as a percentage of GDP was
+essentially flat. How do we make a national commitment to
+Federal R&D as a percentage of GDP so that we say it should be
+4 percent, or it should be 5 percent, and make the long-term
+commitment to that?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Well, Mr. Beyer, I think that is an
+excellent question, and it actually goes to some of the points
+that Mr. Garcia was making as well about R&D with national
+security. Look, the Federal Government plays a very critical
+role in our R&D process infrastructure, and that basic research
+plays out in many, many different forms down the line. So I
+think, you know, if we take a look at the combination of the
+America--the CHIPS for America Act, the National Artificial
+Intelligence Act which passed last year, the Energy Act that
+passed last year, those can be used as a pivot point to start
+to increase Federal R&D, but as I referenced earlier as well, I
+think there are a number of other steps that we would like to
+talk to you about as to how we can increase that Federal
+research dollar, and see if there's some sort of mechanism to
+increase it over time, and also to ensure that we are keeping
+pace with our international competitors.
+ Mr. Beyer. Yeah. Thanks. My time's up, but thank you for
+the specific recommendations you gave us today.
+ Staff. Mr. Feenstra, I think.
+ Mr. Feenstra. Thank you, Madam Chair, and Ranking Member
+Lucas. I first of all, I want to thank each of the witnesses
+for their testimony today. It is crucial for us to hear from
+each of you on how to best maintain the United States' role as
+leaders in science and innovation, and how we can help our
+Nation's research enterprises recover from the effects of the
+pandemic. I also want to say I really enjoyed the conversation
+concerning research and development tax credits. The State of
+Iowa is one of the leaders in research and development tax
+credits, and myself being chair of Ways and Means in the Iowa
+Senate over the years, I have seen a tremendous value in what's
+happening with research and development tax credits, and how we
+have really driven research in our State, you know, when it
+comes to agriculture and biofuel.
+ But, with that, I have a couple of other questions. I'd
+like to center these questions to Dr. Parikh, and then to Dr.
+Levine, if possible. Representative Webster asked, and
+discussion was talked about, about losing high tech jobs
+overseas as students graduate, and we see this at our
+universities, Iowa, Iowa State. I was a professor at Dordt
+University, teaching business and economics, and we saw it
+there also. So the question is, Iowa State, we take STEM
+careers very seriously. Our Governor heads up a State advisory
+council to increase interest and achievement in STEM studies
+and careers. It works through partnerships that engage
+employers, nonprofits, students, and policyholders. So, as we
+talk about this, how should we increase STEM career interest
+after this pandemic? How do we get these kids to stay here, get
+them engaged? How do we get them involved? I know we've had
+some discussion about this, but I would like to hear more on
+your thoughts in this area.
+ Dr. Parikh. Thank you, Mr. Feenstra, for the question. You
+know, one of the things is--something to come after the
+pandemic, is--people have gotten excited about this
+collaboration between government, and industry, and business in
+bringing therapies and vaccines to the people. Well, one of the
+challenges that we still have is this silo between academic
+scientists and industry scientists. There are a lot of
+industry--there are a lot of academic scientists, and our CVs,
+our resumes, don't look the same. And we don't know--it's very
+hard to cross those barriers. And I think everyone would gain
+if that student who's at Iowa State, and goes through the
+academic track, but then there's a fluidity where they can move
+into academic jobs or into industry jobs or into defense jobs,
+if that were easier, that would be a huge benefit to the
+country, and to business, and to the students themselves. So I
+think that's one way that we can do something after this
+pandemic is over that would make a huge difference for moving
+the science forward, and for people.
+ Dr. Levine. Let me just underscore, along similar lines, I
+think we need to look at our higher education system as part of
+the ecology of producing important work in science. So, for
+example, better networking of terrific faculty at--whether it's
+Grinnell, or other institutions that are primarily 4 year
+institutions, like--mentioned--of Iowa, that those faculty who
+are really igniting the interest of students in their
+undergraduate courses, that those faculty can place
+undergraduates in a summer program, in a lab, in a university,
+or in a national laboratory, or in an industrial setting, in a
+social behavioral sciences and a large survey research
+organization where they can touch and feel what happens on the
+ground.
+ I would not have myself pursued a science career if I was
+not invited as an undergraduate to work in a social psychology
+laboratory. That turned me from pursuing a different
+professional set of interests to the lab, and we need to be
+investing in higher education, including community college
+settings where there are exceptional faculty doing this work,
+to see this as part of the infrastructure. Not just the kind of
+synergism that I refer to, and Sudip just did, about the
+different kinds of silos, but also the siloing of institutions,
+and thinking of teaching as not as meritorious and knowledge-
+producing as research.
+ Some of the stereotypic thinking of--as productivity, so
+that we encourage team science, which we all talk about as
+extraordinarily important, into disciplinary science shouldn't
+be viewed as left over after you achieve your credentials as a
+building block of your field. Team science as a disciplinary
+science produces extraordinary knowledge. We need to emphasize
+the--as we think about the science of the future. And I share
+the view that, actually--one of the most exciting--I lead this
+life in which I'm so excited by what we're inventing, and so
+overwhelmed by how to do it faster and better, so on the best
+days I'm just really excited about what the scientific
+community has been able to do.
+ Mr. Feenstra. Thank you so much for your comments. And I
+know my time is up, but I just quickly want to say this, is
+that I think we have to be innovative also when it comes to
+this private/public partnership. I know Tom, you mentioned
+this, on how we can do tax incentives with the colleges, the
+universities, and the private sector of saying, hey, what can
+we do to incentivize where these kids can go from the college
+role to the job role? And we've done this in research and
+development with a great tax credit. I just think there's ways
+to nuance this to even make it more successful. Thank you for
+your time, I yield back.
+ Staff. Mr. Kildee is next.
+ Mr. Kildee. Thank you. Can you hear me OK?
+ Staff. Yes.
+ Mr. Kildee. All right. Well, first of all, thank you to
+Chairwoman Johnson for holding this really important hearing. I
+do appreciate the testimony of the witnesses, and hearing ways
+that our researchers have been affected by the pandemic, and
+yet have still helped to combat, really in a pretty remarkable
+way, the spread of coronavirus. It is truly a remarkable
+achievement that we've seen just in the last year, particularly
+around--but obviously around vaccination.
+ Obviously our national research infrastructure is critical
+to all of us in so many ways. We have to ensure that it
+survives this moment that we're in right now, and that's why,
+like many, I'm just--in this hearing support the RISE Act to
+provide the relief necessary to--and to support federally
+funded research. Not only to provide emergency relief to
+support our researchers--public health crisis, but we also
+obviously have to sustain these research investments as we look
+forward toward economic recovery, and the long-term economic
+viability of the U.S.
+ Part of rebuilding our economy obviously includes
+investment in the infrastructure, but also specifically
+including energy infrastructure and clean energy technology.
+And I know Congresswoman Stevens, my in-state partner,
+mentioned this, but, you know, for example, putting more
+electric vehicles on the road, reducing carbon emissions,
+supporting investment in American-made manufacturing, this all
+protects our planet and helps us grow our economy.
+ So I wonder, Dr. Parikh, if you could perhaps address this
+question. If we don't invest in R&D in the technology of the
+future, like electric vehicles, other countries will, and I'm
+curious about what your sense of that challenge really looks
+like for us. And then, if I have time, I would like to ask Mr.
+Quaadman also. Dr. Parikh?
+ Dr. Parikh. Thank you, Mr. Kildee. You know, what's
+remarkable is over the last 75 years we developed this
+ecosystem, and we invested in it, and we did it pretty much
+alone, right? There weren't a lot of other nations that were
+doing this, and so we benefited greatly from it. And what's
+happened is everybody now understands the blueprint, and you
+all know this as Members of this Committee, that everybody now
+understands that blueprint. And we have to innovate beyond
+where they--where they're copying us. And if we don't, the
+scale of investment, that's coming, right? China can invest
+just as much as we can.
+ And so it's not about just the scale. We need the scale,
+but we also need the thoughtfulness of how do we incentivize
+industry, how do we incentivize industry and academia to work
+together, how do we do it in a targeted way, in a coordinated
+way?
+ We have over 20 agencies that do science research and
+development across the Federal Government. Now, in the past,
+they didn't always work together. But if we're going to attack
+climate change, if we're going to attack the need for better
+batteries for electric cars, if we're going to attack the need
+for quantum computing, we have to have a coordinated effort. We
+need NOAA, and NIH (National Institutes of Health), and CDC to
+work together on climate change. We need DOE, NSF, and DOD
+working together on batteries. So that requires more
+coordination that we've ever had before, so we've got to do
+both those things. We've got to be able to invest heavily, you
+know, and that's going to be a lot more than we're doing today.
+As Mr. Quaadman said, we should be doing way more in terms of
+GDP in research and development, but the second piece is we've
+got to coordinate our activities in a way that actually attacks
+the problems that we're trying to solve.
+ Mr. Kildee. Thank you. I wonder, Mr. Quaadman, if you
+could comment, but also specifically any thought you have on
+the necessary incentives for private sector investment? Like,
+for example, the change in the R&D tax credit that'll go into
+effect in 2022, what impact that might be having in terms of
+the way those--that expensing will be amortized. Are we
+providing the proper incentives? Did the Tax Cuts and JOBS Act
+actually work against us, in the sense that it changed the way
+companies can to look at that investment?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Yeah, thank you very much for that question,
+Mr. Kildee, and I would just say too when the Chamber released
+its climate principles in mid-January, last month, you know,
+two things that we had in there is we have to embrace
+technology and innovation to address climate, but then we also
+need to ensure that there's U.S. climate science leadership to
+address the problems as well. So I think the American Energy
+Act, as an example, provides for funding for a number of
+different technologies, such as advanced nuclear, carbon
+capture, a number of other things that can--that could help
+lead us through that.
+ I would also say too--No. 2, to your point, it is very
+important that we do change that R&D tax credit. That is going
+to be very important for how business will allocate funding.
+But the last point I want to make too, which it has come up in
+a couple other questions, but I think undergirds a lot of this,
+Federal research is also important. Some of what we've talked
+about with the COVID vaccines, there is 2 decades of research
+that went into mRNA before we even got to the vaccine. If we
+take a look at GPS (Global Positioning System), that research
+started in the 1950's. So we also have to understand too, there
+could be decades of research in the basic research field where
+the Federal Government plays a unique role that the private
+sector and the academic researchers can come in later on, when
+we're talking about applying the development research. But
+really it's that core that we need to get going as well.
+ Mr. Kildee. Great, I appreciate--my time's expired. I
+really appreciate the testimony of the witnesses, and, Madam
+Chair, I appreciate you holding this hearing, and I yield back.
+ Staff. Mr. LaTurner is next.
+ Mr. LaTurner. Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking Member Lucas,
+thank you for having this hearing so we can discuss the
+importance of research, and the United States remaining at the
+forefront of the world of science and technology. One of the
+key reasons the United States became a world power was the
+emphasis we placed on innovation. We invested in research and
+development in the universities like the University of Kansas
+(KU), which I am so proud to represent, and national
+laboratories as well. We led by example in scientific and
+technological advancements. But now others in the world are
+emphasizing their research programs, and are working hard to
+overtake us. China is pursuing aggressive plans to become the
+world leader in technology, supplemented by their own national
+policies, and billions of dollars in investments.
+ It comes as no surprise that national research efforts
+were among the many things impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
+Laboratory closures, health restrictions, and cancellations of
+conferences and travel have strained researchers and disrupted
+our normal operations. The virus has lowered our research
+output, cost hundreds of millions of dollars in divestment, and
+nearly halted the academic research and STEM workforce
+pipelines. If we want to come back from this, and stay ahead of
+China, we must look to getting our research enterprise back in
+full working order, and ensure there is a place for our future
+generations of researchers and innovators. I hope that this
+Committee can come together to make sure the rest of the world
+looks to America for future scientific advancement.
+ Mr. Quaadman, partnerships between the Federal Government,
+academia, and the private sector are commonplace in our
+national R&D or enterprise. Can you discuss the importance of
+the public/private partnership, especially as it relates to
+overcoming the COVID situation that we've been in over the last
+year?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Yeah. I think it was very important that we
+had the ability of the Federal Government, academia, and the
+private sector to come together extremely quickly to ensure
+that there were either research dollars in place, or that there
+were deployment dollars put in place, as well as a sharing of
+knowledge, which we talked about the computing consortium as an
+example of that.
+ We've--we saw--frankly, we also saw that in the 1960's
+through large agreement with the moon program as well. So it
+just goes to show, if we get our act together, and can work in
+concert together to ensure that we are putting our best foot
+forward, nobody's going to beat us. The problem we've had over
+the last several decades is, you know, we're sort of riding
+along on some successes that we've had in the past, but we did
+not have a concerted strategy, and I think we are at a point
+here where we could sort of take a little bit of a deep breath
+to make sure we get things back up and running, but also look
+at the long term as to what we need--what policies do we need
+to put in place to make sure that we are going to continue our
+leadership.
+ Mr. LaTurner. I appreciate that. Dr. Keane, the University
+of Kansas is the largest employer in the Second District of
+Kansas, and one of the largest employers of the State.
+Researchers at KU, like most citizens in the country, have had
+great restrictions to return to work. What I'm concerned about
+is that grants that have been awarded in the past can't be
+completed, and the potential for new scientific discoveries
+will stall. Can you speak to the type of impact legislation
+like the RISE Act would have on the university research
+community, and how that can affect the larger communities and
+cities that universities reside in?
+ Dr. Keane. Thank you, Representative LaTurner, for that
+question. It's a great question. The RISE Act will definitely
+help the situation. We talked earlier about the 20 to 40
+percent loss in output. It's essentially due to, you know, the
+time out we've had, and then looking ahead, the difficulties in
+ramping up again. So the RISE Act will support researchers that
+will allow us to come back fully, and that will support the
+local economic development within those areas. As you know,
+universities are very strong engines in the local economy in
+their various communities, certainly in my area in rural
+Washington. So I would strongly urge that we--that the
+Committee pass the RISE Act, provide the resources to enable
+that research to finish that was interrupted. And I think also,
+as we've heard, we need to look to the future as well.
+ If I could also just for a moment emphasize as well some
+of the issues with HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and
+Universities) and others on this, they're in a particularly
+tough spot because they don't have a lot to fall back on in
+terms of infrastructure and other things, in terms of getting
+the full range of our talent. They, as well as--faculty, as
+we've already heard, have been particularly strongly impacted,
+and deserve attention.
+ Mr. LaTurner. I appreciate that, Dr. Keane. Thank you, Mr.
+Chairman, thank you Ranking Member Lucas. I yield back my time.
+ Staff. Mr. Casten is next.
+ Mr. Casten. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and I feel
+like I need to apologize. We have such a good bunch of
+speakers, I would love to ask the same questions of all of you,
+because I think some of the differences in nuance would be
+interesting, so if you want to follow up, please do. But I'm
+going to pick, for totally selfish reasons, as a biochemical
+engineer and biochemist, I've got to represent, so I'm going to
+go with you, Dr. Parikh.
+ I want to follow on the discussion you had with Mr. Tonko,
+and this, you know, that we've seen this falloff in research,
+and it's been focused on specific sectors, and I, you know, I
+think a lot have covered that, and I don't want to dwell on
+that, but what I'd like to understand is--we have--science is
+an international endeavor. There's lots of collaboration
+between labs. For a whole lot of reasons that we don't need to
+get into here, but we can acknowledge, COVID affected different
+countries very differently, the rate of mask uptake, the rate
+of social distancing, deployment of testing, and particularly
+in the Southeast Asia region, including Australia and New
+Zealand, the reality of COVID was much less grim, as far as
+what it meant for social distancing than what it was here. Of
+those sectors of our scientific endeavor that have been most
+deeply impacted, have any of them been able to work with their
+collaborators to move that research overseas, and if so, will
+that research come back to the United States after, or is there
+a permanent loss that's there?
+ Dr. Parikh. Mr. Casten, that's a terrific question. I
+don't have hard data on numbers of projects that may have
+moved, but certainly, at the individual peer to peer level--
+look, these conversations are happening all the time. We've got
+scientists here that talk to their collaborators. Maybe they're
+former students who are in Europe now, or who are in Australia
+now. And basic research works in a way where we do share
+information, we do share reagents, we do share intellectual
+conversations, because the point is to actually do the basic
+research so you can get to the intellectual property. And so
+that is happening.
+ There's no doubt that when experiments can't happen here,
+as a graduate student, I'd be wanting my idea to flower
+somewhere, because I have the intellectual ownership of that.
+Maybe not IP, but intellectual ownership of it, and so that is
+definitely happening. And right now it's manageable, because we
+can keep these students in the pipeline with funding like the
+RISE Act. What happens--what could be bad is if we don't do
+things like the RISE Act, we don't ensure that that pipeline
+gets unclogged, if those students follow those projects, those
+students follow those ideas, or they just leave the sciences.
+And that's what--that's a true worry for us.
+ Mr. Casten. So let me go from a mildly complicated
+question to a really complicated one, and put you on the spot
+with the clock at 2:30 and counting. When we think about the
+economic downturns, you know, there's--and I know the metrics
+on economic downturns. It's harder in science, but, you know,
+we'll see a collapse in the economy, and on a good downturn,
+``good'', we sort of restore to the historic growth trajectory.
+So if you think about, like, the dot com crash, we got--we came
+down, and we got back--so we saw some above-average growth. In
+a bad downturn, like the 2008 crash, we fall off and we, you
+know, maybe we return to the historic rate of growth, but we
+never get back to that historic trajectory.
+ Dr. Parikh. Yeah.
+ Mr. Casten. The reason I ask about that sort of
+international--not just the brain drain, but if the research
+has moved overseas, is there, you know, as you think about the
+restoration of--where we are, are we--is this going to be a
+good downturn or a bad downturn, from a scientific perspective?
+And from a policy perspective, beyond throwing money at the
+problem, which I'm sure we will, are there policy tools that we
+should be thinking about right now to make this a good downturn
+in the scientific? That make sense?
+ Dr. Parikh. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, and----
+ Mr. Casten. And, again, if any of the rest of you have
+answers, please send them in writing, but I--time here after
+Dr. Parikh is done.
+ Dr. Parikh. I appreciate that. No, I think it's an
+excellent question, and what we do here is going to determine
+what happens. I mean, we are at this inflection point. We're--
+we can't just move some money at it, and move on, and yes,
+we'll keep that historical trajectory, I hope. But, in reality,
+others are moving in the environment as well, so we have to do
+a couple of things. One is the investment. The second is that
+coordination factor I'm talking about. We haven't done that
+before. It is so important that we--if we're going to say that
+climate disruption is important to us, we've got to coordinate
+our activities. If we're going to say that batteries are
+important to us, we've got to coordinate those efforts between
+the academic environment and business. If we don't do that,
+then we're--our unconsolidated work is going to be incredibly
+powerful, and yet the sum will not be greater--the whole will
+not be greater than the sum of the parts. We've got to have
+that coordination.
+ So I think that's the policy issue. As we get out of the
+pandemic, and as we--if we save this generation of human
+capital, then the next thing is we've got to be able to
+coordinate our activities, otherwise we can't--a plan beats no
+plan. The Chinese have a plan on these things, and we have some
+on some areas, because of good legislation from this Committee
+and others, but we've got to make sure that we're thinking
+about this in a holistic sense.
+ Mr. Casten. Well, thank you so much. I see I'm out of
+time, but would love to continue the conversation with you and
+your staff--and, again, sorry to the rest of you that I didn't
+get to talk to, but we'd welcome them as well, to the extent
+you have a point to add. Thank you, I yield back.
+ Staff. Mr. Gimenez next.
+ Mr. Gimenez. Thank you, thank you very much, and I want to
+thank the Chairwoman and the Ranking Member for putting this
+together, and everybody that's been on the panel. The question
+that I have is something that Mr. Parikh said, something about
+the supply chain. Does talent follow the supply chain?
+ Dr. Parikh. Does talent--thank you for the question, Mr.
+Chairman. I think talent follows the opportunity. You know, in
+times when the finance industry looks like the place to be as a
+young person, people want to go to the finance industry. And
+you are--you're so influenced by your parents. And I just had a
+conversation with a program in the south side of Chicago, and--
+we're trying to get young people interested in the sciences.
+They only get interested if they know there's a job there, that
+there's a life there. And so, yes, it follows the opportunity,
+as much as it follows the supply chain.
+ Mr. Gimenez. So if the supply chain is leading, or left
+the United States, and we want to get some of this talent back,
+would it be a good policy to try to bring the supply chain back
+to the United States?
+ Dr. Parikh. I'm following your question now. Look,
+absolutely, because the more parts of the supply chain that are
+here, there are more jobs for that talent. They can work in
+manufacturing, they can work in the translational sciences,
+they can work in--on the policy side related to the
+manufacturing, so absolutely. I think that's a true statement.
+ Mr. Gimenez. How can we incentivize the supply chain to
+come back to the United States?
+ Dr. Parikh. I'm going to defer to Mr. Quaadman on part of
+that, because he is the--he's much more of an expert on the
+industry side. What I will say is that, you know, the
+investment in research, if you notice these areas around the
+country, the geographic areas, the clusters where science is
+happening, a lot of time the translational stuff happens around
+there as well, and then you can see the manufacturing. But I'll
+defer to Mr. Quaadman on the--on details.
+ Mr. Gimenez. OK.
+ Mr. Quaadman. Sure, Mr. Gimenez. Thank you for that
+question. That's an excellent question, so let me answer it in
+two separate ways. No. 1--came out with--report with China, and
+one of the things--recommendations that was made in there was
+also to increase our domestic manufacturing base, and I think
+the CHIPS for America Act is a very good example of that. And
+we can send you a copy of that report, and have a further
+discussion with you on that. Second, we are also looking at
+President Biden's Executive order from yesterday. We fully
+agree with the aims of having a resilient supply chain, and a
+diversified supply chain, and we also look forward to providing
+our--on that as well.
+ Mr. Gimenez. OK. Shifting gears a little bit, you know,
+the pandemic has been horrible, but also it's taught us a
+different way of doing business. And so is there any upside
+here for research, in that the pandemic has forced us to
+conduct business in a little bit different way? And maybe it's
+been positive on some research, and it's been negative on
+others, so what's been your experience?
+ Dr. Keane. Representative Gimenez, if I could take a crack
+at that one for a minute? First of all, I think we've all
+learned a lot about but--about virtual techniques, and some of
+them are just going to remain, as you might imagine, certain
+types of meetings that will become virtual forever. They
+actually are more effective at promoting diverse input. I think
+we've also learned some other things, not just associated with
+remote technology and--things like artificial intelligence. The
+Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence out here in
+Washington State, their leader put together a body of papers on
+COVID-19, 200,000, analyzable by some of their machine learning
+platforms and so on. So, essentially, it's as if you could draw
+on 200,000 papers to get an answer you're looking for, which is
+obviously a faster rate of progress than most of us human
+researchers could do. There have some major changes that have
+happened, some very positive advances out of this crisis, and
+so I think there'll be a lot of great advances that'll be
+incorporated into the research enterprise in the future.
+Thanks.
+ Mr. Gimenez. Well, last question, since I'm new to this
+Committee, where do we stand in terms of artificial
+intelligence research here in the United States versus probably
+our main competitor, China?
+ Dr. Keane. I'm not an expert in that, but I will just say
+that the advances--there have been advances in machine learning
+due to some advances about 4 or 5 years ago, and so the
+applications of AI right now are exploding. It will
+fundamentally change how we conduct research, and lots of other
+areas of our lives.
+ Mr. Quaadman. I would just add too that is the jump ball
+of the 21st century, as to who's going to win that. And I think
+we're taking some very good steps to ensure we've got the
+policies in place so we can help with the development, we can
+help be a leader there, but by no means are we assured of
+winning that race.
+ Mr. Gimenez. I know that my time is up, and so thank you
+very much, but I'll just close by saying that I think you're
+right, the race to artificial intelligence is the jump ball of
+the 21st century, and we need to win it as a nation. Thank you.
+Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman.
+ Dr. Levine. If I could just add one dimension on that
+point quickly? One of our potential competitive edges is that
+AI needs the kind of modeling and development that takes into
+account the diversities of reasoning and decisionmaking. And
+what we have in our democracies, and in our commitment,
+hopefully our renewed commitment, to equity is to bring those
+voices into the AI community. There are many very central
+locations already doing that. It's the kind of thing we need to
+invest in, and that's where I think our competitive edge can
+reside. We don't think in one way, and we need to bring that
+diversity of reasoning into modeling in AI. It's happening now,
+and we need to invest further in it.
+ Staff. Ms. Ross is next.
+ Ms. Ross. OK, I've unmuted. Can you hear me?
+ Staff [continuing]. Can.
+ Ms. Ross. That's great. Well, thank you, Chairwoman--and--
+Member Lucas. It's been a--hearing, and it--it's--much from
+research dollars going to our universities, and also going to
+several of the organizations that do research. We're now ranked
+among the top 10, I believe No. 6 in the country, and I have
+North Carolina State University in my district. I also have two
+HBCUs in my district, and I really appreciate the mention of
+the HBCUs, because they are doing excellent work, and are
+educating the next generation of entrepreneurs, so I want to
+thank you for that.
+ My first question is for----
+ Staff. Ms. Ross, you appear to be experiencing bandwidth
+issues, and your connection is cutting in and out. You may want
+to turn the camera off, and that may help with your audio.
+ Ms. Ross. OK. No. OK. OK. I'm sorry about that. I'm going
+to have to yield back.
+ Staff. OK. We'll go to Mr. Obernolte.
+ Mr. Obernolte. Well, thank you very much, and thanks to
+our witnesses. I've really enjoyed the hearing. One recurrent
+theme that has surfaced in the testimony seems to be concern
+about our investment in research and development compared to
+China's, and how that might undermine our strategic position.
+That's a concern that I very much share, and so I had a couple
+questions regarding that.
+ First, to Dr. Keane, you quoted some very interesting
+statistics about how we were falling behind China in our
+investment in research and development, and I'm wondering, are
+those statistics including both private and public sector
+investments in research and development? And, you know, kind of
+as a follow-on, it seems to me that measuring private sector
+investment in R&D in the United States is actually a little bit
+problematic because it's not something that's always reported.
+You can get it from publicly traded companies' disclosure
+statements sometimes, but quite often that's a trade secret
+that companies don't share. So how confident are we in those
+statistics?
+ Dr. Keane. Yeah, thank you for that question,
+Representative Obernolte, great, great questions. First of all,
+the source of that data, as I mentioned earlier, I believe is
+the National Science Board Indicators Report, which is based on
+the survey data that the National Science Foundation collects
+from industry, universities, all manner of folks that perform
+research. So the answer to your first question, then, is that
+those numbers include all research, federally funded
+universities, industry, nonprofits, et cetera, and all those
+folks typically respond to these survey--NSF.
+ With that said, your question about the quality of the
+data, I don't have an NSF colleague here, but, you know, we
+could certainly connect you with someone to talk about that,
+and how they collected--but it is all expenditures from all
+sectors, and it is based on a--it's currently a systematic
+survey that's been done for many years by the National Science
+Foundation.
+ Mr. Obernolte. All right. Thank you. You know, not to say
+that the data's invalid, something I'm very concerned about,
+but to be able to solve the problem we need to make sure we get
+our arms around exactly how big the problem is, and because our
+economy is much less centrally planned than China's I'm
+concerned that we don't have a full picture of what our private
+sector investment in R&D is.
+ And then, for my second question, to Dr. Quaadman,
+basically on the same topic, but you had said something I found
+very interesting in your testimony, expressing concern that in
+the past most research and development was publicly funded here
+in the United States, and that now that's kind of flip-flopped,
+and we're 70 percent privately funded, and only 30 percent
+publicly funded. And I'm wondering if you could defend a little
+bit, you know, why you're concerned about that? Because it
+seems to me that, you know, maybe there's a difference in the
+type of research going on. Maybe public funding is more toward
+basic research, and private funding is more toward applied
+research. But, you know, why is that something we should be
+concerned about?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Well, because--think of it this way, all
+right? Because the--a lot of the business funding, it's either
+in development research or it's in applied research, right,
+where you're trying to develop products off of other research
+that's--theoretical--or from the basic research arm. So if
+you're not doing some of that basic research, you're not going
+to get some of those other impacts. So if you think about it
+this way, in the example I used earlier, with GPS, right, that
+started with the Federal Government in the 1950's. Think of all
+the different ways we're using GPS now. By the way, with the
+implementation of 4G, with data localization and sharing, et
+cetera, that's how you got ridesharing, right? And we would
+sort of say now, like, going into an Uber and a Lyft, that's
+sort of second nature. So now if you look at it this way as
+well, as we start to implement 5G, what are going to be the
+products that come after that?
+ The point is, if we're not doing that basic research,
+you're not going to have those positive benefits--societal
+benefits that occur due to some of the development research
+that happens, and that's when you start to look at what--as we
+are, not spending as much on the basic research. We're not
+going to have that bang for the buck later in the future.
+ Mr. Obernolte. Sure. I agree with you, however, I think
+it's kind of a nuanced point. Basic research is sometimes the
+most easily duplicated. Applied research is very difficult to
+duplicate because you're, you know, you're applying it to a
+specific application. So----
+ Mr. Quaadman. Um-hum.
+ Mr. Obernolte [continuing]. I mean, I actually think that
+this is something that we as a nation should be talking more
+about, because I think it's an incredibly important topic to
+talk about, what kinds of research we're funding, who is
+funding it, if it's public sector or private sector, and how
+that stacks up against other countries, particularly China. But
+thank you. I see my time's expired. Thank you very much to our
+panelists. A really interesting discussion, I look forward to
+continuing it in the future. I yield back.
+ Staff. Ms. Bonamici is----
+ Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chairwoman
+Johnson and Ranking Member Lucas, and thank you so much to our
+witnesses for joining us today. I--I've now relocated to a
+computer where I'm not going to be dropped, I hope. So I really
+appreciate the Committee's continued focus on the effects of
+the pandemic on our Nation's research enterprise following our
+hearing last fall on the needs of universities and I'm very
+glad that we're securing funding for the National Science
+Foundation and NIST, the National Institute of Standards and
+Technology in the American Rescue Plan, but we need to pass the
+RISE Act to truly recognize the expenses and the challenges
+that have been accrued in ramping up, or down, spending, and
+then eventually restarting Federal research. So today I want to
+focus on the long-term consequences of the pandemic for the
+research community, specifically for our workforce, in solving
+the next moon shot challenge.
+ But I also wanted to note that, you know, this Committee
+has had countless hearings over the years about how to grow and
+diversify the workforce, and STEAM (science, technology,
+engineering, arts, and mathematics). I say STEAM intentionally.
+Mr. Quaadman mentioned innovation, which is critical, and there
+was a suggestion along the way that--interested in the arts
+should be redirected to STEM. I submit that the better solution
+is integrating the arts into science, technology, engineering,
+and math. Brain research shows that arts education helps
+students be more creative and innovative, and Europe and Asia
+are not cutting the arts.
+ So I'm--I do want to focus on the economic consequence of
+the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they have exacerbated so many of
+the inequities and the barriers facing women in communities of
+color. Because of entrenched gender roles, women are continuing
+to take up the majority of childcare and caregiving
+responsibilities. That's directly affected their research, as
+Dr. Keane mentioned. One professor at the University of Oregon,
+Dr. Machalicek recently noted that she regretfully now deletes
+every request for a proposal because she simply doesn't have
+time [inaudible] caregiving responsibilities. She hosts an
+online writing group for--they have to be at night, after
+bedtime for--children.
+ Now, Dr. Levine, you noted several data points in your
+testimony that suggest that Dr. Machalicek is not alone in her
+experience. What steps can universities and the Federal
+Government take to support women in research fields to make
+sure that they aren't left behind as we get through the
+pandemic and build back?
+ Dr. Levine. What an excellent question, and that citation
+not only resonates with what we heard so powerfully in our
+focus group, but just looking at the top line, as we're
+bringing the survey into an analytic format, we're just seeing
+it pop off the page. We need to do something that provides much
+more comprehensive wrap-around services. That's one of the
+reasons why I mentioned early on that supplemental funding that
+NSF has, that should be a kind of thinking that leads to wrap-
+around support, potential childcare services, additional,
+potentially, RA (Resident Assistant) support, and other kinds
+of time off, salary release time, as a good way of catching up
+and that, and those who have elder care responsibilities.
+ And one of the reasons why I emphasize--this is
+particularly an issue for women of color is that one of the
+things we picked up in the focus group very clearly is how much
+additional family care, based on many first generation career
+scientists, then need to also not only invest in their own
+child care, but wrap-around care to their family members, so we
+need to----
+ Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so much. And, Dr. Levine, I don't
+mean to cut you off, but I really want to get another question
+in to Dr. Parikh. And even in the midst of an unprecedented
+pandemic, the climate crisis continues. We need climate science
+to help mitigate and adapt. Oregon State University (OSU), in
+my home State, is home to a world class ice core analysis
+laboratory, and they rely on ice core samples from the national
+archive at the NSF ice core facility in Denver, so COVID
+restrictions on Federal staffing and travel have significantly
+slowed their access to samples, in particular for a new project
+studying what is believed to be the oldest pristine ice samples
+ever discovered. So OSU's research vessels have been restricted
+as well, limiting supplies--or, excuse me, samples, for algal
+blooms--temperatures of the ocean. These gaps are
+irreplaceable, so, Dr. Parikh, I appreciate your focus on our
+Nation's innovative leadership, but how will these disruptions
+affect our ability to solve challenging problems like the
+climate crisis?
+ Dr. Parikh. It's an excellent point, Ms. Bonamici. It
+shows that, yeah, this goes beyond the biomedical research
+sciences. It goes beyond our challenges related to the here and
+now. It goes to future crises, and there's no getting back the
+time that that ice core couldn't move from Denver to Oregon. We
+can't get that back. What we can do is ensure that, going
+forward, we have the human capital that was going to do is
+still there, and the next generation's also coming, and that we
+also have thought about the resiliency of that scientific
+enterprise.
+ You know, we can--sometimes you think about these things,
+there are freezers that hold unique biological samples in this
+country. There are freezers that hold unique core samples from
+the Arctic. We need to make sure we have resilience in that--in
+those invaluable assets that only our Nation has because we
+invested the time, and the energy, and the resources to go get
+it. So let's make sure we have that resiliency in place as
+well.
+ Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so much. I see my time has
+expired. I yield back. Thank you, Madam Chair.
+ Staff. Mr. Babin is up next.
+ Mr. Babin. Yes. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and
+Ranking Member Lucas. I want to thank all of you witnesses as
+well today. This conversation we're having is critically
+important in many ways, but probably one of the most important
+are the implications that this has on our national security
+during this time of the pandemic. The U.S. Justice Department
+has accused China of sponsoring hackers who are targeting labs
+that were using state-of-the-art technology to develop our
+COVID vaccines. The Director of the FBI (Federal Bureau of
+Investigation) has said that acts of espionage and theft by
+China's government pose the ``greatest long-term threat'' to
+the future of the United States.
+ My first question goes to Dr. Parikh and Dr. Keane. There
+have been multiple examples of Chinese hackers attempting to
+steal COVID vaccine data from different universities around the
+country. In your opinion, how susceptible are our universities
+to Chinese hackers, and what do each of you see as being a
+solution to better protecting our technology and our research?
+Dr. Parikh, if you would answer first, and then Dr. Keane.
+Thank you.
+ Dr. Parikh. Thank you, Mr. Babin. This is a critically
+important question. You know, I can attest that every one of
+our institutions, our national laboratory, even the AAAS, we
+are constantly under attack in cyberspace, and it's from
+multiple nations around the world. The challenge for us is to
+make sure that we are being--we are protecting our intellectual
+property, we're protecting the things that need to be protected
+for defense, as laid out by the National Security Directive--
+Decision Directive issued by President Reagan during the cold
+war, Directive Number 189. We need to make sure that we are
+protecting those assets, while balancing the need for
+collaboration. And, you know, basic research has collaboration
+that is required as well.
+ So in terms of policy, are--you're asking if the
+universities are better today than they were yesterday, they
+are. They are. Will they be better tomorrow? I think so. And
+part of that is that we are learning. We are constantly
+learning. This is a fluid situation. It has gotten worse over
+time, and the universities have been, in my opinion, and now I
+turn to Dr. Keane to answer directly, but, in my opinion, from
+the outside, they have been very responsive to this--to these
+attacks.
+ Mr. Babin. All right. Thank you so much. Dr. Keane?
+ Dr. Keane. Yeah, thank you very much for that question,
+Representative Babin. So let me first of all state that
+universities are actually dedicated to implementing measures
+to, you know, conduct our research in a secure manner. Just
+also a little bit of background, in terms of life under
+attacks, you know, as Dr. Parikh just talked about, we're in a
+similar situation. Over 90 percent of the e-mails that we get
+at Washington State University are attacks or spam, so our
+firewalls are constantly defending us against all manner of
+things.
+ In terms of what we're doing about it, you know, a variety
+of things. First of all, we have, you know, significantly
+increased faculty awareness on this. We talk to our faculty all
+the time. We are improving our systems for disclosure of
+conflict of interest and conflict of commitment. Conflict of
+Commitment, the simple way to think of that is we want to make
+sure that a faculty member doesn't spend 100 percent time on
+one project, and then go out and get a grant to do exactly the
+same work with somebody else, right? And so we have systems in
+place that we--or monitor that, and we've gone to electronic,
+and other sort of ways to help us do that, as have many
+universities.
+ I also just want to close on this--my comment on this
+topic by pointing out that the recent legislation in the
+National Defense Authorization Act, and also ongoing efforts to
+try and harmonize research security related--across agencies.
+Right now there is significant administrative overhead because
+we have different requests--for example, interactions with
+China or whatever--country--in different formats from different
+agencies. So we spend a lot of time trying to sort out the
+different forms, which isn't, you know, value added. So
+anything that could be done by the Congress or the Committee to
+try and take a coherent multi-agency approach to research
+security would be welcome. Thank you.
+ Mr. Babin. Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Keane. Real quickly,
+Mr. Quaadman, in your capacity with the U.S. Chamber, how is
+the theft of basic research by China going to hurt our economy
+and our competitiveness? If you could just give a few seconds
+to that?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Yeah, I mean, obviously it's harmful to
+both. One of the things that the Chamber has done, through our
+Global Innovation Policy Center, in a few weeks we'll be
+releasing our 10th IP Index, which ranks each--ranks the top 53
+economies as to their treatment of intellectual property. China
+and India historically have not ranked high there. They've
+actually ranked fairly low, for obvious reasons. What that has
+also done, though, that's also sparked a U.S./China dialog
+where we work with these issues with both business and
+government leaders, as well as with India. So part of our
+belief is that it's--it is important to shine a light on these
+problems because it creates incentives to try and address some
+of them from the other side as well.
+ Mr. Babin. Absolutely. Thank you so much. I'll yield back,
+Madam Chair.
+ Staff. Ms. Moore is next.
+ Ms. Moore. Thank you so very, very much, Madam Chair, Mr.
+Ranking Member, all of our witnesses, Dr. Parikh, Dr. Keane,
+Dr. Levine, Mr. Quaadman. I have learned so much from this
+hearing today, and I have more questions than I do time, so let
+me try to get through this.
+ When we look at--I want to make a declarative statement,
+and then sort of get a response from you. When we look at the
+numbers of women who engage in research, I guess of any type,
+whether it's biomedical, or defense, or any other kinds, like,
+30 percent globally, and you've all attested to the fact that
+women have various family responsibilities that Dr. Keane said
+keeps them out of academia for numbers of years longer, they
+don't go into research because of the framework of being
+family, and so on. I just want to know, is there anything about
+the RISE Act, or other sorts of research, that specifically
+focuses on maintaining these women, and now that we've gone
+through this pandemic and seen some slippage, is there any very
+specific plans with the universities, or with research firms,
+or Chamber of Commerce, is there any specific research that
+focuses on maintaining women?
+ And I don't say this out of some sort of just abstract
+notion of we need affirmative action. I mean, it matters, and
+it matters a lot, whether women and minorities are engaged in
+these kind of programs. I'll just give you an example. I took
+a--kind of a blood pressure medication, and my mouth swelled
+up, and I was looking all ugly, and I called one of my friends,
+who's a Black female cardiologist, and she said, you--as a
+Black person, you should've never been taking that medicine in
+the first place. And--so the consequences of not having women
+in the field--and I want you to talk about that. And then
+there's been a lot of talk about national security issues, and
+I notice that women in the Soviet realm, and perhaps even in
+China, much higher participation of women in research. Want to
+know if that has any implications for national security, or for
+our keeping pace. And so I guess I would ask that of Dr.
+Parikh, Dr. Keane, Dr. Levine.
+ Dr. Parikh. Ms. Moore, thank you for the question. My
+goodness, the value of having diverse voices at the table,
+women, underrepresented minorities, is not just because of the
+moral imperative. The moral imperative is obvious. The real
+reason is because it actually helps our economic
+competitiveness, and it creates solutions, so the example you
+gave is a perfect one. When we talk about solutions to this,
+they are--we've got to aim it at every spot in that pipeline.
+So, for the kids, K-12, we've got to make sure they're not
+getting the signals--the wrong signals, to get out of the
+sciences. We've got to make sure they're getting interventions
+to help them if there are challenges that are keeping them out
+of the sciences that are not related to study. Got to make sure
+we're intervening there.
+ And then, at the graduate school level, we have graduate
+students that are in their 20's, and we have post-docs in their
+30's. They need to not just be treated as apprentices. They
+need to have some benefits that are employee-like because they
+are of the age to have children. They are of the age to be
+married. We need to make sure that they have those kinds of
+benefits. So I think those are a couple I've given out. I'll
+give to--time to the others as well.
+ Dr. Keane. Yeah, if I could comment, Representative Moore?
+Great question. So the answer to your question is, yes, there
+is research going on to try and actually come up with real ways
+to improve the situation. But one of the things we need to do,
+obviously, as a first step is to think about, you know, why are
+we in the situation we're in? And, to that end, just as an
+example, there was a very recent, just--think this last month,
+a study that came out by the National Bureau of Economic
+Research that surveyed 20,000 Ph.D. woman respondents about
+their lives, and that turned up some interesting facts, you
+know, such as on average women have lost double the time to
+research that men have in the pandemic. And also we can see, by
+looking at large scale data and publications, that women are
+definitely publishing less than men.
+ And I know--but that is also just a whole number of
+potential ways to improve the situation, universities extending
+tenure clocks, waiving certain types of service for women,
+providing care, and other, you know, the--relieving other forms
+of faculty service so women can focus on research, OK? So
+there's a whole bunch of ideas in the pipeline to address this
+question.
+ Dr. Levine. Well, I'll just add a couple of words to that,
+because those are, you know, the important points, I think, to
+drive home to an exceptional question. I think that we also
+need to recognize that--hierarchy and positionality, often of
+women in the workforce. We have, you know, we are very aware
+that in leadership roles women can be silenced in subtle and
+not so subtle ways. So they can be central to a team, but not
+yet rewarded in the same way, so that--we have to understand
+the nature of the work, because women as scientists are often
+more inclined toward collaborative models so that--if the
+pecking order is sole author, versus multiple author. So this
+is a really important broader issue that we need to take--
+consideration.
+ While we support, for example, expanding and extending the
+tenure clock during this time, and accounting for different
+kinds of activities, we also need to be sure that the status
+hierarchy doesn't backslide and say, 3 years from now, so what
+happened? You know? So we have to be very attentive to the--to
+essentially subtle indicators that may not seem to leave women
+behind, but after all they have an adverse--and for women as
+well--of color as well. A great opportunity and challenge for
+all of us together, and in collaboration with this Committee,
+and its sensitivities, and higher education and research
+institutions.
+ Ms. Moore. OK. Thank you. I yield back. Thanks for
+indulging, Madam Chair.
+ Staff. Mr. Gonzalez is next.
+ Mr. Gonzalez. Did I hear Mr. Gonzalez? I'm sorry, I
+thought I heard it, but I don't want to jump the gun.
+ Staff. Yes, you're next.
+ Mr. Gonzalez. OK, great. Well, thank you, Chairwoman
+Johnson and Ranking Member Lucas, for holding this hearing
+today, and to our distinguished witnesses for your testimony.
+As those who served on this Committee with me last Congress
+know, I personally believe that appropriately funding and
+supporting our research enterprise is among the most important
+things we can do for our economy long term. You know, we tend
+to solve problems that are sort of staring us right in the
+face, but the truth is the investments that we make in our
+research enterprise are ultimately going to create jobs 5, 10,
+20, 30 years from now. And so I look forward to partnering with
+my colleagues in making sure that we're continuing to increase
+funding where appropriate, focus that funding so that we can
+invent the transformative technologies of the future that will
+help us sustain our economy, and continue to lead across the
+world.
+ Mr. Quaadman, as you know, China and other economies are
+investing aggressively, particularly in the industries of the
+future, like 5G, AI, quantum. Can you describe what steps the
+U.S. needs to take to remain a leader in the industries of the
+future, and what concerns do you have if we fail to do that,
+and cede that ground to a China, or another country?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Thank you very much, Mr. Gonzalez, and,
+first off, let me also thank you for your co-leadership of the
+Artificial Intelligence Caucus as well, and your leadership on
+these important issues. Look, I would say there are a number of
+different things here. No. 1, we're clearly in a race. I think
+I read recently Art Schmidt's testimony before Congress
+recently, where he said that the United States may only be 1 to
+2 years ahead of China in terms of artificial intelligence
+research.
+ I think some of the steps taken last year, both with the
+passage of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act,
+where we created a framework, both in terms of public and
+private partnership, to help incentivize that research, and
+provide some funding, is important. I think the OMB guidance
+released at the end of last year also helps with that, because
+we need the funding on the one side. We also need to have the
+collaborative atmosphere that allows for that development to
+take place.
+ Lastly, though, whoever wins that race to be the leader in
+artificial intelligence is going to set the standard, so NIST
+has a very, very critical role, if we were to be in that
+position, of developing what those standards are around the
+artificial intelligence, how they can--how it can be used, how
+it could get deployed. And that's very important because we
+bring in all the different stakeholders in a very collaborative
+effort to do that, and there are a lot of thorny ethnic--ethic
+issues associated with that which impact personal liberty,
+freedom, et cetera that we have very highly developed attitudes
+and values around that others may not. So we--that's one of the
+reasons why it is very important for the United States to be in
+that leadership role.
+ Mr. Gonzalez. Absolutely. And one thing that I've seen
+proposed, that I think is a good idea, and I hope we do it, is
+to create some sort of G7, plus Australia and New Zealand
+maybe, standard-setting organization or body that could help
+inform how these technologies are developed, and what the
+values are that underpin them. Just as a concept, what are your
+thoughts on that concept? Feel free to disagree with me. I will
+not take offense.
+ Mr. Quaadman. No, I would say two things. One is I think
+that's an interesting idea, because if you take a look at it
+within the scope of the G7, and Australia, and New Zealand,
+there are a lot of those shared values that we have that can be
+helpful in terms of doing that. The other thing, I think we
+would just need to really think this through as well, is that,
+you know, the EU's also a competitor, right? So I think there
+has to be a decision if we're going to collaborate on that. And
+if it's going to be competition, that's fine, right? I mean,
+the United States does very well when it competes, but we have
+to realize we are competing, and that if we need to win this
+race, it's no different than the race to the moon, or to some
+other technologies that we made sure we were leading in in the
+1960's, 1970's, or 1980's.
+ Mr. Gonzalez. Absolutely. And then with my final
+question--well, we won't be able to get into this in 30
+seconds. Maybe I'll submit it for the record. But one thing I
+am concerned about is our human capital development here in the
+U.S., and the feeling that, you know, some other countries are
+outpacing us in the development of our human capital, and I
+want to make sure that we're always in the lead there, and so I
+look forward to partnering with all the institutions here, and
+the Members of Congress on making sure that the U.S. is always
+as competitive as humanly possible. To your point, if we can
+compete on a level playing field, we will win. And with that, I
+yield back.
+ Staff. Mr. Sherman is next. Mr. Sherman's recognized.
+ Mr. Sherman. Why thank you. Madam Chair, thank you for
+bringing us together. The importance of science was illustrated
+to the entire country over the last year, as we deal with this
+COVID crisis. The response of the science community hasn't been
+perfect, but given the sudden and unexpected nature of this,
+has been very good. We haven't always followed the science, but
+we will straighten that out as well. And the vaccines that are
+coming to us are as a result of the scientific knowledge that
+has been put together over the last decades. That's why it's
+important that we move forward with the RISE Act, to keep
+research going, and to preserve our research capacity for the
+future. And I thank you for introducing that legislation.
+ We have--others have talked about artificial intelligence,
+and I just want to point out how important it is that it's kept
+under human control, and that we engineer into the basic
+elements of artificial intelligence. You can't just add it in
+at the end, get it into the hardware, into the systems, in
+avoidance of self-awareness, in avoidance of ambition, or a
+desire to persevere. When we talk about promoting science,
+naturally we're the Science Committee, and we focus, usually,
+on what's government doing, the space program, our grants to
+academic research. But we've got a limited amount of money, and
+I'm sure what money we have for science we will work hard to
+make sure it's spent in the best way.
+ But there's a much larger amount of money, and that--and
+the best practical research is often done by our private sector
+with their own money. And we tend to focus on the startups that
+have no revenues, and they will, of course, do research. That's
+their whole reason for existence. They only, you know, money
+comes as invested by the investors. The only thing they're
+going to do with it is spend it on their startup research. But
+the vast majority of private research is being done by
+companies that have revenues that are expected to earn a
+profit. And so if you want to influence how much of that
+research is done, you have to look at our accounting system,
+at--because Boards of Directors get up in the morning, and they
+say, how much can we show as earnings per share?
+ We had an accounting system up until 30 years ago in which
+we treated research appropriately, as we had for the past 200
+years. We made a mistake, and this the first time in this
+Committee that I'll say that perhaps the greatest threat to
+research is based in Norwalk, Connecticut. That is the location
+of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), a
+governmental agency that often argues that it's not a
+governmental agency. Mr. Quaadman, we have, over the last 30
+years, a system where if you invest money in a building, that's
+not an expense. It doesn't hurt your earnings per share, it's
+investment. But if you invest money in a research project,
+that's an immediate expense. It hurts your earnings per share,
+and makes you look worse than those of your competitors who
+aren't spending money on research. Can you give a feel for how
+much this impacts the amount of money spent on research by
+corporate America, focusing not on those few startups, but on
+the big companies that are expected to show a profit?
+ Mr. Quaadman. Yeah, thank you very much, Mr. Sherman, and
+thank you for your leadership, both for investors and for
+capital formation as well, and your doggedness on this issue,
+because I know you've been after this one for decades. Let me
+start here in terms of--we have to separate tax policy out from
+accounting policy, because they're two different things.
+ Mr. Sherman. I'm just focused--I just----
+ Mr. Quaadman. Yes.
+ Mr. Sherman [continuing]. Interrupt you, we invest
+billions of dollars over in the Ways and Means Committee
+promoting research----
+ Mr. Quaadman. Yeah.
+ Mr. Sherman [continuing]. But what I'm talking about is
+the accountants based in Norwalk, Connecticut pushing us in the
+other direction. Go ahead.
+ Mr. Quaadman. Agreed. Our CEO, Tom Donahue, in 2005 gave a
+speech at Nasdaq where he raised concerns about companies
+trying to hit the quarterly earnings guidance, right, within a
+penny or two, right, and that there are polls that actually
+show that businesses would make decisions that run counter to,
+let's say, their long-term capital expenditures. In terms of
+the first principle for the Chamber in terms of accounting, we
+always believe that it's important to start from the place of--
+that, you know, financial reporting needs to reflect economic
+activity, and not to drive it. Additionally, we've also called
+for, for years, about the need for a cost benefit analysis in
+the determination of accounting standards, that we actually
+have data to understand this along the lines of the problem
+that you're raising.
+ So I believe that Russ Golden, in his last days as FASB
+Chair, testified before you at your Subcommittee about looking
+at intangibles, which this gets into, and I think there needs
+to be--we need to have somewhat of a data-driven discussion
+around that to determine what the extent of the problem is that
+you're raising, and what we have--what we would have to do to
+sort of--what we'd have to do to address it.
+ Mr. Sherman. My own work makes me think that we're talking
+about hundreds of billions of dollars in research that would
+otherwise have been conducted over the last 25 years had they
+not made this bad accounting decision. I yield back.
+ Staff. Mr. Meijer is next.
+ Mr. Meijer. Thank you, Madam Chair, and Ranking Member,
+and to our witnesses here today. I really appreciate the time
+for you to share your thoughts and experiences. Obviously COVID
+has created disruptions across our Nation, but ensuring that we
+bounce back as rapidly as possible is key not just in our
+academic settings, not just in our economic settings, but also
+in our research and development settings.
+ I've been speaking over the past several months with
+members of the Michigan research community, both those at the
+Panhandle Institute in my district in Grand Rapids, at Michigan
+State University, at the University of Michigan, at Wayne State
+University, and other institutes of higher education throughout
+the State of Michigan, to see what we can do to ensure that a
+lot of the critical research that they've been conducting, you
+know, as they had to scale back staffing hours in the labs, as
+they had to deal with, you know, perishable equipment and
+supplies, on how we can make sure we bounce back as quickly as
+possible. And I just want to address this to the witnesses in
+general, and please feel free, any of you, to respond. I guess
+how are researchers best adapting to the new environment that's
+been created by this pandemic?
+ Dr. Keane. I'll--if I could--I'll take a quick cut at
+this----
+ Mr. Meijer. Yes, sir.
+ Dr. Keane [continuing]. First. So thank you--thanks,
+Representative Meijer, for that question. It's a very important
+one. You know, the short answer is in many ways. I think people
+are learning how to make effective use of virtual tools for a
+whole bunch of reasons, in a whole variety of ways. I think
+we're also learning how to conduct research in our laboratories
+with different staff. You know, we can come back at some of
+these laboratories now at lower staffing levels. We've gotten
+much better figuring how to use equipment, and actually conduct
+work on the situation.
+ There's some things that are harder than others to deal
+with, such as human subject research, which, you know, has
+really come back in things like biomedical research in
+particular, haven't quite come back because of the close nature
+of interaction. You know, but overall the enterprise--we
+estimate at WCU, and my colleague, DPR, is elsewhere, we think
+we're sort of at 60 to 70 percent of pre-pandemic at the
+moment, but the remaining things are hard to crack. But we--as
+I mentioned earlier, we still have to worry about finishing off
+all the work that was delayed. Before we--it was very helpful
+to have flexibilities and no-cost extensions, but to finish the
+work has a cost. So, anyway, that's the quick answer. Thank
+you.
+ Mr. Meijer. I know, and I appreciate that, Dr. Keane. I
+guess, just building on that, you know, we've already, you
+know, kind of touched upon, kind of in length, some of the
+funding concerns, but in terms of other concerns, are there
+policy modernizations that you feel are needed to make sure I
+guess specifically at the Federal level to make sure that U.S.
+researchers remain competitive and grow? Are there any gaps
+that have really been created that they're concerned or that we
+may be able to address through a policy angle?
+ Dr. Keane. I'll mention just one I did a few moments ago,
+because it's a topic of a lot of discussion right now, and that
+is the monitoring of international, right, and disclosures. We
+used to have very different and conflicting guidance from
+agencies, which is just--it takes us a lot of time to
+respondent to. I would--I will also say that a lot of our
+agencies have done a fantastic job responding and simplifying.
+Rapid, you know, proposal, review, and award processes have
+been immensely helpful, and should be encouraged by the
+Committee, I would suggest, from a policy level, just as one of
+a number of examples of agency reforms that have been put in
+place and been very productive.
+ Mr. Meijer. Thank you, Dr. Keane. And, Madam Chair, I
+yield back.
+ Staff. Madam Chair, we have one other Member whose camera
+is on, but I don't see them. Ms. Wild, are you present? I don't
+see her. She would be our last Member, so I think we may be
+done.
+ Chairwoman Johnson. Well, thank you very much. Let me
+thank all of you who participated, and most especially our
+really great witnesses. This has been a very worthwhile
+hearing, and I know that we will probably have a follow-up
+sometime not too far in the future.
+ Before we bring the hearing to a close, I want to again
+thank our witnesses, and let you know how resourceful you have
+been. And the record will remain open for 2 weeks for
+additional statements from Members, and for any additional
+questions the Committee might have for the witnesses. Our
+witnesses are now excused, and the hearing is adjourned.
+ Mr. Quaadman. Thank you, Chairwoman.
+ Dr. Levine. Thank you.
+ Dr. Parikh. Thank you----
+ [Whereupon, at 1:08 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
+
+ Appendix I
+
+ ----------
+
+ Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
+
+[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
+
+
+ Appendix II
+
+ ----------
+
+
+ Additional Material for the Record
+
+[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
+
+ [all]
+