House Passes COMPETES Act

By a vote of 262-150, the House passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act tonight after repeated Republican attempts to derail the bipartisan bill. The COMPETES Act boosts America's competitiveness by strengthening the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields and is crucial to our efforts to keep America number one by:

Keeping our nation on a path to double funding for basic scientific research, crucial to some of our most innovative breakthroughs, over 10 years

Creating jobs with innovative technology loan guarantees for small and mid-sized manufacturers and Regional Innovation Clusters to expand scientific and economic collaboration

Promoting high-risk high reward research to pioneer cutting edge discoveries through ARPA-E

Creating the next generation of entrepreneurs by improving science, math, technology, and engineering education at all levels

Speaker Pelosi on passage:

Democrats were committed to ensuring that The COMPETES Act that will help restore our economic strength through investments in innovation, science and technology is passed by the House. And today, the House succeeded despite previous attempts by Congressional Republicans to delay action.

The COMPETES Act is critical legislation that will spur innovation, invest in cutting-edge research, modernize manufacturing and create jobs. It is about American jobs for Americans, strong American leadership in the global economy, and long-term growth for America's workers.

Today's action clearly demonstrated that Democrats will continue to side with the Middle Class and America's Main Street, while Congressional Republicans have chosen to side with the special interests.

Learn more about the COMPETES Act»