3:08 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I want to begin by thanking
Neal Lane and Secretary Daley for the terrific job they do for our administration
every day and for the American people. I also want to welcome the
two eminently qualified members of Congress to be here, Senator Bill
Frist, a distinguished physician, and Representative Rush Holt, our only
bonafide scientist in the United States Congress -- and it's about time
we had one and I'm glad they're both here. (Laughter.)
Each year, I look forward to presenting these medals because they show
again that America's future is flowering as a result of the work of the
honorees and people like them all over our country. I suppose I am
living proof when I come here every year that it is possible for
a person to love and support those things which he does not fully understand.
(Laughter.) Indeed, one of the reasons that I asked Al Gore to join
the ticket with me in 1992 was that I felt that the work you do would
shape the future of America, and I thought there ought to be somebody here
in the White House who knew more about it than I did. In the years since,
I've done my best to be a good student.
One of the things that impresses me is the nature of the work that all
of you do, although it is very different. I was deeply moved when
I read as a young man what Albert Einstein said when he said, "I think
and think for months
and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false.
The hundredth time I am right." I wonder how many of you day and
night, perhaps fueled by luke-warm coffee or kept awake by stubborn puzzles,
have waited for that hundredth time.
We are very glad that you made the effort.
You have sought answer to questions that few Americans can even begin
to understand, or others people ask but can't answer -- questions
about neutrino physics and plant genetics, about polymer composites and
urban poverty. Your success in illuminating the hows and whys of
our world and raising the quality of human existence have helped make the
time in which we live perhaps the most exciting in human history.
I am humbled by your achievements, and honored to present these medals
to you.
I'd like to take just a moment to reaffirm something that is obvious
to all of you, but needs to be equally clear to your fellow Americans.
In an age when the entire store of knowledge doubles every five years,
where prosperity depends upon command of that ever-growing store, the United
States is the strongest it has ever been, thanks in large measure to the
remarkable pace and scope of American science and technology in the last
50 years.
Our scientific progress has been fueled by a unique partnership between
government, academia and the private sector. Our Constitution actually
promotes the progress of what the Founders called "science and the useful
arts." The partnership deepened with the founding of land-grant universities
in the 1860s. After World War II, President Roosevelt directed his
science advisor, Vannevar Bush, to determine how the remarkable wartime
research partnership between universities and the government could be sustained
in peace.
"New frontiers of the mind are before us," Roosevelt said. "If they
are pioneered with the same vision, boldness and drive with which we have
waged the war, we can create a fuller and more fruitful employment, and
a fuller and more fruitful life." Perhaps no presidential prophecy has
ever been more accurate.
Vannevar Bush helped to convince the American people that government
must support science, that the best way to do it would be to fund the work
of independent university researchers. This ensured that, in our
nation, scientists would be in charge of science. And where
before university science relied largely on philanthropic organizations
for support, now the national government would be a strong and steady partner.
This commitment has helped to transform our system of higher education
into the world's best. It has kindled a half-century of creativity
and productivity in our university life. Well beyond the walls of
academia, it has helped to shape the world in which we live and the world
in which we work. Biotechnology, modern telecommunications, the Internet
-- all had their genesis in university labs: in recombinant DNA work, in
laser and fiber optic research, in the development of the first Web browser.
It is shaping the way we see the universe. Just last week, astronomers
at San Francisco State University, whose work was supported by the National
Science Foundation, announced they had detected a solar system of three
large planets orbiting the Star Upsilon and Andromedae. This suggests
strongly that there are billions of planets in the universe, some of them,
undoubtedly, very much like Earth. Now, on my bad days here, that's
a very sobering thought -- (laughter) -- but quite an exciting one.
It is shaping the way we see ourselves, both in a literal and in an
imaginative way. Brain imaging is revealing how we think and process
knowledge. We are isolating the genes that cause disease from cystic
fibrosis to breast cancer. Soon we will have mapped the entire human genome,
unveiling the very blueprint of human life. Meanwhile, I want to
compliment the committee on recognizing today the role of social science
in honoring William Julius Wilson whose work has deeply influenced what
I have tried to do as President -- to bring the benefits of work to people
too long denied them.
Today, because of this alliance between government and the academy,
we are indeed enjoying fuller and more fruitful lives. With only a few
months left in the millennium, the time has come to renew the alliance
between America and its universities, to modernize our partnership to be
ready to meet the challenges of the next century.
Three years ago, I directed my National Science and Technology Council
to look into, and report back to me on, how to meet this challenge.
Today, I'm pleased to present their findings.
The report makes three major recommendations. First, we must move
past today's patchwork of rules and regulations and develop a new vision
for the university-federal government partnership. Vice President
Gore has proposed a new compact between our scientific community and our
government, one based on rigorous support for science and a shared responsibility
to shape our breakthroughs into a force for progress. Today, I ask
the National Science and Technology Council to work with universities to
write a statement of principles to guide this partnership into the future.
Next we must recognize that federal grants support not only scientists
but also the university students with whom they work. The students are
the foot soldiers of science. Though they are paid for their work,
they are also learning and conducting research essential to their own degree
programs. That is why we must ensure that government regulations
do not enforce artificial distinctions between students and employees.
Our young people must be able to fulfill their dual roles as learners and
research workers.
And I ask all of you to work with me, every one of you, to get more
of our young people -- especially our minorities and women students --
to work in our research fields. Over the next decade, minorities
will represent half of all of our school-age children. If we want
to maintain our continued leadership in science and technology well into
the next century, we simply must increase our ability to benefit from their
talents, as well.
Finally, America's scientists should spend more time on research, not
filling out forms in triplicate. Therefore, I
direct the NSTC to redouble their efforts to cut down the red tape,
to streamline the administrative burden of our partnership. These steps
will bring federal support for science into the 21st century. But
they will not substitute for the most basic commitment we need to make.
We must continue to expand our support for basic research.
You know, one of Clinton's Laws of Politics -- not science, mind you
-- is that whenever someone looks you in the eye and says, this is not
a money problem, they are almost certainly talking about someone else's
problem. (Laughter.)
Half of all basic research, research not immediately transferable to
commerce, but essential to progress, is conducted in our universities.
For the past six years we have consistently increased our investment in
these areas. Last year, as a part of our millennial observation to
honor the past and imagine the future, we launched the 21st Century Research
Fund, the largest investment in civilian research and development in our
history. In my most recent balanced budget I proposed new information
technology initiative to help all disciplines take advantage of the
latest advances in computing research.
Unfortunately, the resolution on the budget passed by Congress earlier
this month shortchanges that proposal and undermines research partnerships
with NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
This is no time to step off the path of progress and scientific research.
So I ask all of you, as leaders of your community, to build support for
these essential initiatives. Let's make sure the last budget of this
century prepares our nation well for the century to come.
From its birth, we have been built by bold, restless, searching people.
We have always sought new frontiers. The spirit of America is, in
that sense, truly the spirit of scientific inquiry.
Vannevar Bush once wrote that "science has a simple faith which transcends
utility...the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand
and that this is his mission ... Knowledge for the sake of understanding,
not merely to prevail, that is the essence of our being. None can
define its limits or set its ultimate boundaries."
I thank all of you for living that faith, for expanding our limits and
broadening our boundaries. I thank you through both anonymity and
acclaim, through times of stress and strain, as well as times of triumph,
for carrying on this fundamental human mission.
Major Williams, please read the citations.
(The medals are presented.) (Applause.)
Thank you, Major. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Congratulations
again. We're adjourned, thank you. (Applause.)
END
3:29 P.M. EDT
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