The President recognized that “When we fail to invest in research, we fail to invest in the future.” For decades, we have underinvested in our nation’s R&D infrastructure. The $22 billion in research funding I worked to include in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a down payment on our economic future. I look forward to working with the administration and my colleagues in Congress to ensure that we meet the President’s commitments to doubling the R&D budgets of our basic science agencies and investing at least 3 percent of GDP in public and private research and development.

The President also said, “I firmly believe that the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.” I could not agree more. As Congress continues to weigh a response to the challenges of climate change and energy security, we must make robust investments in the research and development that will transform our energy sector. We can and should be the nation that creates and produces the energy technologies that are necessary for a sustainable future.

The United States retains an unlimited potential for discovery, entrepreneurship, and prosperity. If we choose to unleash that talent, we can lead the world in innovation and dispel the uncertainty that has gripped us in recent years.

Rush Holt represents the 12th congressional district of New Jersey.

A recent analysis by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation found that 77 percent of the award-winning innovative technologies in 2006 were derived from ideas generated from federally funded scientific research. Those innovations substantially improve the productivity of our economy, as Federal Reserve Board researchers found that two-thirds of productivity growth between 1995 and 1999 was a result of innovation and capital investment in technology.

A century ago, the New Jersey inventor Thomas Edison perfected the light bulb, an invention that created a new industry and radically improved the quality of life for millions of Americans. A little over a decade ago, two graduate students working on a National Science Foundation project discovered an innovative method for webpage searches. Those students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, went on to found Google, now one of the dominant American companies.

Investing in a new generation of researchers and innovation would create jobs now. According to Families USA, grants from the National Institutes of Health supported more than 350,000 jobs in 2007. A recent report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation estimated that an additional $20 billion investment in research in the recovery package would create approximately 402,000 Ameri­can jobs for one year. Those jobs would go to scientists in white coats, but also to graduate students, electricians, construction workers, and clerical staff.

Recognizing the centrality of innovation to our national prosperity, I hosted a roundtable in December with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman. That roundtable included senior members of Congress, university presidents, industry leaders, and research scientists, who were all brought together to look at the state of basic research. What we concluded was that our innovation infrastructure, which has served our nation so well for 50 years, is showing signs of age and disrepair. In fact, the American share of world research investment has been falling since 1998 and our R&D intensity, as measured by the percentage of our GDP invested in research, trails many other nations.

Last week, the House of Representatives took an important step in reversing this trend by including $15.7 billion for scientific research in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That funding, directed to the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy, would repair decaying research labs, manufacture new scientific instruments, and accelerate projects that save energy and create new sources of energy. I urge the Senate to maintain this robust and historic investment in science.

In his inaugural address, President Obama said, “We will restore science to its rightful place.” That rightful place is at the center of our economic recovery strategy to help America get back on its feet and keep it strong for decades to come.

Rush Holt represents the 12th congressional district of New Jersey.