Other countries are dedicating themselves and devoting resources to get their share of the high-technology pie — and there’s nothing wrong with that, that’s good. But we have to be able to compete and maintain our own share of that pie, because that is where the high-wage jobs lie and where the standard of living of our country will be set.

—G. WAYNE CLOUGH, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and former President of the Georgia Institute of Technology

Investments in research and education are where the future battle for international economic leadership will be fought, and where the United States is drifting. While the storm continues to gather, we are still at sea.

—ARDEN BEMENT, Director of the National Science Foundation

Just as DARPA gave us the Internet, ARPA-E can give us alternative, clean, renewable fuels that can make America energy-independent and can make us a much stronger nation.

—BART GORDON, U.S. Representative from Tennessee

The research areas that will transform the landscape and give us totally new choices and totally new technologies have always historically been basic research…. Continued support of that research should be a very high priority.

—STEVEN CHU, Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Productivity growth depends on two things: a well-trained work force, and new ideas. Each of those requires investment. I would argue that we are under-investing in research and development in every sector of our economy, drastically under-investing.…. It is a societal problem. It is not just a congressional problem or an administration problem.

—RUSH HOLT, U.S. Representative from New Jersey