Senators Emmons, Bieda, Hopgood, Colbeck, Jansen, Booher, Green, Marleau and Hood offered the following resolution:

               Senate Resolution No. 15.

A resolution to observe February 17-23, 2013, as National Engineers Week.

               Whereas, Engineers employ their scientific knowledge and analytical skills for the betterment of the United States; and

               Whereas, Engineers have helped meet the major global challenges of our time,  including  state-of-the-art transportation and information technology infrastructures, enhancing national security, and developing the clean energy technologies needed to power the people of the United States into the future; and

               Whereas, Engineers are a crucial link in research, development, and the transformation of scientific discoveries into useful products and jobs, as the people of the United States look more than ever to engineers and their imagination, knowledge, and analytical skills to meet the challenges of the future; and

               Whereas, The sponsors of National Engineers Week are working together to transform the engineering workforce through greater inclusion of women and underrepresented minorities; and

               Whereas, The 2010 National Academy of Sciences report entitled "Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5'' emphasizes that a primary driver of the future economy and the creation of jobs will be innovations derived from advances in science and engineering. It states that "while only four percent of the nation's workforce is composed of scientists and engineers, this group disproportionately creates jobs for the other 96 percent''; and

               Whereas, The mission of the National Engineers Week Foundation is to sustain and grow a dynamic engineering profession through outreach, education, celebration, and volunteerism as needed to replace the increasing number of the approximately 2 million engineers in the United States who are nearing retirement; and

               Whereas, National Engineers Week has grown into a formal coalition of more than 100 professional societies, major corporations, and government agencies that are dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated engineering workforce; promoting literacy in science, technology, engineering, and math; and raising public awareness and appreciation of the contributions of engineers to society; and

               Whereas, National Engineers Week is celebrated during the week of George Washington's birthday to honor the contributions that our first President, a military engineer and land surveyor, made to engineering; now, therefore, be it

               Resolved by the Senate, That February 17-23, 2013, be hereby observed as National Engineers Week by the National Engineers Week Foundation, with the theme "Celebrate Awesome"; and be it further

               Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the National Society of Professional Engineers as a token of our highest esteem.