Ed Markey Passionately Decries Trump's 'Attacks' On Education

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) spoke about President Trump's education policies.

Transcript

00:00and ranking member Markey did you have closing comments well if I may I just

00:04have a couple more questions if I may and yes you may thank you five minutes as I

00:11mentioned in my opening statement President Trump has single-handedly

00:14decimated our innovation ecosystem as one professor has noted over the last

00:20few months an elaborate plan to ensure that China prevails in our global

00:28economic competition has taken shape the plan's chief architects however are not

00:32China's leaders they are US politicians and the professor goes on to say the

00:39Trump administration's cuts to federal agencies are undermining the United

00:43States ability to innovate hostile immigration policies are making it

00:48harder for US firms industries universities to attract the best ideas and

00:54talents wild threats of tariffs and restrictions on foreign supply chains

00:59are terrifying investors President Trump has created the perfect storm to destroy

01:06our competitive edge so dr. Shiva Kumar how how will gutting our innovation ecosystem

01:14benefit China well it will benefit China by taking us out of the race clearly but I

01:22think the the what we need to do is to actually supercharge our innovation

01:27system by reinforcing all the things that do work and fixing the things that

01:30don't there are a number of connection points and you know we our research system is

01:37is is is something that we have been investing in for decades now and it's a

01:43legacy system and it requires reform but at the same time we do you reform it you

01:47don't destroy it it's an important part of a facet of our innovation system it

01:51required requires you know care and and renovation and and resources yep so over

01:59the Boston Public Library it says the education of its people is the best defense of a

02:05nation and that's been a bipartisan agreement the Democrats and Republicans have

02:12had over generations that it benefits our national security it benefits our

02:17innovation culture and in 1957 President Eisenhower enacted the national

02:22defense Education Act Sputnik was up in the air giving us an electronic finger

02:30from outer space you're behind you're behind we're ahead of you so I went to

02:36college on a national defense student loan as did millions of other kids we got to

02:41get in this race we got to educate people because President Eisenhower

02:45recognized that the only way the United States was going to win the space race

02:49and protect our national security was to invest in education invest in those

02:55institutions provide financial assistance to students now in 2025

02:59President Trump is doing the exact opposite taking a sledgehammer to our

03:04world-renowned innovation ecosystem dismantling our education system and

03:08undermining America's competitive edge and these impacts will be felt for

03:13generations to come as one researcher said if this continues we are going to

03:20lose a generation of scientists so dr. Shiva Kumar what impact will

03:25President Trump's attacks have on American innovation our national security our

03:28ability to attract the best and the brightest well if you I think you have

03:36described what the impacts will be so I would I would agree with you it's our

03:43innovation system is tightly coupled with our research and development system and attacks on

03:48and if you undermine that research and development part of our ecosystem you you

03:54slow down all the other parts of it as well so this is going to be a long lasting negative impact if

04:01if in fact the proposed cuts to NSF and so forth do do take place but this is what

04:08the president has proposed I think it's it's it's for the president to propose what for

04:12Congress to dispose so I'm hopeful yep so I've been in Congress for a while I did

04:20not vote for most favored nation status for China I was always very suspicious of them

04:26especially after I went to China and I could see how they were stealing our intellectual property

04:31when in the year 2000 there was a vote on making it permanent permanent normal trade relations

04:40there's nothing normal trade relations with China I voted no no no no no each time

04:48but there was a bipartisan consensus Democrat and Republican presidents Democrat and Republican

04:53leaders in the House and Senate I was in the vast minority saying no we're going to be handing over

04:59our intellectual property but they wanted to play they were smart people thinking big strategic

05:06cars they wanted to play the China card and when we ultimately turned over the card it was a deuce

05:11we didn't get anything in return they didn't help us strategically they just helped themselves

05:16economically and now that they have the lead they're putting up barriers they have a battery

05:21that can recharge for five minutes and the car goes 400 miles they're going to allow that to come to

05:29the United States for manufacturing because they are now going to actually finish off this plan which

05:37they had to take advantage of us and then in turn have us not be able to compete with them on all of

05:44these key innovation technologies that's why SBIR is so important that's why all of the investment that we

05:50make an innovation and R&D is just so critical and we're just unfortunately increasingly just leaving

05:57the playing field and China I'm sure is in a state of shock that we're doing it not receiving anything

06:03in return from the Chinese as a reciprocal concession that is made to us I thank you madam chair I just

06:10think this is such an important area for all of us to be able to focus on thank

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