Transcript of Pelosi Remarks at Press Event on CHIPS and Science Act

San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and local science and technology leaders to celebrate the enactment of the CHIPS and Science Act and discuss how this legislation will benefit the Bay Area. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Lindsay, for your leadership here at the Exploratorium, for your hospitality this morning and especially, especially for making the Exploratorium really a model, a model for us to pass legislation – predicated on the fact that young people are your explainers. Your explainers here.

Again, fifty years ago, when the Exploratorium was established at the Palace of Fine Arts – shortly after that time, I began bringing my children and then my grandchildren. And what a joy it is to be here to see it in this setting, in a much enlarged space with a much enlarged mission. I thank you. Thank you for your leadership. And thank you to the supporters of the Exploratorium.

I remember we had the night when this opened up. And then we had the night when they first had the lights on the bridge. We had many, shall we say, thresholds to cross here scientifically as well as educationally, and they're the same in some ways.

Here we are for this legislation. I'm honored to be here with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. In some circles, this is known as the Eshoo CHIP bill. Thank you, Anna, as a Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee – committee of jurisdiction – she had a very important role in this as well as other Californians, Doris Matsui and some others as well.

I want to also say how pleased I am to be with Keith Yamamoto once again and thank him for his leadership. He is now the President-Elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. That's pretty exciting. And just so exciting for our region and our leadership in science here. Thank you, Keith, for being with us. I call him Keith – Dr. Yamamoto, Mr. President of the –

And then Gaby Cruz Thompson, who's the Director of University Research Collaboration at Intel. The private sector was very important in helping us pass this legislation. And Patrick – I call him Patrick – but Pat Gelsinger, the CEO, was relentless on this, not only in his own advocacy but in mobilizing other supports to remove all doubt that the bill would pass. We were not going away.

But we wanted to pass not just the CHIPS bill – we wanted the science piece of it as well. And Dr. Tsu-Jae King Liu, Dean of [the] College of Engineering at UC Berkeley. We actually had an event there with Barbara Lee and Patrick. I can't remember how many months ago it was, but again, to focus on the need to pass this legislation.

So you see people here who have been at – the intellectual resource for this legislation. Actually, Lindsay gave a very good description of what its vision is. I will associate myself with his remarks and just add this. We're talking about – this President, President Biden, has been very, very committed to diversity and inclusion – and you talked about that, inclusion – that's so important. If we are going to be preeminent in the world, we have to have the full benefit of the best minds, wherever they may be. And that requires education and, again, investment in research.

We were – I mean, when the Exploratorium was established, we had just had two men on the moon. And we were preeminent in the world. And the President uses the moonshot as his vision for so many things, from curing cancer to being preeminent in the world in every scientific respect. And, and, and that was it, and then we stopped really making the priority of investment in education, scientific – the STEM research and the rest. Norman Augustine had the ‘Gathering Storm' – how other countries followed our model and now they were, they were exceeding us in all of these areas.

So we have to have a recommitment for our preeminence in the world, and that's important. But what's more important is the importance of each and every child in our country, every person to know that the beauty is in the mix. The diversity of ethnicity and the rest, gender-wise and the rest, so important.

Now, on the gender – let me say this. This – today is the day that the Equal Rights Amendment passed. We celebrate next week when it took effect. It was enacted today, took effect – so this week is sort of a bookends of women in the workforce. So women to vote, women to preeminence – and that's one of the things that this legislation does as well, is to recognize the full role that women will play in all of this. It's pretty exciting.

Now, I want to give credit to my Chair of the Science, Space and Technology Committee Eddie – Congresswoman – Madam Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas – of Dallas, Texas. A leader in the African American community, one dedicated to science, science, science and research and education and how they are all connected and how essential they are to our preeminence as a society, as well as a country. So she – she chairs Science, Space and Technology. There is no such Committee in the Senate. So this House piece of science is largely written from the standpoint of Science, Space and Technology.

And something that Lindsay said reminded me of this quote. If you go to the Science, Space and Technology Committee, on the wall – can you believe this – is a quote of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. There was a time when they were combining the Romantic poets and science. They wanted the poets to write more about science. They wanted science to speak more poetically, so that people would understand, and this is the quote: ‘For I dipped into the future, far as a human I could see, saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be.' And that's what we want every child to feel.

So I know there's some STEM folks here, so important. In California, of course, we say STEAM. We put the arts in there, as I just did with Tennyson. This is pretty exciting. And it is – it's of itself important, but it is also just – turbocharges our manufacturing. Thousands of – either 1000 or 2000 or 3000, depending on the car – chips in a car. So when we talk about electric cars, we're talking about protecting the environment.

So this is – everything in nature is connected, and there's no – a good demonstration of it is this important legislation.

So thank you all for being [the] intellectual resource you are for your community, connection to all of us. Nice to see you. And to make sure we follow through and do it in a way that delivers on the promise of inclusion, of diversity, again, regionally as well, so that throughout the country, people will have the opportunity to contribute to the greatness of our country, to the health of our people – again, protection of our environment in every way.

When people ask me about solutions, I always say ‘science, science, science and science.' So let's hear it for science. Thank you all so much for being here today.

[Applause]

And now I have the privilege of yielding to my distinguished colleague representing Silicon Valley in the Congress of the United States, a real champion for science, science, science and science and so many things, whether it's the environment, whether it's health care, whether it's technology, whatever the field. Congresswoman Eshoo is the person I'll say, ‘What does Anna think?' Anna is going to tell us what she thinks. Thank you for being with us this morning, Madam Chair, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.

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Thank you so much. Thank you, doctor. Thank you, all.

We have here quite an array of knowledge about this issue – vision fulfilled, some of it yet to be realized, all of it very important to America's preeminence in the world. From a security standpoint, as was mentioned, this is a national security piece of legislation very essential to our national security. That's what our purpose is: to protect. That's the oath we take.

From an economic standpoint, the prospects are pretty clear. But I also do want to say that at least 100,000 Davis Bacon prevailing wage jobs are contained in this legislation. That's a giant step forward. And as Keith – as Dr. Yamamoto said, there's also opportunity for ownership. For ownership, as Gaby indicated as well, for ownership, for equity for small businesses to, again, representing the ethnicity – the beautiful diversity of our country.

And so, in terms of economy, also, this is a fighter against inflation. Because our dependence on supplies away from our country at a time of COVID, enormous cost of transportation and the rest – supply was down therefore costs were up. Let's Make It In America, so we have the resources right here. And other countries – I mentioned Taiwan – Taiwan's going to invest $25 billion in semiconductor[s] in Texas and Arizona. We're doing 52. Other countries see the opportunity, again, the trained workforce and the rest.

And then in terms of governance, which is so important to do so in a way that is inclusive. I'll just end by saying this. And I have – unfortunately, I've been called away, but I want – any questions you have about all of this, we have much more knowledgeable people to respond to them. And again, I thank all of you for being here.

But I want to quote a Republican President, President Reagan, because one thing we didn't get in this bill, and Anna Eshoo has been trying for this since, what? Nineteen – I mean, excuse me – 2005, when we did your competitiveness bill. We – it's been very hard for us to get the appropriate immigration laws passed. As you indicated in your remarks, doctor – it is – you named a person in her experience and the rest.

President Reagan made one of the best speeches on immigration. It was his last speech, his ‘last speech I will make as President of the United States.' I want you to google it and see it, because it will be much better than I present it here, and I'll be shorter. But he said America's preeminence in the world springs from the fact that we have always had all kinds of different people coming to our country. And if we ever close that door, we will fail to be preeminent in the world. Ronald Reagan: ‘Last speech I make, a message to communicate a message to a country I love about immigration.'

So this is one of the unfinished pieces of this and – I won't go into why we don't have it just now. But in any event, this is a triumph that takes place in the context of just – this couple of days – yesterday, the President – two days ago, the President signing the IRA. Not to be confused with anything going on in Ireland. But the Inflation Reduction Act. In that bill, he has $60 billion for [environmental justice], as we meet the challenge of the climate crisis, directly connected, as you mentioned, to what we're doing here.

So again, it's about inclusion. It's about investing in our children, our future, our education, in research. It's about doing so in a way that is respectful of a great diversity of views, and we could not have done it without the intellectual resources, some of whom you see here, without the private sector enthusiasm for it, because this needs to have – be a public-private partnership. And it couldn't happen without the really – the tremendous leadership of our President, Joe Biden.

So I'm going to ask to be excused but hope that, if there are any questions that you have, you understand the tremendous resource that we have, whether it's in Congress or in science. And again, I want to thank Lindsay Bierman. Thank you, Lindsay, for your hospitality. To receive us. Thank you so much.