WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), James Risch (R-Idaho), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced the creation of a new Senate National Labs Caucus.
The National Lab Network conducts cutting-edge research to advance and deploy technologies that are critical to maintaining sustainable economic growth in the U.S. and safeguarding our national security. The Senate National Labs Caucus will coordinate with its counterpart in the U.S. House of Representatives to identify bicameral legislative opportunities that elevate the Labs’ visibility and meet national energy and security objectives.
Tennessee is home to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the world’s premier research institution comprised of over 5,800 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support staff. Their projects keep the United States on the cutting-edge, including their exascale computing system, Frontier, which debuted last May as the fastest in the world.
“The Department of Energy’s network of 17 National Laboratories conduct cutting-edge research that is vital to maintaining US leadership in energy production, advanced computing, high-energy physics, nuclear security and non-proliferation, materials science, biosecurity, and countless other critical and emerging technology areas. This concentration of scientific expertise and infrastructure is unmatched anywhere else in the world,” said Co-Chairs Blackburn, Luján, Risch, and Durbin.
“As the U.S. navigates rapidly evolving energy markets and global defense landscape, the National Labs Caucus will ensure that a key component of our nation’s research capacity is focused on strategic, bipartisan priorities,” the Co-Chairs continued.
The Senate National Labs Caucus will serve as an open forum to identify bipartisan initiatives to maintain and extend U.S. leadership in critical scientific sectors.
The Dear Colleague Letter can be found here.
Original source can be found here.
