Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I intended to offer an amendment to the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act that would allow Members to use their representational allowances to promote, sponsor and conduct congressional science competitions among high school students in their district. The very popular Congressional Arts Competition, which allows Members to sanction art competitions within their districts, has been successfully conducted for over 20 years. This competition helps to encourage young people to pursue their artistic education and ambitions and promotes the idea that art should be an integral part of our lives; yet no such congressional competition exists to reward the achievements of young scientists, as I learned last year when I had hoped to conduct such a competition in my district which is, I am proud to say, the home of Cal Tech and JPL and some of the finest scientists on the Earth. House rules prohibit any Member from conducting any competitions except for the Congressional Arts Competition.
Science is integral to our society and to our American spirit of ingenuity and innovation. Science fuels our technological entrepreneurship and has been the basis for remarkable technological advances in the span of only a few decades, including space exploration, biotechnology and medical advances to seek cures to human disease and afflictions, and tremendous gains in computing power, telecommunications, and information management.
As Members of Congress, we must do our part to advance scientific knowledge and scientific explanation as core values of our society. One important way we can engender a sense of excitement about scientific inquiries is to reward the achievements of young scientists by allowing Members to conduct congressional scientific competitions in each of our 435 districts. I look forward to working with my colleagues on this important issue at the earliest possible opportunity.
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Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I agree with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston). The intention is not to seek any additional appropriations, but rather to allow Members to use their existing allowances to host, if they choose, science competitions in their districts.
I think we have seen the dramatic success of the arts competition in stimulating interest in the arts. This would be a way of heightening the awareness of the importance of science in our lives and getting young people engaged. We need more scientists in this country, and this is a good way to tap into that young talent.
I can tell my colleague had a greater head start than I did. I think my science project when I was in school consisted of how to drop an egg from a light tower in a contraption that would not allow the egg to break, which is a little less sophisticated than counting the number of protozoa in a pond. Nonetheless, there are great opportunities for us to reach into our districts, tap into that talent and cultivate the future scientists that will lead this Nation forward. I look forward to working with the gentleman.