Pelosi Remarks During Tour of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory with Secretary Antony Blinken

Menlo Park, Calif. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Secretary Antony Blinken, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and local scientists for a tour of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you, Anna. I'm going to yield back to you, so you have the honor of presenting the Secretary in your District.

But it's an honor for all of us that you are here, Mr. Secretary, and we thank you for establishing a new Bureau, with a new Ambassador, on these – on cybersecurity.

Let me just say this: a long time ago, when I was a newlywed, over 50 years ago, a friend of my husband's father said, ‘You have to come see a linear accelerator.' A linear accelerator. And I wasn't much of a mathematical brain, but I did understand what was happening. What he said, his name was Al Waller – he was mayor, and he said, ‘See all of these fruit trees?' You don't know this, it was before you were born. This place was covered in fruit trees. Do you have any knowledge of this, before you were born? All these fruit trees, Mr. Secretary. He said, ‘They'll all be gone.' It's going to be covered in all these technology firms that will spring from the linear accelerator. He predicted it, and it happened right before our very eyes. And what was happening here translated to more to come.

And look now, 50 years later. I think it was in this building, where there was the old accelerator. We're seeing – we're going from detecting the tiniest particles, as we just saw previously, to the biggest cameras, to get the biggest view. How remarkable. How remarkable.

And I know this was the pride of Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, that this is happening in her District, our State, and that she has worked for this on the Intelligence Committee, on the Energy and Commerce Committee, making sure everyone was aware of the intellectual resources that are here with the national significance of it all.

We've just had some legislation under President Biden's leadership. The CHIPS bill. Chips for defense. Chips for health. Chips to save the planet and the climate crisis. Chips in every way. Just one aspect of the semiconductor contribution to a better future and doing so by involving many more people. Many more people, more diversity, more inclusiveness in all of it. So this place is just remarkable, from the tiniest particle to the biggest phenomenon.

And with that, I thank the Congresswoman. Dr. Kao, thank you. Thank you so much.