Volume 167, No. 93, covering the 1st Session of the 117th Congress (2021 – 2022), was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT” mentioning Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell was published in the Senate section on pages S3547-S3548 on May 27.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators’ salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, the Senate opens this morning after a very late night of amendment votes on the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act–USICA; those are the initials–five in total, four of which of these amendments were sponsored by Republicans. So far on this bill, the Senate has held votes on no fewer than 18 amendments, 4 from Democrats and 14 from Republicans, and there are more to come.
As I mentioned yesterday, in a landmark moment for bipartisanship in the Senate, we even adopted an amendment from Senator Rand Paul by voice vote. Yes, that is right. I said the two words together. Rand Paul; voice vote–four words. I said the two concepts together: Rand Paul; voice vote–four words.
Now, the media will tell you that if you are talking process, you are losing, but the process was really important here. For years, Senators have been clamoring for a more open process and more amendment votes. I can’t tell you how many speeches I have heard on the floor about the virtues of regular order. Well, this competition bill ought to be the answer to my colleagues’ prayers.
The bill has moved through regular order, flying through various Senate committees with staggering bipartisan votes. The entire Senate opted to take up the bill by a vote of 86 to 11.
Here on the floor, we have held the kind of vigorous, bipartisan, open amendment process that Senators have been calling for. Some of these votes were tough for our side. In the old days, we would have said no. We said yes, we will vote for them, but let’s keep moving forward, and we are.
Listen to this. It is only May, roughly 5 months since Democrats took the majority in this Chamber, and already more amendments have received rollcall votes than during any of the past 4 years. Let me repeat that so people hear it from one end of the Capitol to the other, particularly on this side of the aisle. In 5 months, more amendments have received rollcall votes in this Democrat-led Senate than during any of the years in which Donald Trump was President and Senator McConnell was majority leader.
We have considered the competition bill in an exceedingly bipartisan way. There will be a few final steps to take, a few final amendments to consider, but I hope my Republican colleagues have seen our commitment to developing, drafting, and perfecting this legislation in total concert with the other side of the aisle.
With cooperation from our Republican colleagues, we can finish the bill today, and I hope we do. That is our intention, because despite the lack of attention it has garnered from the press, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act will be one of the most significant pieces of bipartisan legislation we pass in a very long time. It could be a moment in history that future generations look back on as a turning point for American leadership in the 21st century.
Everyone knows the Federal Government’s commitment to science and technology has been slipping for decades. We have become complacent at the top of the global heap, and our position as the world’s economic leader is teetering. We now spend less than 1 percent of our GDP on basic scientific research. The Chinese Communist Party, as a percentage, spends more than twice that. We have put ourselves in the very precarious position of potentially falling behind the rest of the world in technologies and industries that will define the next century. If that happens, the days of America leading the world in scientific innovation and the days of America being the leading economic and military power in the world may be over.
This is a moment when the U.S. Senate can arrest the decline and lay the foundation, instead, for another American century. That is why this is a moment in history that future generations could well look back on as a turning point for American leadership in the 21st century.
By investing in science and technology and shoring up critical industries like semiconductors, boosting our universities, laboratories, and businesses, we can keep America on top and outcompete the world in industries of the future. That is just what this legislation would do. Our two parties have worked very hard on it. I think we have made a number of notable improvements to the bill. It is time to move forward together and pass this bill.
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