Booker Talks Up Science Investment At Rowan University

Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Wednesday outlined a five-pronged policy aimed at promoting job growth and scientific research. 

The proposal marked his second such policy discussion in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat. In Edgewater on Monday, Booker discussed a plan to battle child poverty.

Booker’s jobs proposal calls for increasing money for scientific research and development; reforming immigration laws to keep skilled workers; extending tax credits for public-private research partnerships; increasing the number of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates and streamlining the process between academic research and the creation of real-world products.

“The country that is most successful at attracting and retaining the best and brightest minds and fueling their discoveries will be the home of the jobs and the industries of the future,” Booker said in a release. “It’s a contest where second isn’t good enough.”

Booker outlined his plan at the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan after touring research space at the park’s Samuel H. Jones Innovation Center in Mullica Hill.

New Jersey is uniquely positioned to benefit from increased scientific research money. The Garden State has the highest density of scientists and engineers of anywhere in the world, and is home to 1,700 life science companies.

“All over the world, there are children today whose ideas will one day change our lives forever,” Booker said in the release. “Making better, wiser decisions in Washington will help ensure those ideas are born here.”

Booker is facing U.S. Reps. Rush Holt (D-12), Frank Pallone (D-6) and state Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-34) for the Democratic nomination to seek the U.S. Senate seat left by the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg. The special primary election is Aug 13.