WASHINGTON   –  “Columbus Day often passes quietly by at the beginning of October.  We have a lot of other things going on – the St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs, Missouri football and the impending arrival of harvest in Southern Missouri.

So the Columbus Day holiday can easily be forgotten amidst everything else going on in Missouri this year.  We should mark the day, though, for its significance to our nation and the role that exploration plays in our American lives still today. 

There are three major eras of discovery in America.  The first belongs to Columbus and subsequent explorers and settlers who introduced the North American continent to Europe.  The second American age of exploration consisted of westward expansion: Lewis and Clark, the Louisiana Purchase, the Oregon Trail and other historical hallmarks of our growth and prosperity as a nation.  And, most recently, America has conducted the most robust program of space exploration in the world, learning more and more about the universe that makes our planet seem tiny by comparison.

You might think there is nothing left to explore and nothing new under the sun – but that is far from true.

Our modern era of discovery takes place in our very own state and in Southern Missouri.  At our universities, in enterprising companies and even in the farmland that surrounds us, exploration occurs every day.

Research labs in our universities in Missouri are working right now on new applications to create cleaner, more efficient alternative fuels, on better ways to fight crop diseases, and to discover genetic applications that improve plant hardiness, disease resistance, and yields.  Labs in Southern Missouri companies are working on cutting-edge, world class technology development – applications and products so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye.  And our farmers and ranchers are also at work in the fields as biologists, chemical engineers and geneticists.  The new era of exploration is occurring right in our own backyards.

Exploration is essential to our economy in Southern Missouri and statewide, contributing billions to our state’s annual output.  The immediate challenge we face, however, is making sure that our workforce, our business climate, and our manufacturing sector remain vibrant so we can embrace the new opportunities that follow on the heels of new technologies.  Policy changes like cap-and-trade rules which would restrict the production of our energy-intense economic sectors, like manufacturing and agriculture, also threaten to ruin the market for new innovations.

Without innovation and exploration, there is a short term threat to our manufacturers and producers as well as a long-term threat to the existence of Missouri’s university research labs and science and technology companies.

This is the reason why we celebrate Columbus Day in America; the spirit of innovation has always been a hallmark of our national economy and our can-do spirit.  Now is the time to rededicate ourselves to entrepreneurship and innovation as the great engines of American growth and prosperity.”