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20 July 1999
Source:
http://www.usia.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=99071605.wlt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml
Jump to encryption comments. Jump to H.R.
2086
USIS Washington
File
_________________________________
19 July 1999
Clinton Administration Calls for Increased IT Funding
(Economic, social and medical benefits cited) (3550)
Neal Lane, assistant to the president for science and technology, said
that the administration supports greater federal funding for
information technology (IT) research and development.
During a July 14 hearing before the House Subcommittee on Basic
Research Washington, Lane said that current appropriations to fund the
Information Technology for the 21st Century Initiative (IT2) are
inadequate. Development in this area will lead to advances in economic
and national security, transportation and an overall increased
standard of living for Americans, making it a "high priority" for
funding, Lane said.
In response to the findings of the President's Information Technology
Advisory Committee (PITAC), the administration increased its FY 2000
allocations request by approximately 28 percent to $366 million. Lane
said that the administration based its request on the fact that growth
in IT has been enormous, past investments in IT have resulted in GDP
growth and higher wages, and IT is changing the skills required in
almost every career field. In addition, Lane pointed to the growing
social, political and economic divide between those who can access new
technology and those who cannot as a major factor in the need to
increase funding.
IT growth benefits a wide variety of fields. Developments in medicine,
weather forecasting, mathematics and engineering will not only improve
knowledge and understanding in these areas, but will also help to
bolster the U.S. economy in the future, Lane said.
Lane said that the strength of federal IT research depends on its
development in several different agencies. The administration feels
that the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) have been crucial in IT development, and should be
included in proposed legislation that seeks to strengthen IT research
and development.
Following is the text of Lane's testimony:
(begin text)
Testimony of The Honorable Neal Lane, Assistant to the President for
Science and Technology before the Subcommittee on Basic Research,
Committee on Science, U.S. House of Representatives
July 14, 1999
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to be here
today to discuss how the Administration and the Congress, working
together, can strengthen our nation's investments in information
technology (IT) research and development.
To put my remarks today in context, I want to state that I am
concerned about the overall funding situation for science and
technology. Although I am encouraged by current efforts I have seen in
Congress to build support for science and technology (S&T)
investments, the allocations that have been supplied to the
Appropriations Subcommittees would make it virtually impossible to
fund many of the Administration's priorities, including the
Information Technology for the 21st Century Initiative (IT2). As Jack
Lew, the Director of OMB has said, "the Appropriations Committees are
now implementing an untenable budget resolution which is a blueprint
for chaos."
The IT2 Initiative is the centerpiece of the President's FY 2000 R&D
budget request which presents a balanced R&D portfolio that recognizes
the interdependence of all fields of science and engineering. The
President's request reflects the fact that broad-based investments in
science and technology-both public and private-have driven our
economic growth and improved the quality of life in America for the
last 200 years. Advances across a variety of fields have generated new
knowledge and new industries, created new jobs, ensured economic and
national security, reduced pollution and increased energy efficiency,
provided better and safer transportation, improved medical care, and
increased the overall living standards for the American people. I hope
that the Administration and Congress can work together to achieve full
funding for IT research and the entire R&D budget.
The Administration strongly supports the aims of H.R. 2086, namely to
strengthen Federal IT R&D. My testimony will cover some areas where we
believe the bill could be improved, but we are confident that we can
rapidly reach agreement in areas where we differ.
Many of the remarkable advances in IT that we enjoy today have their
origins in past Federal investments in long-term fundamental and
applied research. The returns on those investments - made two, three,
and even four decades ago - have been spectacular. Federal funding in
long-term computing and communications research has facilitated the
advancement of an outstanding array of technologies (the Internet, web
browsers, high performance computers, RAID disks, multiprocessors,
local area networks, graphic displays, etc.) that have created
dynamic, new industries. Federal investments in long-term computing
and communications research, in parallel with corresponding
investments in fundamental physical sciences and engineering, have not
only fueled innovation, but also has helped produce the best academic
system in the world which, in turn, has educated the business and
university leaders who have made the information revolution possible.
Now is not the time to reduce our investment in the future.
Information Technology Research - A National Priority
The Administration continues to place a high a priority on information
technology research. Working with Congress, we have secured constant
growth in this important research area. In this year's budget, we
responded quickly to the advice of the Congressionally-chartered
President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) and
increased our request by roughly 28%, a $366 million incremental
investment within the framework of a balanced budget. We specifically
responded to PITAC's warning that we are under-investing in
fundamental research in information technology. We believe that our
program, largely endorsed by your legislation, provides a sound and
balanced approach.
We have placed emphasis on expanding information technology research
for good reason. The technologies will play a key role in building a
prosperous American future through expanding business opportunities
and by providing an essential set of tools for spurring research in
all other areas-better medical treatments, improved weather
forecasting, advanced materials, and safer, more efficient cars and
aircraft.
The growth in information technology has been spectacular. There are
now approximately 160 million computers in use throughout the U.S.-up
from 62 million at the start of the decade. Forty-two percent of
American households owned computers by the end of 1998, up from
twenty-four percent in 1994. In 1993, 3 million Americans-mainly
researchers and academics-were connected to the Internet. Today
twenty-six percent of U.S. households are connected to the Internet
and nearly a third of all Americans have access to the Internet either
at home or at work. Web addresses (URLs) are nearly ubiquitous and
appear on the packaging of virtually every popular American product.
Our past investments in information technology have translated
directly into GDP growth and higher wages. Recent studies suggest that
they were responsible for 35% of the nation's real economic growth
between 1995 and 1998. The software and computer services sector alone
has more than doubled in size since 1990, growing to a $152 billion
business by 1998. Workers in the IT-producing industries earned
$53,000 compared to the economy-wide average of $30,000, according to
1997 statistics. The indirect impacts are probably much larger but
more difficult to measure-such as making it easier for firms to serve
individual customers, allowing small companies access to international
markets, or allowing disabled workers access to high-wage jobs.
The advantages presented by these technologies are already
transforming our economy, redefining the skills needed in virtually
every job, and changing our economy and its major institutions in ways
that are difficult to forecast. It is troubling to discover, however,
that the gap separating Internet access and computer ownership of
white Americans and access by Hispanic and Black Americans has
actually increased over the past few years. Our nation cannot afford a
digital divide separating those who can benefit from these
technologies from those who have inadequate access. Clearly we also
need research to help us identify the pitfalls associated with these
technological changes so that all Americans-not just a privileged
few-benefit. Both the President's IT2 Initiative and your legislation
support such research.
In addition to the major economic impacts, advances in information
technology are essential for tackling some of the greatest challenges
facing the U.S. in the next century. The Director of NIH recently
asked a group of independent experts to evaluate the importance of
information technology to advances in medicine. They concluded that
"the principal obstacle impeding effective health care is lack of new
knowledge, and the principal mission of the NIH is to overcome this
obstacle. At this point the impact of computer technology is so
extensive it is no longer possible to think about that mission without
computers." Advances in diagnosis, surgery, clinical practice,
neurobiology, medical genetics, clinical trials, rational drug design
at the cellular level, cell biology, and many other areas depend
critically on an ability to capture, communicate, and manipulate
enormous quantities of information. A modern biomedical laboratory can
produce 100 terabytes of information a year. Advanced computation is
essential to determine and understand the chemical structure of DNA
and the complex molecules, which are the basis of modern drug designs.
Advances in computation are essential to understand the complex forces
affecting local and global weather. Every minute of extra warning
means additional lives saved in communities in the path of a tornado.
Forecasting the path of hurricanes will help those in the path take
appropriate action and avoid the costs of evacuations where they are
not needed. Computer simulations make it possible for automobile
designers to experiment with many more designs to improve
crash-safety. Smart highway communication systems ensure that the
appropriate rescue crews are dispatched and that emergency rooms are
prepared for the types of injuries they will be required to treat.
It is important to understand that the extraordinary advances made in
the speed and application of computation and communication during the
past few years have brought us to a new threshold in the way
computation can be used in scientific research and engineering design.
Advanced communications are fundamentally changing the management of
research by making it possible for teams to collaborate-and even share
in the operation of complex equipment-even though individual members
may be in different parts of the country. Powerful computer
simulations have become an essential tool for understanding phenomena
in astrophysics, cellular communication, the structure of materials,
and many other areas in ways that were considered impossible a decade
earlier.
Characterizing the properties of a simple three-atom molecule using a
computer simulation, for example, took more than a week on equipment
available in 1987. The more important calculation, which involves
embedding the atom in a realistic structure of 600 or more other
atoms, would require four years - obviously not a practical option.
Advances in mathematics, in computer software design, and our
understanding of basic chemistry combined with the enormous gains made
in the raw power of new computers now make it possible to do the 600
atom calculation in 8 hours. With the investments proposed in our
initiative, the time can be cut by another order of magnitude. This
makes it practical to perfect the software, the mathematics and the
chemistry used in the calculation itself. It also gives researchers a
practical tool to explore phenomena previously inaccessible to theory.
The same story holds for engineering design and testing. Design tools
capable of acceptable simulations for aerodynamic performance, safety,
and other characteristics of a modern aircraft, for example, require
computers to keep track of nearly seven million separate data points
in the area immediately surrounding the aircraft. Performance
estimates on this scale that took 24 months with the earlier
generation of machines a few years ago, now take 8 hours. The next
generation of software, algorithms and equipment will make it possible
to alter designs and test them in a few minutes, greatly increasing
opportunities for improving performance, cutting design costs, and
improving safety.
In short, we have given information technology research a high
priority in our research program because of its enormous power to
advance the American economy in the next century and because it
provides essential tools for all important areas of research.
Laying A Foundation for the Future
The Administration has proposed major increases in information
technology that are directly responsive to the advice of PITAC.
Specifically, we have proposed significant increases in support for:
Expanding basic research on information technologies with a strong
emphasis on improvements in software. It is essential that we develop
software that is dependable, resistant to intrusion, and inexpensive
to build. Entirely new approaches are needed to move from today's
computers to new machines that may link thousands or millions of
individual process.
Approaches making it easier for people to communicate their
requirements to computers and to understand the information the new
systems make available. This will require entirely new tools for
searching texts, pictures, and large sets of data. Special systems are
needed for people with disabilities.
Entirely new approaches to the design of computers needed to ensure
that computational power continues to increase even when we begin to
approach the limits of how small we can make electronic components.
This will include exploring exotic tools such as quantum computing or
using DNA or other chemicals for processing data.
Ensuring that the civilian research community can continue its
innovation through access to vastly more powerful machines than are
available to them today and have the necessary software design tools
and other assistance needed to take full advantage of these new
machines.
Understanding the social, political, economic, and ethical issues
raised by the transformations in our economy and society being created
by information technology. This includes, for example, attention to
the increases in the gap separating Internet access and computer
ownership of white Americans and access by Hispanic and Black
Americans discussed earlier. Our nation can't afford a digital divide
separating those who can benefit from these technologies from those
with inadequate access. Research is essential to understand and
respond to these and other challenges created by an information rich
economy.
H.R. 2086 directly complements the Administration's IT2 initiative and
attests to our common bipartisan commitment to ensure adequate and
sustained Federal investments for the future benefit of the nation. We
both clearly agree that past U.S. investment in research has yielded
enormous returns and remains critical to our scientific, technical,
and economic leadership - and we agree that expanded investment is
essential to maintain this leadership.
There are, however, a few areas of difference that I would like to
highlight for the Committee's consideration.
Ensuring Participation and Adequate Funding for Key IT Agencies
U.S. leadership in information technology has depended on our ability
to manage a federal research program that draws on the unique
strengths of many different agencies. Clearly, this should continue.
The Administration believes that the Department of Defense (DOD) and
the National Institutes of Health (NIH), both important components of
our interagency information technology research and development work,
should be included in the proposed legislation. The DOD has played a
central role in developing the Internet and supporting fundamental
advances in computing, and it must continue to be a vital part of the
Federal IT R&D program. In the years ahead, the power of computing
will be absolutely essential to the biomedical community for research
and improving the health of our nation's citizens in the years ahead.
The previously cited advisory committee report to the NIH stresses the
importance of developing computing capabilities to support new
biomedical knowledge. DOD and the NIH both have proposed research
under the IT2 initiative, as well as important activities in the
existing HPCC and NGI programs. While we understand the jurisdictional
difficulties raised by including these agencies in H.R. 2086, we trust
a measure can be developed that ensures both agencies receive the
necessary support for information technology-related research. Their
efforts must be integrated into any national plan. The bill should
contain language indicating that ongoing interagency coordination
authorized under the original HPC Act should continue and provide the
agencies covered by the proposed legislation the authority to
coordinate in the new areas of research proposed by the bill.
The Administration is also concerned that H.R. 2086 provides
insufficient levels of funding for DOE's support of new programs in
terascale computing infrastructure and for other information
technology research in DOE. We share your conviction that our civilian
research community needs greater access to state-of-the art computers
and the unique expertise needed to employ them in solving practical
research problems. Over the past year DOE and NSF have worked together
to develop an implementation plan that would provide complementary
terascale computing facilities to the nation's science and engineering
communities. The Department of Energy would develop and deploy a
fundamental new capability in scientific simulation to address a class
of highly complex scientific problems. The potential benefits include
developing exotic new materials essential for manufacturing,
microelectronics, and many other areas; modeling regional and global
climate patterns and changes; and, developing cleaner, efficient
combustion devices that power our economy.
Because of its extensive experience and technical capabilities in
managing the acquisition and operation of large, complex user
facilities, its history of making first-of-a-kind computer facilities
available to the research community, and its experience in managing
large multidisciplinary scientific and engineering teams focused on
solutions to critical national problems, DOE is well qualified to
perform this role.
The Administration hopes that we can work together to ensure adequate
funding to take full advantage of the DOE's enormous strengths in
terascale computing and networking and scientific applications, and
its unique and its longstanding expertise in providing user-facilities
to our nation's research community. We can achieve our shared vision
of providing enhanced computational capabilities and research tools to
our nation's science and engineering communities to solve extremely
complex problems only if we bring the full complement of technical
assets in the Federal government to bear on this important initiative
We also have concerns about the other authorizations for DOE under
H.R. 2086. The legislation proposes a one-year increase in FY 2000 DOE
funding for the NGI of $10.4 million, along with a significant
reduction in HPCC funding of approximately $16 million from the
request. It will be difficult to take full advantage of the one-year
NGI increase in a research and development program if not sustained.
The HPCC funding reduction would devastate the DOE's ongoing program
of IT research. Furthermore, since neither H.R. 2086 nor H.R. 1655,
the main DOE R&D authorization bill, includes language for the IT
research and development base programs that are not part of the
programs coordinated through HPCC, the result is an unanticipated $6
million cut in DOE's base advanced mathematics and computation
programs from the FY 1999 appropriation. The Administration would like
to see DOE authorizations modified to restore adequate funding levels
for its HPCC and other IT programs.
Similarly, the funding authorized by H.R. 2086 for the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) does not reflect all the
funding for HPCC program component areas and double counts other
funds. Therefore, the legislation should be modified to reflect the
total NIST authorizations of $22.7M in FY 2000.
Additionally we would like to bring to the Committee's attention that
while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an
integral part of both the HPCC program and the President's proposed
IT2 initiative, authorization for its HPCC program ($13.5M in FY 2000)
is contained in the proposed NITRD legislation, while authorization
for IT2 ($5.7M in FY 2000 and $8.0 in FY 2001) is contained in H.R.
1553, the NOAA authorization. Thus proposed NITRD authorizations in
H.R. 2086 do not fully cover NOAA's coordinated IT research and
development programs, as it does for most other agencies in the
legislation.
Evaluation of Capabilities of Foreign Encryption and R&E Tax Credit
The Administration is also concerned about a provision in H.R. 2086
calling for the NSF to conduct a study to assess foreign encryption
technologies and domestic technologies subject to export restriction.
The Administration recognizes the concerns of Congress in this area,
but does not support a statutory mandate requiring that a study be
conducted by NSF. The Department of Commerce's Bureau of Export
Administration, in consultation with the National Security Agency,
completed an assessment a number of years ago at the direction of the
President and with the support of the Congress, and it is prepared to
do so again. The Administration believes that this is the appropriate
approach.
H.R. 2086 proposes making the research and experimentation tax credit
permanent. The Administration supports making the tax credit
permanent. However, it must be paid for per the PAYGO requirements of
the Budget Enforcement Act.
Conclusion
There is much common ground shared by the Administration's Information
Technology Initiative and H.R. 2086. We share a conviction that an
expanded investment in information technology research is a critical
investment in our country's future. We look forward to working with
the Committee to expeditiously resolve any differences and to push for
final passage of this important legislation. We also look forward to
working with the Committee to ensure that the appropriators are fully
informed of the importance of these investments. Thank you for the
opportunity to work with you in this critical effort.
U.S. Department of Commerce. The Emerging Digital Economy. June 1999.
Available online at http://www.ecommerce.gov/ede/ede2.pdf
U.S. Department of Commerce. Falling Through the Net: Defining the
Digital Divide, July 1999. Available online at
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn99/contents.html.
Working Group on Biomedical Computing, Advisory Committee to the
Director, National Institutes of Health. The Biomedical Information
Science and Technology Initiative. June 3, 1999. Available online at
http://www.nih.gov/welcome/director/060399.htm.
(end text)
[Congressional Record: June 9, 1999 (Extensions)]
[Page E1186]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr09jn99-65]
INTRODUCTION OF NETWORKING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT ACT
______
HON. F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR.
of wisconsin
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 9, 1999
Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce H.R. 2086
the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act
of 1999. And I recommend that all my colleagues join with Science
Committee Ranking Member George Brown, Congressman Tom Davis and 23
other Republican and Democrat Members of the Science Committee in
cosponsoring this important bipartisan research initiative.
Two decades ago, the changes wrought by information technology were
unimaginable. The scope and scale of the changes produced by the
explosion in information technology are comparable to those created
during the Industrial Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. But
whereas the Industrial Revolution ushered in the era of the machine--
symbolized by the steam engine, the factory, and the captain of
industry--the Information Revolution promises to create the era of the
mind--symbolized by the silicon chip, the microprocessor, and the high-
tech entrepreneur.
Today, the United States is the undisputed global leader in computing
and communications, and a healthy information-technology industry is a
critical component of U.S. economic and National security. The impact
of information technology on the economy is telling. It represents one
of the fastest growing sectors of the U.S. economy, growing at an
annual rate of 12 percent between 1993 and 1997. Since 1992, businesses
producing computers, semiconductors, software, and communications
equipment have accounted for one-third of the economic growth in the
U.S.
Fundamental information-technology research has played an essential
role in fueling the Information Revolution and creating new industries
and millions of new, high-paying jobs. But maintaining the Nation's
global leadership in information technology will require keeping open
the pipeline of new ideas, technologies, and innovations that flow from
fundamental research. Although the private sector provides the lion's
share of the research funding, its spending tends to focus on short-
term, applied work. The Federal Government, therefore, has a critical
role to play in supporting the long-term, basic research the private
sector requires but is ill-suited to pursue.
However, as the Congressionally-chartered President's Information
Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) noted in its recent report, the
emphasis of Federal information technology research programs in recent
years has shifted from long-term, high-risk research to short-term,
mission oriented research. This is a trend that began in 1986 but has
accelerated over the last six years.
PITAC warned that current Federal support for fundamental research in
information technology is inadequate to maintain the Nation's global
leadership in this area, and it advocated a five-year initiative that
would significantly increase basic-research funding. The
Administration's response to the PITAC report is its Information
Technology for the 21st Century proposal--IT \2\. I believe this
proposal, however well-intentioned, falls short of what PITAC
envisioned. It does not, for example, commit the Administration to any
funding increases beyond fiscal year 2000. In fact, according to the
non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the Administration's own
figures show flat or declining budgets beyond next year for the IT \2\
agencies, so any increasess in information technology research would
have to come out of other important science programs, an untenable
situation.
To address the issues raised in the PITAC report, I am introducing
the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act
today. This is a five-year bill that provides justifiable, sustainable,
and realistic increase in information technology research. It
authorizes for fiscal years 2000 through 2004 nearly $4.8 billion,
almost doubling IT research funding from current level, at the six
agencies under the Science Committee's jurisdiction: the National
Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration,
and the Environmental Protection Agency.
This bill will fundamentally alter the way information technology
research is supported and conducted. Its centerpiece is the Networking
and Information Technology Research and Development program, which:
Limits grants to long-term basic research with priority given to
research which helps address issues related to high-end computing, and
software and network stability, fragility, security (including privacy)
and scalability.
Requires all grants to be peer reviewed by panels that include
private sector representatives.
Establishes 20 large grants of up to $1 million in FY 2000-2001; 30
large grants in FY 2002-2004.
Makes $40 million available for grants of up to $5 million for IT
Centers (6 or more researchers collaborating on cross-disciplinary
research issues) in FY 2000-2001; $45 million in FY 2002-2003; $50
million in FY 2004.
Provides $95 million to create for-credit private sector internship
programs at two and four-year colleges and universities for IT
students. To participate in the program, a company must commit to
provide 50 percent of the cost of the internship program.
Authorizes a total of $385 million for new computer hardware for
terascale computing, which will be allocated in an open competition by
NSF. Awardees must agree to integrate with the existing Advanced
Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program and give
access to Networking and Information Technology Research and
Development Act research grant recipients.
In addition, the bill authorizes $111 million through fiscal year
2002 for the completion of the Next Generation Internet program.
Another of the bill's provisions requires NSF to report to Congress
on the availability of encryption technologies in foreign countries and
how they compare with similar technologies subject to export
restrictions in the United States. I believe that export controls on
encryption are stifling development in this critical area, and I think
this study will demonstrate that the current policy on encryption is
self-defeating.
I also have included language in the bill to make the research tax
credit permanent. For too long, businesses have been unable to plan for
long-term research projects because of the annual guessing game
surrounding the extension of the credit. To encourage capital
formation, the credit must be a fixture in law instead of a perennial
budget battle. As you know, there are a number of bills that expand the
R&D tax credit, but I believe extending it permanently is a good start.
Once that hurdle is cleared, we can then examine ways to improve it.
The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development
Act of 1999 has been endorsed by both the Technology Network, a
coalition of leading technology executives, and Ken Kennedy, the
academic co-chair of the PITAC. It is a strong bipartisan bill, and I
encourage all my House colleagues to support the measure.
____________________