They host a forum today on federal investments on innovation and science. Newt gingrich and Business Specialist along with academic researchers will be talking about the issues our live coverage just about to get underway on cspan3. As we wait for senator warren, well bring you a story from the Associated Press regarding the Iran Nuclear Deal president obama traveling in ethiopia, and the ap reporting he delivered a belittling rebuke of Republican White House hopefuls monday calling their attack on his landmark nuclear deal ridiculous, if it werent so sad. Obama suggested the rhetoric from some gop candidates was an attempt to divert attention from donald trump. A wealthy businessman whose popularity is con founding the republican field. Maybe quoting, maybe it gets attention, maybe this is just an effort to push mr. Trump out of the headlines, its not the kind of leadership that is needed for america right now. The associate press quoting president obama during a News Conference in ethiopia. This is not a hearing, its a forum scheduled to get underway momentarily. Live coverage on cspan3. Waiting for this event to get underway with massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and Elijah Cummings we have seen the congressman, and one of the speakers today talking about Economic Growth and job creation through federal investments in innovation and science. One story we can read to you from bloomberg, the senate ruled on export import for three years. We see senator warren taking her seat. It was 6726 vote during an unusual sunday session. The Highway Trust Funds authorization is set to expire after july 31st, at the end of this week. Senate coverage right now on cspan does 2. Our coverage, can you see speaker gingrich and the senator shaking hands. This coverage underway here on cspan three. The middle class prosperity project forum. Why is the middle class pros prosperity project holding a hearing on the importance of federal funding for research. The reasons are three and theyre all deeply interrelated and related to the future of americas middle class. Investments produce good jobs right here in america. Breakthroughs in research are our best chance to keep from bankrupting our country and the entire middle class. Keeping us from going broke over alzheimers, diabetes and all of the other costs of merchandise care. Research will give us a chance to live better lives, American Innovation has changed the world, scientific advances like super computers, the internet sequencing the human genome and treatments for polio cancer and hiv have saved lives. And have created good jobs for middle class america. Economists agree that advances in science and technology have been the predominant driver of gdp growth over the past half century. Today 2. 7 million americans work in jobs focused on Scientific Research and many more are employed by the companies built for new discoveries and technological innovations. Companies like google and facebook for every dollar invested we get about 2. 20 back in immediate economic activity. Private industry is great at generating new inventions based on scientific developments that have a clear application. But basic research, the kind whose applications arent clear yet doesnt get so much investment, and thats where we need government. The government can wait for long term results an american president once said although basic research does not begin with a particular practical goal, when you look at the results over the years it turns up being one of the most practical things government does. That president was ronald reagan, a fiscal conservative who understood the value of investing in American Innovation. For decades, investment in science has been a bipartisan priority. Todays washington has lost sight of that priority. Everyone says that investing in science and innovation is a good idea, but talk is cheap. We need action and we havent had any in a very long time. One proposeal moving through congress is the 21st century cures act which provides new funding for nih. That sounds like a good start and it is, but its not nearly enough. Todays nih budget adjusted for inflation is 12. 5 billion less than it was in 2003. That is a 25 reduction in our federal investment in nih alone. Even worse the bill doesnt include a maintenance provision which means theres nothing to stop congress from cutting the nihs base budget at the same time that it adds new money on top. If that happened, instead of expanding our investment in the nih under this bill could actually shrink. Earlier this year i introduced the medical innovation act which would help rebuild the nih budget it could boost funding by 28 . It achieves that increase without raising taxes, and without adding to the deficit. Dozens of doctor organizations, of patient groups and of scientific associations have supported it and theres no reason that every republican every democrat and every independent in congress could support it too. Members in congress are responsible for deciding whether we make these investments in our future or we just talk talk talk about them. The American People deserve better from congress and thats why were holding this forum today to have a real discussion about what we can and should do to get more money into research. I am very pleased that we have speaker gingrich here to talk about his work to increase federal investments in Health Science research, and what it takes to make real effective bipartisan progress, there are many things that the speaker and i disagree on. We strongly agree that investment in research is a fundamental responsibility of our elected leaders and that is long pastime to meet that responsibility. We also have a distinguished panel of researchers economists and innovators who will talk about how increased funding creates jobs and strej strenenths the economy, and how congress can do a better job of prioritizing investment in science. Thank you, i am very glad you are here and i look forward to todays conversation. Congressman cummings, would you like to make a few remarks . Thank you very much. Its an honor to join for this the forum we convene as part of the middle class prosperity project. Today we will examine how our nations investments in research and development have chartered the path of progress. For our economy. Over seven decades since the end of world war ii. Creating millions of middle class jobs in the process. Cuts to these investments and unpredictability in funding for research and development threaten our future progrets. American ingenuity is unmatch in the history of the world. The United States harnessed creativity, and we hope new discoveries leaked from the lab to the marketplace in a way that is the envy of countries all over the globe. According to the Congressional Research service, the federal government is the nations largest supporter of basic research. As a result of funding appropriated by congress the National Science foundation the National Institutes of health you can the department of energy and defense and other agencies award tens of thousands of Research Grants every year. Federal funding through programs like the Small Business research have been critical to help researchers and entrepreneurs convert to promising results of basic Scientific Research into new products and technologies, that improve the lives of millions of people while creating entirely new industries and the jobs that come with them, in 1961, president kennedy called on americans to make a Major National commitment of scientific and technical manpower material and facilities, as a result of that commitment, the United States became the first and only nation to put astronauts on the moon. We repeat the benefits of the discoveries that were made through the Space Program in the form of technologies and products that were never imagined when we began the Lunar Exploration effort. Similarly, our nations leading role in the 13year effort to decode the human genome has led to some of our most devastating diseases. Accord ing according to our governments investment 3. 8 billion in the human genome project helped generate an impact of 796 billion between 1998 and 2010. This is a massive return on investment of 141. The question before our nation now is what story will we write in the 21s century will it be one of studying new hack plishmentes. Scientific progress and continued Economic Growth . Or will it be one which we decide we can no longer afford the next big discovery. Will we remain the worlds leader of Scientific Research and development or will we is a comb to a culture of immediatemediocrity. In 2009 the american recovery and reinvestment act con tributed more than 50 billion to the federal budget. Sequestration intensified a series of speed cuts that began shortly after the recovery act was passed, according to the American Association for the advancement of science our nations federal research and Development Budget declined by more than 26 billion from 2010 to 2015. Thats a drop of 16 these cuts have had devastating impact on research initiatives. These cuts are shrinking the pipeline from which discoveries and inventions will emerge 10 or 20 years from now. The decisions we are making from the short term perspective of the annual budget cycle are shaping the nation and the economy. We will leave toe our children. We need to make sure they inherit a country that continues to lead in scientific innovation, that creates a better world and promotes a broad and prosperous middle class. I am pleased to join senator warren welcoming senator gingrich to todays forum. I spoke with senator gingrich during my first terms in congress, i thank them for the issue of investing in biomedical research. I welcome our distinguished members of the second battle, we have an extraordinary work of experts assembled today its an hooner to have this opportunity. We are honored to welcome the former speaker of the house of representatives, Newt Gingrich to todays forum. Congressman gingrich, its good to see you here, congressman gingrich represented georgias sixth Congressional District from 1995 to 1998 he was the 58th speaker of the house of representatives. I want to make one note i join you senator warren in welcoming senator speaker gingrich to todays forum. Not only did i serve with speaker gingrich i failed to say he gave my parents one of the greatest thrills of their life, both of my parents having less than a sixth grade education, having been former sharecroppers from manning South Carolina you, speaker gingrich swore me in in a special election, and took a moment after the swearingin to speak to my paersons and i will forever be grateful. Would you like to start . No hes going to start. Good, speaker gingrich. Let me thank both of you, and let me say as a fellow member of the house, im delighted to have had that opportunity and i appreciate your bringing your parents, its one of those Magic Moments the first time you get sworn in and the whole family is there, it means a lot. Thank you, senator warren thank you for rushing back i appreciate how hectic your schedule is. When you first called me, i was surprised and delighted. Im glad to be here. Im delighted to be here to discuss funding for research and development. The potential to bring together liberal democrats and conservative republicans before i offer a few general principles to how to think about federal research and funding, let me start with an example thats close to my heart that is finding cures for the most common and Serious Health problems. This is a challenge that is important, it is urgent, and now theres great hope that its doable. Its important because every one of us has been touched by the devastating effects of problems like alzheimers disease, dementia cancer, Kidney Disease and parkinsons, we know how debilitating they can be, how they absorb the benefits of Family Members. And they strain the resources from even well off families. Finding cures to these diseases is urgent. Bob carrie and i chaired the alzheimers study gup group for three years americans will spend 20 20 trillion on alzheimers and other dementias thats more than a full years gross domestic product. Imagine all the money for the country in an entire year would go just for this. The taxpayers are on the hook for much of it includinging a 420 increase to medicare, and 3430 increase to medicaid. These are two out of many programs. The federal funding for research to cure alzheimers is only a tiny fraction of the money the government is already spending to treat alzheimers every year the nih spend 731 million on Dementia Research this year. Less than one half of one of the 154 billion medicare and medicaid are spending to treat it in the same period. Part of the reason for the imbalance is that the nih has been cut more than 20 in real terms the end of 2003. Given the cost we know are coming, boosting Research Funding may be the most fiscally responsible step we can take and i want to emphasize this for a second. One of the places i do bring a little bit of the unique background. We balance the federal budget for four straight years the only time the federal budgets been balanced for four straight years, we did it while doubling the nih budget we set priorities. I want to make a deeper point about the future. With the baby boomers aging if we do not find a Research Based solution we will never balancing the federal budget, because we will never impose the level of regulatory pain that it would take to balance the budget, which really means people not getting treated people being in miserable circumstances. Caretakers are twice as likely to be sick as noncaretakers. You not only have the alzheimer population, but the caretaker population at risk because of this. Curing alzheimers and other major diseases appears more do aable today than at any other point in the history a period of extraordinary breakthroughs in genetics and materials. Tom sullivan had shown real leadership with the brain initiative, nhi is pioneer inging immuno immunoresearch. To languish at a time of historic opportunity when we could be saving lives and saving money takes a special kind of stupidity that is saved for the city. I should note the great work of chairman upton and their colleagues in the house. I know that over here, in addition to senator warrens initiative, senators are working hard in the same direction. In addition to the drastic increases in Research Funding ive called for doubling the nih budget and i would also include a substantial increase in the National Science foundation, which was the one mistake we made in Research Funding. We should have tripled nsf when we doubled nih. Research bonds for a large very expensive project with the potential to generate huge savings if they work, its worth exploring issuing bonds to finance the research which would then pay out some fraction of the savings, this would have the benefit of taking important projects off budget and raising much larger sums of money than the federal government is likely to appropriate. Congressman Michael Burges has proposed a version of this idea with the mind act for Alzheimers Research bonds, similar models could apply to large Infrastructure Investments as governors mitch danielles, arnold wells and mike leavitt have all demonstrated for financing major roadways in their states. If we simply rationalized the absurd identity of the bureaucratic process, we could create 3 million more jobs. Finally, for research and development, the return is less obvious savings to the taxpayer, may nonetheless be worthwhile prizes are good for a couple reasons, taxpayers dont pay a thing unless and until the going is achieved and they never pay more than the prize amount. You get lots of competing strategies for solving the problem when you have multiple groups working independently to get the prize. You may end up with several working designs. With that sort of sweeping overview, i look forward to your question s questions. I want to thank you for your insightful presentation. You know you argued that its irresponsible and shortsighted not prudent to let financing for basic research dwindle, what do you think are the main reasons we have let financing for basic research dwindle . I think there are probably two or three big reasons, one is the past has lobbyists and the future has public sissed. When you look at resource allocation, some programs that may not be as nearly as important or justified have a lot better lobbying and they survive. Thats an objective fact. Second i think that there are those fiscal conservatives who are antigovernment in a way that makes no sense. Its a little like the woman who wrote, quit trying to go to the moon, stay home and watch television the way god intended. There are people who have no notion of the power of the government whether its the jet airplane you ride or the computer youre using or its the internet or 1,000 different things. Government investment in this country from the beginning were the only country in the world that created a Patent Office. We were founded by people who believe in the future, and theres a branch of conserve conservat