Competitiveness and innovation on the Committee's 50th anniversary with Bill Gates

Original publisher: Washington: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2008. LC Number: KF27 .S39 2008a OCLC Number: (OCoLC)244388075 Subject: Technological innovations -- United States. Excerpt: ...xplain why. Sputnik showed us that we were not the world's technological leader. Today, with rapid economic and technological advances in other countries, I fear we are now on the cusp of another Sputnik moment. I fear that our country has coasted on the investment made for the last 50 years, or as my father would say, we have been eating our seed corn. Now is the time to act, and I believe this committee has an important role to play in helping bring our country back as a technological leader in the world. Soon after the launch of Sputnik in March of 1958, this committee was established to face the challenges presented by the space age. Although the threat is different, the challenges today remain the same to secure our country's international prominence in the areas of innovation and technological development. The witness before us today needs little introduction. Bill Gates embodies both the American spirit of innovation and the theological virtue of charity. He has built arguably the most successful technological company in the world and then has turned his financial success into a gift for our society. On this occasion, the 50th anniversary of this committee, as we reflect back on the technological advances of the past and look ahead to the challenges facing our country's competitiveness in the world, I can think of no other witness better suited and well-positioned to help share his insights with this committee. As I have said before, I am very pleased of the work done by this committee over the past year to develop and shepherd through Congress the America COMPETES Act. This legislation was a necessary and important first step in making the commitments needed to bring our country back to technological p...