By Rep. Ro Khanna After awakening from a deep slumber on war and peace, Congress is erecting new roadblocks to prevent our troops from returning home. As a pandemic endangers Americans at home and abroad, it's all the more incumbent upon Congress to keep troops out of harm's way. But instead of preventing us from getting into conflicts in the first place, lawmakers are fencing our troops in overseas bases and battlefields to fight unwinnable wars. The House Armed Services Committee included in its annual defense bill two measures restricting the president from withdrawing troops abroad. These amendments would handcuff the administration from bringing our troops home from Afghanistan and Germany without first certifying a dizzying maze of stipulations. Lawmakers voting for these restrictions cited Russian aggression as the latest justification to block President Trump's planned withdrawals. But Putin must not get to determine the timeline for when American troops return home. After nearly two decades of shipping American flag-draped caskets from Afghanistan, the withdrawal of our brave men and women in uniform -- while they are still alive -- is long overdue. U.S. troop encampments at Cold War-style garrisons were designed to stop Soviet tanks from invading Germany -- not to confront the challenge Russia poses in the 21st century. Neither the 34,500 U.S. troops in Germany nor the more than 25,000 NATO -- including thousands of American -- soldiers in Afghanistan have deterred Russia's latest acts of aggression. Containing Moscow requires strengthening our capabilities to comprehensively counter potential cyberattacks, political interference and its hybrid warfare tactics in Crimea, eastern Ukraine and Syria. Troop withdrawals have long been championed by leaders across the partisan divide. After Reverend Jesse Jackson capped his historic 1988 presidential campaign, he addressed the Democratic National Convention, warning against "spending $150 billion a year defending Europe and Japan 43 years after the war is over." During the Cold War, there were about 270,000 U.S. soldiers in Germany. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, every American president has ordered troop withdrawals from the country. President Bush ordered the departure of 30,000 troops from Germany in 2004, while President Obama ordered the withdrawal of thousands more. Congress must conduct meaningful oversight of any administration's withdrawal decisions, to ensure that troop withdrawals are in the service of our national security rather than an attempt to either punish or reward another country. Lawmakers should encourage sustained diplomacy to secure regional stability -- an element noticeably absent from these provisions included in the Armed Services Committee's defense policy bill. We should encourage responsible withdrawals and avoid impetuous decisions. But it is the height of irresponsibility to obligate our troops to fight unwinnable wars and delay their return indefinitely. Fortunately, a re-energized coalition of progressives and conservatives is galvanized to bring our troops home. One of us is one of the President's leading critics, and the other is one of his closest allies. We are united in our conviction that Congress should lead efforts to disentangle our troops from bloody and costly endless wars. The same night these anti-withdrawal measures passed in the Armed Services Committee markup, we teamed up on an amendment blocking U.S. support perpetuating the Saudi-led war in Yemen. In last year's defense bill, we co-led a provision with overwhelming bipartisan support to prevent an unconstitutional war against Iran. These victories are only possible because millions of Americans are mobilizing for change. From conservative advocates like Concerned Veterans for America and Americans for Prosperity to progressive champions like Win Without War and FCNL, the American people are demanding Congress bring our troops home and focus on the threats facing Americans today. Under pressure from Washington's armchair hawks, troops withdrawn from bases in Germany and battlefields in Afghanistan may simply be re-deployed to other wars and military bases abroad. The task of ending a nearly two decade, two-trillion-dollar war, and re-evaluating America's troop presence in Europe faces stiff opposition from the Washington blob that cut its teeth on antiquated Cold War politics of yesteryear. Yet, unlike those beating the drums for war, we have the American people on our side. Americans of every political stripe are calling on Congress to celebrate, rather than shun, our troops' well-deserved homecoming.

By Rep. Ro Khanna The COVID-19 pandemic ravaged education as we know it. Every state in the country shut down schools as our nation battled an invisible new threat. Educators, parents, and children were forced to navigate new technologies and practices for remote learning on-the-fly with only days to prepare. As some states and regions see improved metrics indicating suppression of the coronavirus, others confront alarming new outbreaks, and a vaccine won't be widely available until January of 2021 at the earliest. Given this uncertainty as we prepare for the return of school in the fall, it's clear that more federal support for education is needed. The next COVID-19 relief and stimulus bill must include funding to support our schools and prepare our educators for teaching in a disrupted environment. This should include professional development for educators on (1) distance learning online; (2) the effective integration and use of technology; and (3) ensuring that students of color, students with disabilities, and students from low-income households are not left behind. Educators should be commended for pivoting so quickly to distance learning and overcoming as best they could the incredible challenges of this transition. Their ingenuity and hard work are a testament to the valuable role they play in our society. However, even with their herculean efforts, 41 percent of districts reported they were still not ready to implement online learning for all students. A key barrier was the inability to give educators the tools they needed to make the rapid shift to distance learning. Before the next school year starts, we must deliver the resources, technical know-how, and professional development they need to successfully support their students, no matter the learning environment. Without crucial professional development funding, many educators will remain unequipped with the tools needed to best serve our students. As the nation starts the long recovery from the pandemic, we must ensure that K-12 education does not become a casualty of state and local budget shortfalls. Federal support is critical to stabilize school budgets, expand access to high-quality education and give our children the tools necessary to succeed. Schools everywhere, from Silicon Valley to the Midwest, are crying out in need of support, which experts predict could require between $230 and $305 billion in federal aid. In fact, Lisa De Lapo, Director of Information and Instructional Technology at Union School District in California, told us, "Public school budgets, which were suffering financially before the coronavirus, are now being told by the state to additionally cut 10 percent of our budgets. This has many schools, including my own school district, cutting professional development and other learning opportunities for staff and faculty." In Wisconsin, Raquel Rand, President of the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association, said, "Teachers across the state are asking for additional training and support on the use of educational technology, but districts need funding to support this type of professional development." Professional development cuts by cash-strapped schools further exacerbate inequities already existing in our system. Research shows regardless of where they are located -- rural, suburban, or urban areas -- schools with high numbers of students of color have a larger percentage of inexperienced teachers compared to schools with fewer students of color. If students must return to partial or completely remote learning this fall, these disadvantaged students will suffer the most. Because educators are now and will continue to be the most important school-based factor for student success -- wherever that learning may occur -- stabilizing school budgets must include continuous investments in professional development. This professional development must be relevant, accessible and useful for educators. And, this takes resources. Studies show that when professional development is well-designed and effectively executed, it leads to improvements in educator practice and student achievement. It is imperative that we maximize the value of the breadth and potential of learning technology at our fingertips. A failure to support education budgets, attend to new expenses necessary to close the digital divide, and ensure educators have high-quality professional development will further deepen unacceptable educational inequities already faced by students of color, students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and other historically underserved students. Educators have always adjusted their practice to meet student needs and are continuing to prevail in the face of global upheaval. The federal government must be a full partner in those efforts. Our hope is that our colleagues in Congress will join us in taking on the educational inequities compounded by this pandemic by directly addressing them in the next COVID-19 relief and stimulus bill. In fact, we hope that with additional, significant federal support, particularly in the professional growth of our educators, we will instead be on a path to a more equitable future. Nothing short of the success of all our students is at stake.

By Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Todd Young, Rep. Ro Khanna, and Rep. Mike Gallagher We must reposition the United States to lead the 21st Century with the greatest scientific and technological breakthroughs. Today, researchers across the world are using all the scientific tools available in a global race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. But America is no longer the preeminent leader in scientific research as we were for the second half of the 20th Century. We must address this vulnerability. Though we sit on opposite sides of the political aisle, recently we all came together to respond to this sudden, unprecedented health and economic crisis, approving the largest economic recovery package in American history. This unifying moment brings clarity to a longstanding national vulnerability: our decades-long underinvestment in the infrastructure that would help prevent, respond to and recover from an emergency of this scale -- namely, scientific and technological discovery, and the ability to turn fundamental research into innovations we produce here at home. In coming months, as we address this public health emergency, stabilize our economy and formulate a recovery plan, we must also reposition the United States to lead the 21st Century with the greatest scientific and technological breakthroughs. When America discovers a vaccine or develops a cost-effective ventilator, then we can manufacture and deploy such life-saving innovations here at home. Conversely, America's dwindling investments in the tools and talent essential to modern research and development threatens our long-term health, economic and national security. We cannot allow our research capabilities to atrophy without undermining our global competitiveness and leaving our people vulnerable during a time of crisis. So what are we proposing? The Endless Frontiers Act proposes a renewed national investment in public research and development to strengthen our nation's innovation ecosystem now and into the future. In the near-term, this means specific investments in the urgent research and production needed to confront COVID-19. This should involve dedicated investment for federal and university labs and technical facilities, paired with infrastructure investments like the broadband build out needed to tap the innovation potential of communities across America. This should also include investment in technical education. We must fund undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, trainees and post-doctoral support in the targeted research areas. Longer term, we should sustain our global leadership through investment on the frontiers of modern science and technology -- the types of investments that will soon help us overcome COVID-19. We also must continually improve our ability to rapidly move groundbreaking ideas from government laboratories to job-creating companies and, in turn, to the world's consumers. Finally, at a time of historically low interest rates, we should work to pair federal investments in research and development with public- and private-partner investments in scientific and technical moonshots. Even as we continue to fight the coronavirus, our country must prepare to confront the next generation of global threats and seize opportunities that lie over the horizon. We must also remain mindful that, as our nation recovers, China gains ground. Beijing"s authoritarian leaders aim to capitalize on this moment with an eye toward outpacing the United States by investing in technological innovations essential to Americans' future safety and prosperity. The private sector efficiently funds research and development of goods and services that meet the demands of individual consumers. But many of the technologies that will collectively benefit our citizens over the long term require bold public investments in fundamental research. In the decades after World War II, America's leaders wisely anticipated the benefits of such investments. By 1965, we invested 1.8% of GDP to rapidly advance the frontiers of knowledge. The returns were spectacular. In fact, the engines fueling our modern economy trace their roots to such investments, from aerospace to modern computing, from the internet to life-saving pharmaceuticals. Even our now-ubiquitous smartphones were spawned by public investment before the private sector brought them to consumers. In the weeks ahead, America will need to support those impacted by this pandemic and the private businesses that sustain our way of life. But, as we prepare for the post-COVID-19 future, we should draw inspiration from the past. Our own history proves that smart, targeted and substantial public investments in the infrastructure and talent necessary to produce cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs will result in higher rates of economic growth, sustained job creation and greater wealth creation. Today we know that every dollar invested in the National Institutes of Health leads to $3 in increased stock market valuation for private companies. And studies show that raising public research and development spending by $100 billion per year on a permanent basis could help generate as much as 4 million new American jobs. Unfortunately, our appreciation for the benefits of such investments has waned. Federal R&D spending has fallen to a mere 0.6% of GDP. Whereas America once led the world in the share of our economy invested in R&D, we now rank 12th globally. If we fail to change course, China will invest more than the United States in just 10 years. America is enduring a national stress test. Our people are up to the challenge, but our gradual retreat from global scientific leadership has been laid bare. America's pharmaceutical scientists are working tirelessly to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, but smarter, bolder investments in recent decades might have better prepared us for this moment. Similarly, many of our teachers and other workers have resiliently adapted to shelter in place orders. But strains on America's broadband network to support the surge in online demand for remote work and distance learning have surpassed the capacity of private carriers. Now is the time to change course. In the face of adversity, Americans are resilient. We adapt, improvise, overcome. We are a nation of problem solvers, freelancers and innovators. In 2020, as we face one of the most powerful enemies humankind has ever faced -- and we steel ourselves against the next threat to our way of life -- we should harness this creative power. We should make a down payment on science and technology today by passing The Endless Frontiers Act.