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4
2
Appertal
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 1992
38
to exploration of the Moon and the planets,
edented opportunities for improving the Na-
including Space Station Freedom. In 1992, ac-
tion's health, food supply and environment. In
tivities will focus on continued development of
medicine, biotechnology is responsible for a
the Space Station and increased investments
generation of new products that will prevent
in long-lead exploration technologies such as
and treat disease. Significant agricultural ad-
nuclear power, nuclear propulsion and life sup-
vances and environmental techniques are also
underway. Twelve Federal agencies are work-
port.
ing on biotechnology-related R&D and are de-
veloping priorities for future Federal invest-
BIOTECHNOLOGY
ments.
The budget proposes nearly $4 billion for bio-
technology R&D.-Biotechnology offers unprec-
ENHANCING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Research and development (R&D) yields new
It is not possible to determine analytically
knowledge, products and processes that, over
the "optimal" level for total national invest-
the long term, result in economic growth and
ment in R&D or the best mix of R&D invest-
an improved quality of life for all Americans.
ments. However, the evidence that increased
Investment in research and development is a
R&D investment adds to the productivity of
top priority for an Administration that believes
the Nation, and that Federal investments are
in investing in the future. Investments in re-
important, provides ample justification for in-
search and development form the foundation
creased Federal investment in R&D as well
for the exploration of all of the new frontiers
as for Federal action to increase the level of
of today and tomorrow.
private R&D investment.
BACKGROUND: INCREASED INVEST-
THE 1992 FEDERAL R&D BUDGET:
MENTS IN R&D PROVIDE BENEFITS
OVERVIEW AND TRENDS
TO THE NATION
The budget proposes to allocate about $76
R&D investment provides both direct and in-
billion for R&D, including R&D facilities. This
direct productivity benefits to society. In addi-
is an increase of over $8 billion, or 13 percent,
tion to the economic benefits associated with
over 1991 levels. Within this total, $13 billion
R&D, many studies suggest that private (in-
will be allocated for basic research, an increase
dustrial) R&D spending has a very high social
of $1 billion, or 8 percent, and $12 billion for
rate of return. This social return appears to
applied research, an increase of $903 million,
be much higher than the rate of return to the
or 8 percent, over 1991. Federal civilian R&D
individual company funding the R&D, giving
will increase by 10 percent while defense-relat-
R&D spending the character of what econo-
ed R&D will increase by 14 percent.
mists call a "public good." One researcher esti-
The ratio of Federal R&D outlays to GNP
mated a social rate of return of 56 percent
and a private rate of return of 25 percent for
has been holding steady in recent years at
a specific group of innovations. Several decades
about 1.2 percent, after a sharp drop in the
of econometric research have demonstrated
1970s due to the end of the Apollo project and
that private sector R&D investments are a
slower growth in defense. During the 1980s,
strong positive stimulus for private productiv-
defense R&D recovered considerably. Federal
ity. There is also evidence that Federal R&D
civilian R&D (excluding defense and space ac-
spending stimulates private R&D. This ap-
tivities) has been nearly level for 30 years at
pears to be especially true for basic research
about 0.4 percent of GNP. The budget provides
or pre-competitive, generic applied research
increases and incentives designed to increase
that contributes to many industrial sectors.
Federal R&D investment as a percent of GNP.
39
IV.C. ENHANCING R&D AND EXPANDING THE HUMAN FRONTIER
Table C-2. THE BUDGET PROPOSES AN $8.4 BILLION INCREASE
IN FEDERAL INVESTMENT IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(Dollar amounts in millions)
Budget Authority
Outlays
1991
1992
Dollar
Percent
1991
1992
Dollar
Percent
Enacted
Proposed
change
change
Enacted
Proposed
change
change
Governmentwide totals:
Conduct of R&D:
Basic Research
12,320
13,320
+1,000
+8
11,597
12,414
+818
+7
Civilian
11,296
12,278
+982
+9
10,623
11,362
+739
+7
Defense¹
1,024
1,041
+17
+2
973
1,052
+79
+8
Applied Research and Develop-
ment
51,791
58,758
+6,967
+13
51,839
55,650
+3,811
+7
Civilian
15,031
16,552
1,521
+10
14,045
15,503
+1,458
+10
Defense¹
36,760
42,206
+5,447
+15
37,794
40,147
+2,353
+6
Subtotal, Conduct of R&D
64,111
72,078
+7,967
+12
63,436
68,065
+4,629
+7
R&D Facilities
3,082
3,545
+464
+15
2,845
3,264
+419
+15
Total, Conduct of R&D and Fa-
cilities
67,192
75,623
+8,431
+13
66,281
71,329
+5,048
+8
Conduct of R&D by Agency:
Defense-military
35,176
40,479
+5,303
+15
36,142
38,421
+2,279
+6
Health and Human Services
9,273
9,836
+564
+6
8,704
9,235
+531
+6
Energy
6,149
6,410
+260
+4
5,810
6,273
+463
+8
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration
7,271
8,602
+1,330
+18
6,974
7,767
+793
+11
National Science Foundation
1,828
2,112
+284
+16
1,675
1,897
+222
+13
Agriculture
1,224
1,261
+37
+3
1,152
1,198
+46
+4
Interior
584
562
-22
-4
572
567
-5
-1
Environmental Protection Agency 00
433
491
+59
+14
418
450
+33
+8
Commerce
517
538
+22
+4
454
499
+45
+10
Transportation
407
435
+28
+7
373
411
+38
+10
Agency for International Develop-
ment
385
413
+28
+7
337
445
+108
+32
Veterans Affairs
219
219
-
-
215
219
+4
+2
Other Agencies
645
720
+75
+12
611
684
+73
+12
¹Includes military-related programs of the Departments of Defense and Energy.
*Components may not add to totals because of rounding.
"Includes the Departments of Education, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, the Treasury, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Tennessee Valley Authority, Smithsonian Institution, and the Corps of Engineers.
As a percentage of total Federal domestic
Excluding space R&D, civilian R&D has re-
discretionary spending, total civilian R&D has
mained relatively constant at about 10 percent
declined from a peak of 25 percent in the Apol-
of the domestic discretionary budget. Again,
lo years to about 13 percent in recent years.
the budget seeks to increase this share.
IV.C. ENHANCING R&D AND EXPANDING THE HUMAN FRONTIER
47
APPLIED
R&D:
EXPANDING
THE
volving government, industry and university
FRONTIER OF TECHNOLOGICAL DE-
laboratories; and more informal government/
VELOPMENT
university/industry collaboration). Overall, the
budget provides increased funding for all major
Traditionally, the Federal Government has
civilian applied research and development
supported a broad spectrum of applied civilian
areas.
R&D in support of agency missions. Unlike
basic research, where the Federal role has bee
Increased investments in applied civilian
stable and widely acknowledged, the appro-
R&D will support technology development
priate Federal role in applied civilian R&D has
across a number of agencies and programs in
been the subject of debate and has changed
support of both agency mission needs and a
significantly over time. Past Federal invest-
broad technology base for potential future com-
ments in civilian R&D have led to major tech-
mercial applications. This increased emphasis
nological advances (e.g., computers, new air-
on federally supported technology development
should not be confused with industrial policy.
craft) while others have been major failures
The Administration remains opposed to efforts
(e.g., synfuels plants).
to target specific industries (e.g., consumer
The Administration believes that appro-
electronics) for R&D assistance to develop new
priate Federal investments in applied civilian
products (e.g., high-definition television).
R&D can result in high payoff to the economy,
and the budget provides for R&D funding in-
1992 Budget Initiatives in Applied
creases across a wide range of technology
Research and Development
areas. In total, the budget proposes about $17
billion, an increase of $1.5 billion or 10 per-
High Performance Computing and Com-
munications.-The budget proposes $638 mil-
cent.
lion for Federal support for R&D focused on
The principal strategy for the Federal ap-
high performance computing and
plied civilian R&D programs is to invest in
communciations. High performance computing
R&D areas that support agency mission re-
systems (i.e., hardware, software, networks,
quirements, but also where some of the R&D
etc.) are likely to have a significant positive
has broad applications in the private sector
impact on productivity. For example,
("dual use" technologies), even though these
supercomputers have been credited with bring-
commercial applications would not necessarily
ing the Ford Taurus, currently the best-selling
by funded by the government. In such cases,
American-made car, to market much sooner,
the Government's role is to support generic
with higher quality, and at significantly lower
or enabling technologies at the pre-competitive
cost than would have been possible without
stage of R&D:
them. While the supercomputer industry has
grown from $89 million in worldwide revenues
generic or enabling technologies have the
in 1980 to over $1.1 billion in 1990, it is still
potential to be applied to a broad range
a very small market (less than one percent
of products or processes across many
of the worldwide computer market) and tra-
firms;
ditionally limited to very complex public and
pre-competitive R&D is the stage of the
private high-risk, high-return ventures (e.g.,
R&D process where the results can be
oil and gas exploration, defense and aerospace
shared widely within and between indus-
systems, etc.). A similar situation exists with
trial sectors, without reducing the incen-
high-capacity, high-speed digital networks. Be-
tive for individual firms to develop and
cause of the small scale of the market and
market commercial products and processes
the high-cost of research, high performance
based upon the results.
computing has not attracted the private sector
R&D investments typically seen in the broader
There are a number of different mechanisms
computer industry.
that agencies may use to support generic ap-
plied research and technology development.
The Federal Government has played a sig-
These include: cost-sharing of individual
nificant role in the development of the
projects; creation of R&D consortia (often in-
supercomputer and network industry. A lead-
48
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 1992
THE 1992 BUDGET PROPOSES INCREASED FUNDING
1990$
FOR CIVILIAN APPLIED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
BILLIONS
(BUDGET AUTHORITY)
6
SPACE
5
ALL OTHER
4
3
ENERGY
HEALTH
2
1
0
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
Sources: National Science Foundation, Office of Management and Budget.
Table C-5. THE BUDGET INCLUDES INITIATIVES IN SEVERAL KEY
AREAS OF APPLIED R&D
(Dollar amounts in millions)
Budget Authority
Initiative
1991
1992
Dollar
Percent
Enacted
Proposed
change
change
High Performance Computing and Communications
489
638
+149
+30
Advancing New Energy Technologies
676
903
+227
+34
Enabling New Products and Processes: Advanced Manufactur-
ing and Materials
1,316
1,310
-6
-
HIV/AIDS Research
1,152
1,210
+58
+5
Moving Fusion Energy from Science to Engineering
275
337
+62
+23
Improving the Air Transport System: Aeronautics R&D
482
543
+61
+13
Expanding Applied R&D at the National Institute of Standards
and Technology
215
248
+33
+15
ing computer industry executive has stated
ing innovative computer technologies has its
that "If it weren't for the U.S. government,
roots in the World War II research that be-
there would be no U.S. supercomputer indus-
came the foundation for the UNIVAC system.
try." The role of government R&D in develop-
Many of today's commercial high performance
49
IV.C. ENHANCING R&D AND EXPANDING THE HUMAN FRONTIER
computing system and network advances are
ations per second) supercomputers. The
attributable to research supported by Federal
budget proposes $157 million.
agencies.
Advanced Software Technology and Algo-
Through the Office of Science and Tech-
rithms (Software): In the long-run, the re-
nology Policy's Federal Coordinating Council
turn to both the Government and the econ-
on Science, Engineering, and Technology
omy generally of software investments
(FCCSET), eight agencies have developed a
may be even greater than that of hard-
new integrated research initiative in High Per-
ware investments. The computational
model used to simulate the solid rocket
formance Computing and Communications
booster failure blamed for the Space Shut-
(HPCC). The program focuses on the underly-
ing research and the human talent needed to
tle Challenger disaster takes roughly 14
hours to run on a typical research lab
develop the next generation of supercomputer
systems (including hardware, software, and
minicomputer. Using a parallel processor
significantly reduced this time, but opti-
networks).
mized software brought it to under five
The goal of the proposed initiative is to
seconds. This component has a large share
meet, by 1996, the needs of Federal research
of the initiative because there is a great
agencies to investigate and understand a wide
need for adequate and affordable software
range of fundamental scientific and engineer-
to address unique fundamental scientific
ing computational problems and, at the same
and engineering problems. The software
time, allow the private sector to "leap frog"
usually represents five times the hardware
over the expected incremental improvements
costs. The budget proposes $265 million.
in conventional supercomputers.
National Research and Education Network
Investments in research and technology de-
(Networks and Communications): The goal
velopment are planned in four HPCC program
of the National Research and Education
Network (NREN) is to enable rapid access
components:
by the Nation's educational and research
High Performance Computing Systems
institutions to a broad range of Federal
(Hardware): Undertaking research in scal-
resources, including libraries, databases,
able computer processors, memory, input/
and scientific facilities (e.g., computers,
output devices and operating systems
telescopes, accelerators). The focus of this
needed for scalable teraflop (trillion oper-
element would be on integrating and up-
Table C-6. THE BUDGET PROPOSES A 31 PERCENT INCREASE FOR
HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING
(Dollar amounts in millions)
Budget Authority
Agency
1991
1992
Dollar
Percent
Enacted
Proposed
change
change
183
232
+49
+27
Defense (DARPA)
169
213
+44
+26
National Science Foundation
65
93
+28
+43
Energy
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
54
72
+18
+33
Health and Human Services (National Library of Medicine)
14
17
+3
+21
1
5
+4
+400
Environmental Protection Agency
National Institute of Standards and Technology
2
3
+1
+50
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
1
3
+2
+200
489
638
+149
+30
Total, All agencies
50
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 1992
grading existing federally supported re-
sharing, with the research performed by
search networks and on research in
industry or universities (except in situa-
gigabit (billion bit per second) network
tions where Government labs have unique
switches, protocols, software, and security
research and testing capabilities). The for-
mechanisms. These improvements would
mation of industry R&D consortia would
be used to enable the transition of the ex-
be encouraged where feasible (e.g., in the
isting Federal research network into a na-
pre-competitive R&D stage). This imple-
tional gigabit research and education net-
mentation approach would maximize the
work. The budget proposes $92 million.
involvement of the ultimate technology
users, enhancing the technology transfer
Basic Research and Human Resources (Re-
process, and would minimize Government
search/Training): This component would
overhead costs.
focus on fundamental "leapfrog" advances
in HPCC technology and the training of
The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates
students in the computational sciences.
that the NES R&D Initiative could lead to a
The budget proposes $124 million.
reduction in oil consumption of 5-8 million
barrels per day by the year 2030, depending
Advancing New Energy Technologies.-
on the success of the proposed R&D programs.
A major element of the Administration's Na-
tional Energy Strategy (NES) will be increased
The NES R&D strategy is intended to foster
investment in energy technology R&D. The
a new, results-oriented approach, and not
budget includes $903 million, an increase of
merely more-of-the-same traditional Govern-
$227 million or 34 percent, for increased in-
ment-funded energy R&D programs. The Fed-
vestments in R&D in support of NES R&D
eral Government has had a substantial, broad-
initiatives Governmentwide. The budget pro-
based energy R&D program since the 1973 oil
poses $653 million for Department of Energy
embargo. From 1980 through 1990, the Gov-
NES-related R&D, an increase of $134 million
ernment has invested about $21 billion in en-
or 26 percent. Over the five year period 1992
ergy technology R&D. This investment has had
through 1996, DOE would invest $3.5 billion
relatively little payoff, for a combination of
in NES R&D initiatives discussed in this sec-
reasons: (1) the inherently high risks of some
tion.
R&D, (2) poor R&D choices (e.g., synfuels,
breeder reactors), and (3) lack of significant
The NES R&D strategy is based on several
key elements:
private sector financial and management in-
volvement linking R&D to successful commer-
an emphasis on R&D areas that, if suc-
cial deployment. The NES energy R&D ini-
cessful, could lead to significant displace-
tiative will take better advantage of the Na-
ment of petroleum;
tion's tremendous university and private sector
technical talent, while avoiding the mistakes
selection of R&D areas based on high R&D
of past Government managed, crisis-born en-
payoff potential-i.e., the potential to
ergy R&D programs.
achieve significant cost and performance
improvements;
The specific components of the NES R&D
initiative are shown in Table C-7. These in-
a comprehensive, interagency R&D pro-
clude:
gram that includes both technology en-
hancements (e.g., more efficient engines)
Improved Vehicle Propulsion Technology
and more fundamental system changes
through research on high temperature die-
(e.g., the potential for high speed rail and
sel and gas turbine engines. Conventional
Maglev systems to displace automobile
spark-ignited and diesel engines have effi-
d air travel);
ciencies of up to 31 percent. More efficient
ollaborative, cost-shared, Government-
engines, including gas turbines, could
ersity-industry effort. This implemen-
achieve efficiencies approaching 40 per-
cent.
n approach would rely upon industry-
oint Government-industry R&D plan-
Electric Vehicles, including a new joint
and management and 50:50 cost
auto industry-government consortium to
1198
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD SENATE
January 24, 1991
share of contributions to the cost of
In addition to these categories of
Anyone who has seen a supercom-
the war.
costs, the report will list the following,
puter in action has a sense of what
And, it is a good government bill be-
by country:
computers might be capable of in the
cause it sends a very clear signal that
First, contributions pledged as cash
future. Today. scientists and engineers
Congress is interested in this informa-
payments;
are using supercomputers to design
tion, wants this information, and
Second, contributions pledged as in-
better airplanes, understand global
places a very high priority on having
kind payments;
warming, find oilfields, and discover
this information. The administration
Third, contributions received as cash
safer, more effective drugs. In many
has issued figures from time to time
payments;
cases they can use these machines to
on the contributions and pledges of
Fourth, contributions received as in-
mimic experiments that would be pro-
cur allies, but in the midst of interna-
kind payments.
hibitively expensive or downright im-
tional turbulence, the administration
The first report would be submitted
possible in real life. With a supercom-
has hardly assigned the reporting of
not later than 14 days after the date
puter model, engineers at Ford can
this information a high priority. That
of enactment of the law, and it would
simulate auto crash tests and test new
is not the administration's job. That is
cover the period beginning on August
safety features for a fraction of the
the job of Congress. And that is why
1 of last year.
ccst and in much less time than it
this bill is necessary.
Mr. President, I would urge my col-
would take to really crash an automo-
On December 13 of this recent year,
leagues to support this bill and hope
bile. And they can observe many more
we can put it on a fast track so we can
I sent a letter to the President along
variables, in much more detail, than
begin to get this information before
with my distinguished colleague from
they could with a real test.
the supplemental appropriations bill
Delaware, Senator ROTH, requesting
reaches the floor.
The bill I am introducing today is
periodic updates of contributions
very similar to the first title of S. 1067,
pledged and received for Operation
By Mr. GORE (for himself, Mr.
the High-Performance Computing Act
Desert Shield. Now that war has been
HOLLINGS, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr.
of 1990, which passed the Senate
engaged, the costs will indeed spiral
PRESSLER, Mr. FORD, Mr.
unanimously last October. Unfortu-
upward which, in my view, is sufficient
BREAUX, Mr. BINGAMAN, Mr.
nately, the House was unable to act on
and compelling enough reason to
ROBB, Mr. KERRY, Mr. KASTEN,
the bill before we adjourned. It is my
enact legislation in this regard.
Mr. GLENN, Mr. JEFFORDS, Mr.
hope that we will be able to move this
The fact of the matter, Mr. Presi-
KERREY, Mr. REID, Mr. DUREN-
bill quickly this year. There is wide-
dent, is that we cannot afford to pay
BERGER, Mr. HATFIELD, Mr.
spread support in both the House and
for this war by ourselves. America's
KOHL, Mr. CONRAD, and Mr.
the Senate. Today, in the House. Con-
contribution of human and military
RIEGLE):
gressman GEORGE BROWN, the new
resources is much more than ample. It
S. 272. A bill to provide for a coordi-
chairman of the House Committee on
is a great sacrifice. For this, our Per-
nated Federal research program to
Science, Space, and Technology, is in-
sian Gulf allies, as well as Germany,
ensure continued U.S. leadership in
troducing the bill, along with Con-
Japan, and other nations, are benefit-
high-performance computing: to the
gressmen TIM VALENTINE, SHERWOOD
ing directly, substantially, and quanti-
Committee on Commerce, Science, and
BOEHLERT, and NORM MINETA. I am
fiably. While we have defended the oil
Transportation.
looking forward to working with them
and territorial interests of our allies,
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING ACT
to move this bill as soon as possible.
they have received an overwhelming
c Mr. GORE. Mr. President, today I
This legislation provides for a multi-
share of the windfall benefits. Recent
rise to introduce the High-Perform-
agency high performance computing
estimates showed, for instance, that
ance Computing Act of 1991, a bill to
research and development program to
our gulf allies were receiving up to $5
ensure that the United States stays at
be coordinated by the White House
billion per month in windfall oil prof-
the leading edge in computer technol-
Office of Science and Technology
its, not to mention the security of
ogy. I am especially pleased that more
Policy [OSTP]. The primary agencies
their well-defended borders by U.S.
than 16 of my colleagues, both Demo-
involved are the National Science
troops.
crats and Republicans, from all parts
Foundation [NSF], the Defense Ad-
Let me briefly describe this bill, Mr.
of the country and all ends of the po-
vanced Research Projects Agency
President. It would require that the
litical spectrum, have joined me as co-
[DARPA], the National Aeronautics
Director of the Office of Management
sponsors of this critically important
and Space Administration [NASA],
and Budget specify each month in a
legislation.
and the Department of Energy [DOE].
report to Congress the costs incurred
During the last 30 years, computer
Each of these agencies has experience
and spent by the Defense Department
technology has improved exponential-
in developing and using high-perform-
for Operation Desert Shield, to in-
ly, faster than technology in any other
ance computing technology. NSF
clude costs to date for Operation
field. Computers just keep getting
funds four university supercomputer
Desert Storm.
faster, more powerful, and more inex-
centers and is a major source of Feder-
These figures would not include
pensive. According to one expert, if
al funding for university research in
those costs that would have been in-
automobile technology had improved
advanced computing. NASA helped de-
as much as computer technology has
curred anyway, without these two op-
veloped some of the first supercom-
in recent years, a 1991 Cadillac would
erations.
puters and uses them extensively to
now cruise at 20,000 miles per hour,
Specifically, the costs to be identi-
help design and improve spacecraft
get 5,000 miles to a gallon, and cost
fied in the report would include the
like the space shuttle and the national
only 3 cents!
following:
aerospace plane. DARPA has been a
As a result of these amazing ad-
First, airlift costs;
real innovator, providing the research
vances, computers have gone from
Second, sealift costs;
funding needed for computer design-
being expensive, esoteric research
ers to develop the next generation of
Third. medical costs;
tools isolated in the laboratory to an
supercomputers and the advanced
Fourth, costs associated with the
integral part of our everyday life. We
software needed to use them. And for
call-up of Reserves;
rely on computers at the supermarket,
more than 20 years, DARPA has been
Fifth, operations and maintenance
at the bank, in the office, and in our
at the leading edge in computer
costs;
schools. They make our life easier in
networking, developing ARPANET,
Sixth, personnel costs;
hundreds of ways.
the first national computer network,
Seventh, costs of logistical support;
Yet the computer revolution is not
in the late 1960's, and now working on
Eighth, fuel cost increases;
over. In fact, according to some meas-
networks that are millions of times
Ninth, military construction costs;
ures, the price performance of com-
faster. DOE has dozens of supercom-
nd
puters is improving even faster now
puters at the national labs, like Los
Tenth, all other costs.
than it has in the past.
Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Lawrence
January 24, 1991
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD SENATE
1199
Livermore, and is constantly finding
This same technology is improving
10 years. By connecting high schools
new, exciting ways to use them.
our economic security by helping
to the NREN, students will be able to
American scientists and engineers de-
share ideas with other high school stu-
The High-Performance Computing
Act will provide for a well-planned,
velop new products and processes to
dents and with college students and
well-coordinated research program
keep the U.S. competitive in world
professors throughout the country. Al-
which will effectively utilize the tal-
markets. Supercomputers can dramati-
ready, some high school students are
ents and resources available through-
cally reduce the time it takes to design
using the NSFNET to access super-
out the Federal research agencies. In
and test a new product-whether it is
computers, to send electronic mail.
addition to NSF, NASA, DOE, and
an airplane, a new drug, or an alumi-
and to get data and information that
DARPA, this program will involve the
num can. More computing power
just is not available at their schools. In
Department of Commerce-in particu-
means more energy-efficient, cheaper
this way, the network can nurture and
lar the National Institute of Standards
products in all sectors of manufactur-
inspire the next generation of scien-
and Technology-the Department of
ing. And that means higher profits
tists.
Health and Human Services, the De-
and more jobs for Americans.
Today, most students using comput-
partment of Education, the U.S. Geo-
Perhaps the most important contri-
er networks are studying science and
logical Survey, the Department of Ag-
bution this bill will make to our eco-
engineering, but there are more and
riculture, the Environmental Protec-
nomic security is the National Re-
more applications in other fields, too.
tion Agency, and the Library of Con-
search and Education Network, the
Economists, historians, and literature
gress, as well. The technology devel-
cornerstone of the program funded by
majors are all discovering the power of
oped under this program will find ap-
this bill. By 1996, this fiber-optic com-
networking. In the future, I think we
plication throughout the Federal Gov-
puter network would connect more
will see computers and networks used
ernment and throughout the country.
than 1 million people at more than
to teach every subject from kindergar-
This bill will roughly double funding
1,000 colleges and universities in all 50
ten through grade school. I was re-
for high-performance computing at
States, allowing them to send electron-
cently at MIT, where I was briefed on
NSF and NASA during the next 5
ic mail, share data, access supercom-
Project Athena, a project to integrate
years. Additional funding-more than
puters, use research facilities such as
computers and networks into almost
$1 billion during the next 5 years-will
radio telescopes, and log on to data
bases containing trillions of bytes of
every course at MIT. Students use
also be needed to expand research and
information on all sorts of topics. This
computers to play with the laws of
development programs at DARPA and
DOE. Last year, I worked closely with
network will speed research and accel-
physics in computer models, to test
Senators JOHNSTON and DOMENICI on
erate technology transfer, so that the
airplane designs in wind tunnel simu-
the Energy Committee to pass legisla-
discoveries made in our university lab-
lations, to improve their writing skills,
tion to authorize a DOE High-Per-
oratories can be quickly and effective-
and to learn foreign languages. Many
formance Computing Program, and I
ly turned into profits for American
of the ideas being developed at Project
Athena and in hundreds of other ex-
hope to work with them and the other
companies.
Today, the National Science Founda-
periments elsewhere could one day
members of the Energy Committee to
tion runs NSFNET, which allows re-
help students and teachers through-
see that program authorized and
searchers and educators to exchange
out the country.
funded in fiscal year 1992. In addition,
up to 1.5 million bits of data-mega-
-The library community has been at
I worked with Senators NUNN and
BINGAMAN and others on the Armed
bits per second. The NREN will be at
the forefront in using computer and
Services Committee to authorize and
least a thousand times faster, allowing
networking technology in education.
appropriate additional funding for
researchers to transmit all the infor-
For years, they have had electronic
mation in the entire Encyclopedia
card catalogs which allow students to
DARPA's high-performance comput-
ing program, money that has been put
Brittanica from coast to coast in sec-
track down books in seconds. Now
to good use developing more powerful
onds. With today's networks, it is easy
they are developing electronic text
supercomputers and faster computer
to send documents and data, but
systems which will store books in elec-
networks. Because this program in-
images and pictures require much
tronic form. When coupled to a na-
volves many agencies, it necessarily in-
faster speeds, they require the NREN,
tional network like the NREN, such a
volves several congressional commit-
which can carry gigabits, billions of
digital library could be used by stu-
tees and subcommittees. Fortunately,
bits, every second.
dents and educators throughout the
everyone has an important contribu-
With access to computer graphics,
country, in underfunded urgan schools
tion to make to this effort. I look for-
researchers throughout the country
and in isolated rural school districts,
ward to working with my colleagues to
will be able to work together far more
where good libraries are few and far
make this program a reality.
effectively than they can today. It will
between.
Today, we are focused on the war in
be much easier for teams of research-
I recently spoke to the American Li-
the Persian Gulf where we are seeing
ers at colleges throughout the country
brary Association annual meeting in
how important computer technology is
to work together. They will be able to
Chicago and heard many librarians de-
to our national security. The amazing
see the results of their experiments as
scribe how the NREN could transform
smart weapons being used in Iraq and
the data comes in, they will be able to
their lives. They are excited about the
Kuwait today are a direct result of
share the results of their computer
new opportunities made possible by
past Federal investment in computer
models in realtime, and they will be
this technology.
technology. The Patriot missile that
able to brainstrom by teleconference.
The technology developed for the
are protecting our troops and Israeli
William Wulf, formerly Assistance Di-
NREN will pave the way for high-
and Saudi civilians from Saddam Hus-
rector for Computer and Information
speed networks to our homes. It will
sein's Scud missiles rely upon power-
Science and Engineering at NSF, likes
give each and everyone of us access to
ful, advanced computers unavailable
to talk about the "national collabora-
oceans of electronic information, let us
10 years ago. Similarly, the laser-
tory"-a laboratory without walls-
use teleconferencing to talk face-to-
guided bombs and the Tomahawk
which the NREN will make possible.
face to anyone anywhere, and deliver
cruise missiles are able to find their
Researchers throughout the country,
advanced, digital TV programming
targets because they contain some of
at colleges and labs, large and small,
even more sophisticated and stunning
the more sophisticated computer tech-
will be able to stay on top of the latest
than the HDTV available today. Other
nology available today.
advances in their fields.
countries, Japan, Germany, and
The High-Performance Computing
The NREN and the other technolo-
others, are spending billions of install
Act will help ensure the technological
gy funded by this bill will also provide
optical fiber to the home, to take full
lead in weaponry that is helping us
enormous benefits to American educa-
advantage of this technology.
win the war with Iraq and which will
tion, at all levels. By most accounts,
I hope that my colleagues will join
improve our national security in the
we are facing a critical shortage of sci-
me in supporting this bill. With this
future.
entific and technical talent in the next
bill we can help shape the future-
1200
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE
January 24, 1991
shape it for the better. This is an in-
(2) "Council" means the Federal Coordi-
"(D) the Department of Defense, particu-
vestment in our national security and
nating Council for Science, Engineering.
larly the Defense Advanced Research
and Technology chaired by the Director of
Projects Agency;
our economic security which we
the Office of Science and Technology
"(E) the Department of Energy:
cannot afford not to make.
Policy.
"(F) the Department of Health and
I ask unanimous consent that a sum-
SEC. 4. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
Human Services, particularly the National
mary of the bill and the bill in its en-
(a) Except to the extent the appropriate
Institutes of Health and the National Li-
tirety be printed in the RECORD.
Federal agency or department head deter-
brary of Medicine;
There being no objection, the mate-
mines, the provisions of this Act shall not
"(G) the Department of Education:
rial was ordered to be printed in the
apply to-
"(H) the Department of Agriculture, par-
RECORD, as follows:
(1) programs or activities regarding com-
ticularly the National Agricultural Library;
puter systems that process classified infor-
and
S. 272
mation; or
"(I) such other agencies and departments
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
(2) computer systems the function. oper-
as the President or the Chairman of the
Representatives of the United States of
ation, or use of which are those delineated
Council considers appropriate.
America in Congress assembled,
in paragraphs (1) through (5) of section
"(4) In addition, the Plan shall take into
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
2315(a) of title 10, United States Code.
consideration the present and planned ac-
This Act may be cited as the "High-Per-
(b) Where appropriate, and in accordance
tivities of the Library of Congress, as
formance Computing Act of 1991".
with Federal contrating law, Federal agen-
deemed appropriate by the Librarian of
cies and departments shall procure proto-
Congress.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
type or early production models of new
"(5) The Plan shall identify how agencies
(a) The Congress finds the following:
high-performance computer systems and
and departments can collaborate to-
(1) Advances in computer science and
subsystems to stimulate hardware and soft-
"(A) ensure interoperability among com-
technology are vital to the Nation's prosper-
ware development.
puter networks run by the agencies and de-
ity, national and economic security, and sci-
SEC. 5. NATIONAL HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUT-
partments;
entific advancement.
ING PROGRAM.
"(B) increase software productivity, capa-
(2) The United States currently leads the
The National Science and Technology
bility, portability, and reliability;
world in the development and use of high-
Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of
"(C) expand efforts to improve, document,
performance computing for national securi-
1976 (42 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.) is amended by
and evaluate unclassified public-domain
ty, industrial productivity, and science and
adding at the end the following new title:
software developed by federally funded re-
engineering, but that lead is being chal-
"TITLE VII-NATIONAL HIGH-PER-
searchers and other software, including fed-
lenged by foreign competitors.
FORMANCE COMPUTING PROGRAM
erally funded educational and training soft-
(3) Further research, improved computer
ware:
research networks, and more effective tech-
"NATIONAL HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING
"(D) cooperate, where appropriate, with
nology transfer from government to indus-
PLAN
industry in development and exchange of
try are necessary for the United States to
"SEC. 701.(a)(1) The President, through
software;
fully reap the benefits of high-performance
the Federal Coordinating Council for Sci-
"(E) distribute software among the agen-
computing.
ence, Engineering, and Technology (herein-
cies and departments;
(4) Several Federal agencies have ongoing
after in this title referred to as the 'Coun-
"(F) distribute federally funded software
high-performance computing programs, but
cil'), shall, in accordance with the provisions
to State and local governments, industry,
improved interagency coordination, coopera-
of this title-
and universities;
tion, and planning could enhance the effec-
"(A) develop and implement a National
"(G) accelerate the development of high
tiveness of these programs.
High-Performance Computing Plan (herein-
performance computer systems, subsystems,
(5) A 1989 report by the Office of Science
after in this title referred to as the 'Plan');
and associated software;
id Technology Policy outlining a research
and
"(H) provide the technical support and re-
and development strategy for high-perform-
"(B) provide for interagency coordination
search and development of high-perform-
ance computing provides a framework for a
of the Federal high-performance computing
ance computer software and hardware
multi-agency high-performance computing
program established by this title.
needed to address Grand Challenges in as-
program.
The Plan shall contain recommendations
trophysics, geophysics, engineering, materi-
(b) It is the purpose of Congress in this
for a five-year national effort and shall be
als, biochemistry, plasma physics, weather
Act to help ensure the continued leadership
submitted to the Congress within one year
and climate forecasting, and other fields;
of the United States in high-performance
after the date of enactment of this title.
"(I) provide for educating and training ad-
computing and its applications. This re-
The Plan shall be resubmitted upon revision
ditional undergraduate and graduate stu-
quires that the United States Government-
at least once every two years thereafter.
dents in software engineering, computer sci-
(1) expand Federal support for research,
"(2) The Plan shall-
ence, and computational science; and
development, and application of high-per-
"(A) establish the goals and priorities for
"(J) identify agency rules, regulations,
formance computing in order to-
a Federal high-performance computing pro-
policies, and practices which can be changed
(A) establish a high-capacity national re-
gram for the fiscal year in which the Plan
to significantly improve utilization of Feder-
search and education computer network;
(or revised Plan) is submitted and the suc-
al high-performance computing and net-
(B) expand the number of researchers,
ceeding four fiscal years;
work facilities, and make recommendations
educators, and students with training in
"(B) set forth the role of each Federal
to such agencies for appropriate changes.
high-performance computing and access to
high-performance computing resources;
agency and department in implementing the
"(6) The Plan shall address the security
Plan; and
requirements and policies necessary to pro-
(C) develop an information infrastructure
"(C) describe the levels of Federal funding
tect Federal research computer networks
of data bases, services, access mechanisms,
and research facilities which is available for
for each agency and department and specif-
and information resources accessible
ic activities, including education, research
through Federal research computer net-
use through such a national network;
(D) stimulate research on software tech-
activities, hardware and software develop-
works. Agencies identified in the Plan shall
ment, establishment of a national gigabits-
define and implement a security plan con-
nology;
per-second computer network, to be known
sistent with the Plan.
(E) promote the more rapid development
as the National Research and Education
"(b) The Council shall-
and wider distribution of computer software
Network, and acquisition and operating ex-
"(1) serve as lead entity responsible for de-
tools and applications software;
penses for computers and computer net-
velopment of the Plan and interagency co-
(F) accelerate the development of comput-
works, required to achieve the goals and pri-
ordination of the program established under
er systems and subsystems;
orities established under subparagraph (A).
the Plan;
(G) provide for the application of high-
"(3) The Plan shall address, where appror-
"(2) coordinate the high-performance
performance computing to Grand Chal-
lenges; and
priate, the relevant programs and activities
computing research and development activi-
(H) invest in basic research and education;
of the following Federal agencies and de-
ties of Federal agencies and departments
and
partments:
and report at least annually to the Presi-
"(A) the National Science Foundation:
dent, through the Chairman of the Council,
(2) improve planning and coordination of
"(B) the Department of Commerce, par-
Federal research and development on high-
on any recommended changes in agency or
ticularly the National Institute of Stand-
departmental roles that are needed to
rformance computing.
ards and Technology, the National Oceanic
better implement the Plan;
3. DEFINITIONS.
and Atmospheric Administration, and the
"(3) review, prior to the President's sub-
is used in this Act, the term-
National Telecommunications and Informa-
mission to the Congress of the annual
(1) "Director" means the Director of the
tion Administration;
budget estimate, each agency and depart-
Office of Science and Technology Policy;
"(C) the National Aeronautics and Space
mental budget estimate in the context of
and
Administration;
the Plan and make the results of that
January 24, 1991
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE
S 1201
review available to the appropriate elements
SEC. 6. NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NET.
of this Act on the implementation of this
WORK.
of the Executive Office of the President,
subsection.
particularly the Office of Management and
(a) In accordance with the Plan developed
(g) In addition to other agency activities
under section 701 of the National Science
associated with the establishment of the
Budget: and
"(4) consult and coordinate with Federal
and Technology Policy, Organization and
Network-
agencies, academic, State, industry, and
Priorities Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. 6601 et
(1) the National Institute of Standards
seq.), as added by section 5 of this Act, the
and Technology shall adopt a common set
other appropriate groups conducting re-
National Science Foundation, in cooperation
of standards and guidelines to provide inter-
search on high-performance computing.
"(c) The Director of the Office of Science
with the Department of Defense. the De-
operability. common user interfaces to sys-
and Technology Policy shall establish a
partment of Energy. the Department of
tems, and enhanced security for the Net-
Commerce, the National Aeronautics and
work; and
High-Performance Computing Advisory
Space Administration, and other appropri-
(2) the National Science Foundation, the
Panel consisting of prominent representa-
ate agencies, shall provide for the establish-
National Aeronautics and Space Administra-
tives from industry and academia who are
ment of a national multi-gigabit-per-second
tion, the Department of Energy. the De-
specially qualified to provide the Council
research and education computer network
with advice and information on high-per-
partment of Defense. the Department of
by 1996, to be known as the National Re-
Commerce, the Department of the Interior.
formance computing. The Panel shall pro-
search and Education Network (hereinafter
the Department of Agriculture, the Depart-
vide the Council with an independent as-
referred to as the "Network"), which shall
ment of Health and Human Services, and
sessment of-
link government, industry, and the educa-
the Environmental Protection Agency are
"(1) progress made in implementing the
tion community.
authorized to allow recipients of Federal re-
Plan:
(b) The Network shall provide users with
search grants to use grant monies to pay for
"(2) the need to revise the Plan;
appropriate access to supercomputers, com-
computer networking expenses.
"(3) the balance between the components
puter data bases, other research facilities,
(h) Within one year after the date of en-
of the Plan:
and libraries.
actment of this Act. the Director, through
"(4) whether the research and develop-
(c) The Network shall-
the Council, shall report to the Congress
ment funded under the Plan is helping to
(1) be developed in close cooperation with
on-
maintain United States leadership in com-
the computer, telecommunications, and in-
(1) effective mechanisms for providing op-
puting technology; and
formation industries;
erating funds for the maintenance and use
"(5) other issues identified by the Direc-
(2) be designed and developed with the
of the Network, including user fees, indus-
tor.
advice of potential users in government, in-
try support, and continued Federal invest-
"(d)(1) Each appropriate Federal agency
dustry. and the higher education communi-
ment;
and department involved in high-perform-
ty;
(2) plans for the eventual commercializa-
ance computing shall, as part of its annual
(3) be established in a manner which fos-
tion of the Network:
request for appropriations to the Office of
ters and maintains competition and private
(3) how commercial information service
Management and Budget, submit a report to
sector investment in high speed data
providers could be charged for access to the
the Office identifying each element of its
networking within the telecommunications
Network;
high-performance computing activities,
industry;
(4) the technological feasiblity of allowing
which-
(4) be established in a manner which pro-
commercial information service providers to
"(A) specifies whether each such element
motes research and development leading to
use the Network and other federally-funded
(i) contributes primarily to the implementa-
deployment of commercial data communica-
research networks;
tion of the Plan or (ii) contributes primarily
tions and telecommunications standards;
(5) how Network users could be charged
to the achievement of other objectives but
(5) where technically feasible, have ac-
for such commercial information services;
aids Plan implementation in important
counting mechanisms which allow, where
appropriate, users or groups of users to be
(6) how to protect the copyrights of mate-
ways; and
rial distributed over the Network; and
-
"(B) states the portion of its request for
charged for their usage of the Network and
appropriations that is allocated to each
copyrighted materials available over the
(7) appropriate policies to ensure the secu-
rity of resources available on the Network
such element.
Network: and
"(2) The Office of Management and
(6) be phased into commercial operation
and to protect the privacy of users of net-
as commercial networks can meet the
works.
Budget shall review each such report in
light of the goals, priorities, and agency and
networking needs of American researchers
SEC. 7. ROLE OF THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDA-
departmental responsibilities set forth in
and educators.
TION.
the Plan, and shall include, in the Presi-
(d) The Department of Defense, through
(a) The National Science Foundation shall
the Defense Advanced Research Projects
provide funding to enable researchers to
dent's annual budget estimate, a statement
Agency. shall be the lead agency for re-
access supercomputers. Prior to deployment
of the portion of each appropriate agency or
search and development of advanced fiber
of the Network, the National Science Foun-
department's annual budget estimate that is
allocated to each element of such agency or
optics technology, switches, and protocols
dation shall maintain, expand, and upgrade
department's high-performance computing
needed to develop the Network.
its existing computer networks. Additional
(e) Within the Federal Government, the
responsibilities may include promoting de-
activities.
"(e) As used in this section, the term
National Science Foundation shall have pri-
velopment of information services and data
mary responsibility for connecting colleges,
bases available over such computer net-
'Grand Challenge' means a fundamental
universitles. and libraries to the Network.
works; facilitation of the documentation.
problem in science and engineering, with
broad economic and scientific impact, whose
(f)(1) The Council, within one year after
evaluation, and distribution of research
solution will require the application of high-
the date of enactment of this Act and con-
software over such computer networks; en-
sistent with the Plan developed under sec-
couragement of continued development of
performance computing resources.
tion 701 of the National Science-and Tech-
innovative software by industry; and promo-
"ANNUAL REPORT
nology Policy. Organization, and Priorities
tion of science and engineering education.
"SEC. 702. The Chairman of the Council
Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.), as added
(b)(1) The National Science Foundation
shall prepare and submit to the President
by section 5 of this Act. shall-
shall, in cooperation with other appropriate
and the Congress, not later than March 1 of
(A) develop goals, strategy. and priorities
agencies and departments, promote develop-
each year. an annual report on the activities
for the Network:
ment of information services that could be
conducted pursuant to this title during the
(B) identify the roles of Federal agencies
provided over the Network established
preceding fiscal year, including-
and departments implementing the Net-
under section 6. These services shall in-
"(1) a summary of the achievements of
work:
clude, but not be limited to, the provision of
Federal high-performance computing re-
(C) provide a mechanism to coordinate
directories of users and services on comput-
search and development efforts during that
the activities of Federal agencies and de-
er networks, data bases of unclassified Fed-
preceding fiscal year;
partments in deploying the Network:
eral scientific data, training of users of data
"(2) an analysis of the progress made
(D) oversee the operation and evolution of
bases and networks, access to commercial in-
toward achieving the goals and objectives of
the Network;
formation services to researchers using the
the Plan:
(E) manage the connections between com-
Network, and technology to support com-
"(3) a copy and summary of the Plan and
puter networks of Federal agencies and de-
puter-based collaboration that allows re-
any changes made in such Plan;
partments:
searchers around the Nation to share infor-
"(4) a summary of appropriate agency
(F) develop conditions for access to the
mation and instrumentation.
budgets for high-performance computing
Network: and
(2) The Federal information services ac-
activities for that preceding fiscal year; and
(G) identify how existing and future com-
cessible over the Network shall be provided
"(5) any recommendations regarding addi-
puter networks of Federal agencies and de-
in accordance with applicable law. Appropri-
tional action or legislation which may be re-
partments could contribute to the Network.
ate protection shall be provided for copy-
quired to assist in achieving the purposes of
(2) The President shall report to Congress
right and other intellectual property rights
this title.".
within one year after the date of enactment
of information providers and Network users,
S 1202
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE
January 24, 1991
Section 2 contains the findings and pur-
AUTHORIZATIONS FOR NASA
including appropriate mechanisms for fair
remuneration of copyright holders for avail-
pose of the bill.
[In millions of dollars]
ability of and access to their works over the
Section 3 provides definitions.
Network.
Section 4 contains miscellaneous provi-
Fiscal year-
(c)(1) There are authorized to be appropri-
sions to make clear that computer systems
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
ed to the National Science Foundation for
for classified information are not affected
he purposes of this Act, $46,000,000 for
by this bill. In addition, Federal agencies
Total
22
45
67
89
115
fiscal year 1992. $88,000,000 for fiscal year
and departments are encouraged to pur-
1993, $145,000,000 for fiscal year 1994,
chase prototype and early production
$172,000,000 for fiscal year 1995, and
models of new high-performance computer
Section 9 defines the role of the Depart-
$199,000,000 for fiscal year 1996.
systems.
ment of Commerce in high-performance
(2) Of the monies authorized to be appro-
Section 5 amends the National Science
computing. The Department's NIST shall
priated in subsection (c)(1), there is author-
and Technology Policy, Organization, and
adopt standards and guidelines for inter-
ized for the reserach, development, and sup-
Priorities Act of 1976, which established the
operability of high-performance computers,
port of the Network, in accordance with the
White House Office of Science and Technol-
so that different types of computers could
purposes of section 6, $15,000,000 for fiscal
year 1992, $25,000,000 for fiscal year 1993,
ogy Policy (OSTP). The section establishes
effectively exchange data over networks.
an interagency national High-Performance
NIST will also be responsible for developing
$55,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, $50,000,000
Computing program involving the National
benchmark tests for evaluating high-per-
for fiscal year 1995, and $50,000,000 for
fiscal year 1996.
Science Foundation (NSF), the National
formance computer systems. In accord with
Aeronautics and Space Administration
the Computer Security Act, NIST will pro-
(3) The amounts authorized to be appro-
priated under this subsection are in addition
(NASA), the Department of Energy, and the
vide for computer security and the privacy
of information for Federal computer sys-
to any amounts that may be authorized to
Department of Defense, and other relevant
tems. This section also instructs the Secre-
be appropriated under other laws.
agencies. Interagency coordination and
tary of Commerce to evaluate the impact of
SEC. 8. THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS
planning for the program would be provided
Federal procurement rules for software on
AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION.
by OSTP's Federal Coordinating Council for
development of new, improved software
(a) The National Aeronautics and Space
Science, Engineering, and Technology
technology.
Administration shall continue to conduct
(FCCSET), which shall work closely with in-
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, as
basic and applied research in high-perform-
dustry. The program would be a comprehen-
you know, last year the Senate passed
ance computing, particularly in the field of
sive one, dealing with high-performance
the High-Performance Computing Act
computational science, with emphasis on
computing hardware and software, network-
aeronautics and the processing of remote
ing, and the education and training in high-
of 1990, which was similar to the legis-
sensing and space science data.
lation introduced today. Unfortunate-
performance computing.
(b) There are authorized to be appropri-
Section 6 requires NSF to work with other
ly, the House of Representatives did
ated to the National Aeronautics and Space
agencies to establish a a multi-gigabit Na-
not act on this legislation in the 101st
Administration for the purposes of this Act,
tional Research and Education Network
Congress. Today, as Senator GORE re-
$22,000,000 for fiscal year 1992, $45,000,000
(NREN) by 1966. This network would be ca-
introduces this important legislation, I
for fiscal year 1993, $67,000,000 for fiscal
pable of transmitting several billions of bits
rise to urge my colleagues to once
year 1994, $89,000,000 for fiscal year 1995,
of data per second and would link hundreds
again support this bill.
and $115,000,000 for fiscal year 1996.
of thousands of researchers in government,
(c) The amounts authorized to be appror-
Mr. President, I would like to briefly
ated under subsection (b) are in addition to
industry, and universities around the coun-
outline why I believe this legislation
y amounts that may be authorized to be
try. The Defense Advanced Research
deserves our support.
propriated under other laws.
Projects Agency will be lead agency for de-
First, it is clear to me that there is a
veloping the networking technology needed
SEC. 9. ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.
consensus on the importance of high-
for the NREN. NSF will have primary re-
(a) The National Institute of Standards
performance computing. Last year we
sponsibility for connecting colleges, univer-
and Technology shall adopt standards and
guidelines, and develop measurement tech-
sities, and libraries to the NREN. The
received the Department of Commerce
FCCSET shall provide for the planning and
Emerging Technologies report and the
niques and test methods, for the interoper-
ability of high-performance computers in
oversight needed to coordinate the efforts
second annual Department of Defense
networks and for common user interfaces to
of the agencies contributing and using the
critical technologies plan, reports
systems. In addition. the National Institute
NREN. The National Institute of Standards
which identified the technologies most
of Standards and Technology shall be re-
and Technology (NIST) will be responsible
critical to national security and eco-
sponsible for developing benchmark tests
for standards and security for the NREN.
nomic competitiveness.
and standards for high performance com-
The FCCSET shall prepare a report on how
The Commerce Department identi-
puters and software. Pursuant to the Com-
commercial information providers and net-
fied high-performance computing as a
puter Security Act of 1987 (Public Law 100-
work companies can contribute to and use
critical emerging technology for the
235; 101 Stat. 1724), the National Institute
the NREN.
United States. High-performance com-
of Standards and Technology shall continue
Section 7 defines several specific roles for
puting was also a factor in five of the
to be responsible for adopting standards and
the NSF, including providing supercom-
technologies identified as. critical by
guidelines needed to assure the cost-effec-
puter access and networking services to re-
tive security and privacy of sensitive infor-
the Department of Defense: Software
searchers, enhancing development of infor-
mation in Federal computer systems.
mation services available on the NREN, and
producibility, parallel computer archi-
(b)(1) The Secretary of Commerce shall
promoting development and distribution of
tectures, simulation and modeling,
conduct a study to-
research software for supercomputers.
data fusion, and computational fluid
(A) evaluate the impact of Federal pro-
dynamics. High-performance comput-
curement regulations which require that
contractors providing software to the Feder-
AUTHORIZATIONS FOR NSF
ing has been identified by industry
and academia as a critical area, and
al Government share the rights to proprie-
[In millions of dollars]
tary software development tools that the
shows up on critical technologies lists
contractors used to develop the software;
prepared by Japan and the European
Fiscal year-
and
Community There is no doubt about
(B) determine whether such regulations
1992
1933
1994
1995
1996
the importance of high-performance
discourage development of improved soft-
computing. The only thing in doubt is
ware development tools and technigues.
NREN
15
25
55
50
50
Other
31
63
90
122
149
whether we will act now to foster the
(2) The Secretary shall, within one year
development of this technology.
after the date of enactment of this Act,
Total
46
88
145
172
199
Second, it is clear to me that a na-
report to the Congress regarding the results
of the study conducted under paragraph (1).
tional policy in support of high-per-
Section 8 mandates NASA to conduct
formance computing is needed. The
SUMMARY OF MAJOR PROVISIONS
basic and applied research in high-perform-
Department of Commerce reports
'he High-Performance Computing Act
ance computing, particularly in the field of
that, while the United States current-
uld authorize a five-year program for re-
computational science, with emphasis on
ly holds a lead in high-performance
Search and development on supercomputers,
aeronautics and the processing of remote
advanced computer software, and computer
computing, it is losing ground to
sensing and space science data.
networks. The provisions are:
Japan. And the Department of De-
Section 1 is the title of the bill.
fense reports that many aspects of
January 24, 1991
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE
1203
high-performance computing are criti-
weather forecasting will benefit. Some
the injury caused by guns which were
cal to our national defense.
of the fruits of their research will un-
lawfully sold to purchasers but mis-
To address the policy issues involved
doubtedly help all mankind.
used in the District. Firearms manu-
with fostering this technology, the
I also believe this legislation will
facturers should not be held liable for
President's science adviser and the
help America maintain its lead in this
the actions of persons over whom they
Office of Science and Technology
vital technology. Whereas in the past
have no control.
Policy. through the Federal Coordi-
we could take it for granted that we
The end result. should this act
nating Committee on Science, Engi-
were the leaders in computer technol-
become effective, will be that manu-
neering, and Technology, developed an
ogy, we can be complacent no longer.
facturers might be held responsible
implementation plan for a national
Other countries develop national
for the drug-crazed, violent murders
high-performance computing initia-
strategies and plans for becoming lead-
that have become daily occurrences in
tive.
ers in specific technologies. It is time
the District of Columbia.
The FCCSET panel did an excellent
we did the same.
It should be noted that today's
job of garnering industry input in de-
I urge my colleagues to support this
Washington Post has reported that
veloping the plan, and that can be
bill and work for its rapid passage.
Mayor Dixon plans to ask the D.C
seen in the support industry has
Let's keep America the leader in su-
Council to repeal the Assault Weapon
shown for this initiative. Industry
percomputers.
Manufacturing Strict Liability Act of
groups such as the Council on Com-
1990.
petitiveness are pointing to this as a
By Mr. STEVENS:
If that does not occur, Congress
model for support of other critical
S.J. Res. 46. Joint resolution disap-
should disapprove the recent action of
technologies.
proving the action of the District of
the D.C. Council. I ask unanimous
Finally, last year the Senate ap-
Columbia Council in approving the As-
consent that the text of this joint res-
proved similar legislation establishing
sault Weapon Manufacturing Strict
olution and the Washington Post arti-
a national policy and authorized fund-
Liability Act of 1990; to the Commit-
cle be printed at the conclusion of my
ing which would have leveraged the
tee on Governmental Affairs.
remarks.
resources and expertise of our mission
DISAPPROVAL OF DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
There being no objection, the mate-
agencies to support high-performance
ASSAULT WEAPON LEGISLATION
rial was ordered to be printed in the
computing in America. I hope that the
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I sup-
RECORD, as follows:
Senate will once again support this ini-
port and introduce a joint resolution
S.J. RES. 46
tiative.
to disapprove the action of the Dis-
Mr. President, the final point I
trict of Columbia Council in approving
Resolved by the Senate and House of Rep-
would like to make is that this legisla-
the Assault Weapon Manufacturing
resentatives of the United States of America
in Congress assembled, That the Congress
tion, and the manner in which it was
Strict Liability Act of 1990. An identi-
hereby disapproves of the action of the Dis-
developed, can serve as a model for
cal resolution has been introduced in
trict of Columbia Council described as fol-
policies to foster critical technologies.
the House of Representatives by Rep-
lows: The Assault Weapon Manufacturing
We need to do a better job of soliciting
resentative THOMAS BLILEY of Virgin-
Strict Liability Act of 1990 (D.C. Act 8-289),
and acting on industry views in the
ia.
signed by the Mayor of the District of Co-
promotion of other critical technol-
That District of Columbia act im-
lumbia on December 17, 1990, and transmit-
ogies. The interagency consultation
poses strict liability on the manufac-
ted to Congress pursuant to section 602(c)
of the District of Columbia Self-Govern-
vhich resulted in the identification of
turers, importers. or dealers of assault
ment and Governmental Reorganization Act
ead agencies for certain missions is
weapons-without regard to fault or
on January 11. 1991.
another process that should be under-
proof of defect-for all direct and con-
taken for each of our critical technol-
sequential damages that arise from
[From the Washington Post, Jan. 24. 1991]
ogies. Each technology would most
bodily injury or death if the injury or
DIXON PREPARED TO SCUTTLE GUN LAW TO
likely require a different structure,
death results from the discharge of
SECURE HILL AID
and a process such as the one which
the assault weapon in the District of
led to this legislation should be under-
Columbia.
(By Rene Sanchez)
taken for each.
The rationale for strict liability doc-
Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon, in a move to
trine is to ensure that manufacturers
win favor in Congress for emergency aid for
I hope that we can move quickly on
are held accountable for the costs of
the District, said yesterday she will ask the
this bill. As I said, I believe that it can
D.C. Council to repeal a bill passed last
serve as a model for other critical
injuries which result from defective
month that makes assault-weapon mer-
technologies, and I urge my colleagues
products. In general, a person has a
chants liable for shooting injuries or deaths
to support swift passage.
right of action under strict tort liabil-
in the city.
I yield the floor
ity if the injury from a defect is for-
Dixon's decision, relayed by a top aide,
Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I
seeable. The application of strict li-
came amid further signs of congressional
want to commend my colleague, Sena-
ability without regard to fault or proof
opposition to the gun-liability measure, and
or defect to manufacturers of asault
it followed a signal from D.C. Council
tor GORE, for his efforts in keeping
Chairman John A. Wilson (D) yesterday
America a leader in computer technol-
weapons for the criminal activity of
that a council majority is prepared to over-
ogy. The High-Performance Comput-
D.C. residents is unwarranted.
turn the measure.
ing Act of 1991 represents a strong
The sale of these firearms is express-
Dixon met yesterday with Rep. Thomas
step toward maintaining America's
ly prohibited in the District under the
Bliley (R-Va.), the ranking minority
strength in this area. I strongly sup-
law. The District should ensure that
member of the House District of Columbia
port this bill.
the possessors of firearms, who are en-
Committee, in part to discuss the gun-liabil-
Education is one area that will im-
gaging in illegal activity by owning
ity bill's impact on her request for an addi-
mediately benefit from this bill. Shar-
and using such weapons, are held ac-
tional $100 million in federal aid.
ing of software and greater access to
countable for their actions. Out-of-
Bills passed by the council and signed by
the mayor are subject to congressional
computer facilities will help American
the-District firearms manufacturers
review. Bliley has introduced a resolution
scientists advance the boundaries of
who operate legitimate businesses
opposing the law.
our knowledge. For example, many en-
should not be held responsible.
After her meeting with Bliley. Dixon
vironmental models are becoming in-
The purpose of this act is, in effect,
warned that congressional displeasure with
creasingly complex as our understand-
to shift the burden to firearms manu-
the gun bill could harm the city's chances of
ing of the world improves. Supercom-
facturers out of the District. The con-
receiving emergency aid to reduce its budget
puters are needed to perform the bil-
stitutional rights of the makers and
deficit.
'ons of calculations these models re-
owners of firearms who have complied
"I think we'd all prefer for [Bliley's] reso-
lution not to take on a life of its own,"
uire. This legislation, I believe, will
with all applicable Federal, State, and
Dixon said, adding that the D.C. Council
increase scientists' access to supercom-
local laws outside the District have
"knows the resolution is looming."
puters. Scientists in fields ranging
been ignored by the District. It cannot
Wilson said later that he believes a major-
from astrophysics to engineering to
hold the firearms industry liable for
ity of the council's members are prepared to
February 5, 1991
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD SENATE
1505
*In the Air Force Reserve there are 3 ap-
*In the Navy and Naval Reserve there are
the Committee on Labor and Human Re-
pointments to the grade of lieutenant colo-
46 appointments to the grade of commander
sources.
nel (list begins with Charles O. Bruce III)
and below (list begins with Enrique N. Pan-
By Mr. KOHL (for himself and Mr.
(Reference No. 25)
lilio) (Reference No. 84)
GRASSLEY):
**In the Army there are 6 promotions to
*Lieutenant General Jimmie V. Adams,
S. 350. A bill to amend the Federal Depos-
he grade of colonel and below (list begins
USAF, to be general (Reference No. 90)
it Insurance Act to include foreign deposits
th Hugh D. Thorfinnson) (Reference No.
*Major General William G. Pagonis, USA,
and non-deposit liabilities in the assessment
)
to be lieutenant general (Reference No. 91)
base; to the Committee on Banking, Hous-
**In the Army there are 36 promotions
Total 6,542.
ing, and Urban Affairs.
and appointments to the grade of colonel
By Mr. METZENBAUM (for himself,
(list begins with Barbara Blatter) (Refer-
Mr. D'AMATO, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr.
ence No. 30)
INTRODUCTION OF BILLS AND
LUGAR, Mr. ADAMS, Mr. COATS, Mr.
**In the Navy there are 48 appointments
JOINT RESOLUTIONS
SHELBY, Mr. BURDICK, Mr. HATFIELD,
to the grade of lieutenant (list begins with
Kevin K. Bach) (Reference No. 31)
The following bills and joint resolu-
Mr. ROCKEFELLER, Mr. INOUYE, and
tions were introduced, read the first
Mr. AKAKA):
**In the Navy Reserve there are 23 ap-
S. 351. A bill to provide participants in pri-
pointments to the grade of commander and
and second time by unanimous con-
vate pension plans which were terminated
below (list begins with Manuel V. Ordonez)
sent, and referred as indicated:
before September 1, 1974, the nonforfeit-
(Reference No. 32)
By Mr. METZENBAUM (for himself,
able pension benefits which were lost by
**In the Air Force there are 1,679 appoint-
Mr. LIEBERMAN, and Mr. COHEN):
reason of the termination, and for other
ments to a grade no higher than captain
S. 340. A bill to amend the Internal Reve-
(list begins with Steven L. Abernathy) (Ref-
purposes; to the Committee on Labor and
nue Code of 1986 to impose a tax on the
Human Resources.
erence No. 34)
excess profits of large oil companies, and for
**In the Army Reserve there are 57 pro-
By Mr. GLENN (for himself, Mr.
motions to the grade of colonel and below
other purposes; to the Committee on Fi-
INOUYE, and Mr. ADAMS):
(list begins with James F. Butler, Jr.) (Ref-
nance.
S. 352. A bill to protect the rights of per-
By Mr. JOHNSTON (for himself and
erence No. 35)
sons to due process of law and equal protec-
Mr. WALLOP):
**In the Army Reserve there are 69 pro-
tion of the laws in guardianship proceed-
motions to the grade of colonel and below
S. 341. A bill to reduce the Nation's de-
ings; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
(list begins with Michael J. Bayer) (Refer-
pendence on imported oil, to provide for the
By Mr. JEFFORDS (for himself, Mr.
ence No. 36)
energy security of the Nation and for other
METZENBAUM, Mr. REID, Mr. LIEBER-
**In the Army there are 1,146 promotions
purposes; to the Committee on Energy and
MAN, Mr. D'AMATO, Mr. LEVIN, Mr.
and appointments to the grade of lieutenant
Natural Resources.
MOYNIHAN, Mr. GORE, and Mr.
colonel (list begins with Jose C. Abiles)
By Mr. JOHNSTON (for himself, Mr.
CHAFEE):
(Reference No. 37)
WALLOP, Mr. FORD, Mr. DOMENICI,
S. 353. A bill to require the Director of the
**In the Navy there are 154 appointments
Mr. BINGAMAN, and Mr. CRAIG):
National Institute for Occupational Safety
to the grade of ensign (list begins with Lynn
S. 343. A bill to provide for continued
and Health to conduct a study of the preva-
E. Acheson) (Reference No. 43)
United States leadership in high-perform-
lence and issues related to contamination of
**In the Air Force Reserve there is 1 ap-
ance computing; to the Committee on
workers' homes with hazardous chemicals
pointment to the grade of lieutenant colonel
Energy and Natural Resources.
and substances transported from their
(Fortunato T. Elizaga) (Reference No. 49)
By Mr. ROTH:
workplace and to issue or report on regula-
**In the Air Force Reserve there are 13
S. 344. A bill to establish the Northern
tions to prevent or mitigate the future con-
appointments to the grade of colonel and
Yukon-Arctic International Wildlife Refuge;
tamination of workers' homes, and for other
below (list begins with Donald E. Bayles)
to the Committee on Environment and
purposes; to the Committee on Labor and
eference No. 50)
Public Works.
Human Resources.
In the Army there are 12 promotions
By Mr. PELL (for himself and Mr.
By Mr. KASTEN:
1 appointments to the grade of colonel
CHAFEE):
S. 354. A bill to amend the Internal Reve-
and below (list begins with Joseph S.
S. 345. A bill to amend the Small Business
nue Code of 1986 to permit mortgage reve-
Hunter) (Reference No. 52)
Act to provide disaster loan eligibility to
nue bond financing of mortgages for veter-
**In the Army Reserve there are 17 ap-
small business concerns located in States in
ans of Operation Desert Shield; to the Com-
pointments to the grade of colonel and
which one-third or more of the depository
mittee on Finance.
below (list begins with Ray D. Berringer)
institutions have been simultaneously
S. 355. A bill to amend the Internal Reve-
(Reference No. 53)
closed for a period of at least 5 days; to the
Committee on Small Business.
nue Code of 1986 to permit mortgage reve-
**In the Army Reserve there are 18 pro-
By Mr. HEINZ (for himself, Mr. BENT-
nue bond financing of mortgages for veter-
motions to the grade of colonel (list begins
with Craig B. Anderson) (Reference No. 54)
SEN, Mr. RIEGLE, Mr. GARN, Mr.
ans of Operation Desert Shield; to the Com-
**In the Army Reserve there are 37 pro-
HELMS, Mr. KERRY, Mr. HATCH, Mr.
mittee on Finance.
D'AMATO, Ms. MIKULSKI, Mr. THUR-
By Mr. THURMOND (for himself, Mr.
motions to the grade of lieutenant colonel
(list begins with Thomas E. Batsky) (Refer-
MOND, Mr. LOTT, and Mr. SHELBY):
SIMPSON, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. HATCH, Mr.
ence No. 55)
S. 346. A bill to strengthen the Foreign
GRASSLEY, Mr. BOND, Mr. COCHRAN,
**In the Army there are 186 appointments
Agents Registration Act of 1938; to the
Mr. DECONCINI, and Mr. HEFLIN):
to the grade of colonel and below (list
Committee on Foreign Relations.
S. 356. A bill to assure fairness in the allo-
begins with Mary P. Celio) (Reference No.
By Mr. RIEGLE (for himself, Mr.
cation and award of antitrust damages; to
56)
GARN, Mr. DIXON, Mr. HEINZ, Mr.
the Committee on the Judiciary.
**In the Army Reserve there are 68 pro-
SARBANES, Mr. D'AMATO, Mr. DODD,
By Mr. REID (for himself and Mr.
motions to the grade of colonel and below
and Mr. SASSER):
BRYAN):
(list begins with Alexander H. Burgin) (Ref-
S. 347. A bill to amend the Defense Pro-
S. 357. A bill to convey fee title to Per-
erence No. 57)
duction Act of 1950 to revitalize the defense
shing County Water Conservation District,
**In the Navy there are 242 appointments
industrial base of the United States, and for
certain Federal lands known as the Battle
to the grade of captain and below (list
other purposes.
Mountain Community Pastures, in recogni-
begins with Walter M. Elliott) (Reference
By Mr. RIEGLE (for himself, Mr.
tion that the land was initially acquired by
No. 58)
GARN, and Mr. DIXON):
the District and subsequently transferred to
*Colonel John J. Cuddy, USA, to be briga-
S. 348. A bill to extend the expiration date
the United States for the Humbolt River
dier general (Reference No. 67)
of the Defense Production Act of 1950 to
Project; to the Committee on Energy and
**In the Navy there are 1,837 appoint-
March 18, 1991; considered and passed.
Natural Resources.
ments to the grade of ensign (list begins
By Mr. BUMPERS (for himself, Mr.
By Mr. INOUYE:
with Kenneth S. Acfalle) (Reference No. 68)
PRYOR, Mr. KASTEN, Mr. Exon, Mr.
S. 358. A bill to establish a temporary pro-
**In the Army Reserve there are 758 pro-
DOLE. Mr. KOHL. Mr. HATCH, Mr.
gram under which perental diacetylmor-
motions to the grade of colonel (list begins
HARKIN, Mr. COCHRAN, Mr. REID, Mr.
phine will be made available through quali-
with Robert T. Adams) (Reference No. 69)
LOTT, Mr. HEFLIN, Mr. HELMS, Mr.
fied pharmacies for the relief of intractable
**In the Air Force there are 24 appoint-
BOREN, Mr. WALLOP, Mr. DECONCINI,
pain due to cancer, and for other purposes;
ments to the grade of second lieutenant (list
Mr. GRAMM, Mr. SHELBY, Mr. BURNS,
to the Committee on Labor and Human Re-
begins with Neil T. Allen) (Reference No.
Mr. BRYAN, Mr. McCAIN, Mr. DIXON,
sources.
Mr. BOND, Mr. BREAUX, Mr. CRAIG,
By Mr. BOREN (for himself, Mr. DAN-
n the Navy and Naval Reserve there
and Mr. KERREY):
FORTH, Mr. MOYNIHAN, Mr. CHAFEE,
23 appointments to the grade of com-
S. 349. A bill to amend the Fair Labor
Mr. PRYOR, Mr. GRASSLEY, Mr. SAN-
nder and below (list begins with Michael
Standards Act of 1938 to clarify the applica-
FORD, Mr. KERRY, Mr. LIEBERMAN,
W. Abraham) (Reference No. 83)
tion of such Act, and for other purposes; to
and Mr. COCHRAN):
February .5, 1991
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD SENATE
1559
Mr. President, it is inconceivable any
Mr. WALLOP. Mr. President, I say
By Mr. JOHNSTON (for himself,
other country in the world so rich and
once again I thank the Senator. I
Mr. WALLOP Mr. FORD, Mr. Do-
so blessed as is America with energy
pointed out there are some things
MENICI, Mr. BINGAMAN, and Mr.
resources and wealth would deny itself
which he would have liked to have had
CRAIG):
so many of those things to the point it
in the bill that are not there; there are
S. 343. A bill to provide for contin-
put in jeopardy its children's future,
some things I would have liked to have
ued United States leadership in high-
its grandchildren's future, and the
had in the bill that are not there.
performance computing; to the Com-
lives of its current generation. It is not
Those will be worked out as the
mittee on Energy and Natural Re-
conceivable that we allow that to take
Senate works its will. But what we
sources.
place any longer. The American
have put together is what both of us
people are entitled to the wealth that
believe will be in the benefit of the
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HIGH-PERFORMANCE
they possess and produced in the care
COMPUTING ACT
people of this country.
and manner in which it will be pro-
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Mr. JOHNSTON. Mr. President,
duced here.
Mr. WIRTH addressed the Chair.
today I am introducing a bill entitled
We will continue to consume. We
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The
the "Department of Energy High-Per-
will continue to strive for ways and
Chair recognizes the Senator from
formance Computing Act of 1991."
means to conserve, and the bill repre-
Colorado, Mr. WIRTH.
The bill is very similar to legislation
sents a good strong balance between
reported by the Committee on Energy
not only induced conservation but an
By Mr. CRAIG:
and Natural Resources in the 101st
encouraged conservation as well as an
S. 342. A bill to amend the Internal
Congress, and passed by the Senate as
induced production and an encouraged
Revenue Code of 1986 to allow penal-
title II of S. 1067, the High-Perform-
production.
ty-free distributions for participants in
ance Computing Act of 1990. S. 1067
These things come together at a
Operation Desert Storm; to the Com-
was a related bill dealing with high-
time and place in history where it is
mittee on Finance.
performance computing, introduced by
just may be the time.
PENALTY-FREE DISTRIBUTIONS FOR
Senator GORE and reported by the
I remind the Congress there are 44
PARTICIPANTS IN OPERATION DESERT SHIELD
Committee on Commerce, Science, and
committees and subcommittees in
Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, today I
Transportation. Our committee
both our Houses which have some say
am introducing a bill to make life a
worked closely with the Commerce
in the turf of the energy battle,
little easier back home for the families
Committee last year to combine our
whether it is a security one, environ-
of our Desert Storm troops.
two related bills prior to passage by
mental one, a trade one, or what have
Many of these families are finding
the Senate. Unfortunately, the House
you. There are, I think, nine of the
themselves in unexpectedly tough fi-
was unable to act on the legislation
President's Cabinet who have some
nancial circumstances. Those who
before adjournment of the Congress.
say in energy policy; there are five of-
have put money aside, investing for
Today our committee is starting the
fices in the Office of the President and
the future in certain retirement or
process anew with the introduction of
seven independent agencies which
savings plans, are finding that the tax
this legislation. Our bill includes many
have some say in this process.
law will penalize them if they try to
of the compromises reached at the end
When Senator JOHNSTON says it is
make ends meet by withdrawing that
of last year between the two commit-
controversial, the most controversial
money.
tees. As this process moves forward, I
thing will be if people will give up
That doesn't make sense, at a time
expect that the two committees will
their turf long enough to understand
when we're searching for ways to ease
again work together to create a na-
the American people are entitled to
the special burdens of these families.
tional high-performance computing
his policy.
And, more fundamentally, it's not fair
initiative that includes an aggressive
Our staffs have been coordinating
to penalize those who are already
program within the Department of
with the Department of Energy, Mr.
making so many sacrifices for our
Energy and establishes a national
President, and I say we expect the ad-
Nation and the world.
high-performance computer network.
ministration's energy strategy within
My bill recognizes that these are ex-
Senator GORE has already introduced
about 2 weeks. In many respects, it
traordinary times. It would allow indi-
S. 272, the High-Performance Comput-
will mirror and reflect the effort we
viduals who are members of the
ing Act of 1991, and I look forward to
have worked on because we have been
Armed Forces or Reserves and are
working with him as this process un-
working with Admiral Watkins, the
active in Desert Storm to withdraw
folds.
Secretary. Our staffs have been work-
money from annuities, IRA's, and
The Energy Committee bill would
ing together.
other retirement plans without having
establish a high-performance comput-
But it is time now we do this thing
to pay the 10-percent Federal tax pen-
ing program within the Department of
and it is time we put aside the petty
alty for early withdrawal. This is a
Energy. As part of the program, the
battles over turf and look to the inter-
companion bill to legislation being in-
Secretary of Energy is directed to es-
est of the American people. It can be
troduced today in the House of Repre-
tablish a national multi-gigabit-per-
done. And I take my hat off to Sena-
sentatives by Congressman ToM CAMP-
second computer network. The bill di-
tor JOHNSTON and I thank him; it has
BELL of California.
rects the Secretary to promote educa-
been a pleasure working with him. If
This bill is not intended to be a com-
tion and research in high-performance
we can get the administration with
prehensive solution to all the prob-
computing. Finally, the Secretary is
this, we will end up with an energy
lems faced by our men and women in
directed to establish at least two col-
strategy for the first time.
the Persian Gulf and their families
laborative consortia to undertake re-
Mr. JOHNSTON. I thank my col-
back home. It is my hope, however,
search and development of high-per-
league from Wyoming for his com-
that this sensible and fair reform will
formance computing hardware, soft-
ments and for the good work he and
be included in whatever comprehen-
ware, and networks.
the minority staff have done on the
sive package ultimately passes this
The United States invented high-
Energy Committee, and the majority
body.
performance computing and continues
staff have done as well. It is a monu-
Mr. President, our men and women
to lead the world in the development
mental effort on their part to put a
in the gulf are earning every consider-
of high-performance computing. How-
264-page bill together. It works well
ation we can give them. Their families
ever, that lead is being challenged.
for the Energy Committee this year
back home need to be able to concen-
that we have such an excellent and
Some estimate that the Japanese will
trate on providing them the support
dominate the supercomputer market
friendly and cooperative and produc-
they need to do the hard and danger-
in the early 1990's. Yet, the Japanese
tive attitude by the distinguished mi-
ous job we've given them. The very
did not enter the field of high-per-
nority member and his staff and all
least we can do is prevent them from
formance computing until 1983.
e committee members of the Energy
being penalized for using their own
Today, outside of the United States,
nmittee.
savings to take care of themselves.
Japan is the single biggest market for,
1560
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD SENATE
February 5, 1991
Historically, the Department of
the national laboratories for testing.
and supplier of, supercomputers. Even
if our lead was not being challenged,
Energy and its predecessor agencies
The laboratories will help the manu-
the need for increased emphasis on
played the lead role in the develop-
facturer identify problems, find solu-
the development of high-performance
ment of high-performance computing,
tions for them, and write the unique
computing systems is unquestioned.
particularly the supercomputer. The
software packages supercomputers re-
It is essential that the United States
biggest single factor accounting for
quire. At the same time, industrial
remain aggressive in the area of super-
the development of high-performance
users will become more familiar with
computer technology. Last year, I
computing has been the large compu-
supercomputers and their benefits.
quoted from a report released 5 years
tational demands required by defense
The bill establishes a framework in
ago by the White House Science Coun-
research, particularly in the area of
which Government, industry, and the
cil Committee on Research in Very
nuclear weapons design.
university community can all come to-
High-Performance Computing. The
Supercomputing originated with the
gether within to keep the United
quote bears repeating:
Los Alamos problem, the design of the
States at the forefront of this critical
The bottom line is that any country which
first atomic bomb. In 1945, researchers
technology.
seeks to control its future must effectively
at Los Alamos National Laboratory
The bill also authorizes the estab-
exploit high performance computing. A
used the first large-scale electronic
lishment of a multigigabit-per-second
country which aspires to military leadership
computer, the ENIAC, to help solve
national research and education com-
must dominate, if not control, high per-
the Los Alamos problem. Subsequent
formance computing. A country seeking eco-
puter network. This network will link
collaborations with supercomputer
nomic strength in the information age must
Government, industry, and the higher
lead in the development and application of
vendors, such as IBM, Univac [now
education community. Computer users
high performance computing in industry
Unisys], Control Data, and Cray Re-
search, have continued to this day, en-
at universities, Federal laboratories,
and research.
abling the United States to become
and industry research centers will
Many scientific endeavors would not
the leader in computational science.
have access to supercomputers, com-
be possible without the use of super-
computers. For example, the data we
In fact, Cray Research would not
puter data bases, and other research
exist without the Los Alamos National
facilities.
collect from outer space can only be
Laboratory of the Department of
The Federal network will also act as
understood and visualized by a super-
Energy. In 1976, Cray offered its first
a catalyst for a much larger effort by
computer. The superconducting super-
supercomputer to Los Alamos without
the Nation as a whole. As services over
collider will require supercomputers to
software or an operating system if the
the network and the number of users
understand the data it produces.
laboratory would develop the technol-
increase, the private sector will begin
Weather forecasting becomes more ac-
curate the more powerful the super-
ogies needed to operate the machine.
to demand more and more from the
computer. The human genome project
The Department of Energy and Los
network. Universities and private in-
Alamos were crucial in getting the
dustry will come to rely more and
is possible only because of high-per-
first Cray supercomputer to work.
more on the network. Eventually they
formance computers.
According to Dr. William Wulf, the
Today, Cray is the biggest manufac-
may be willing to fund the network
former Assistant Director of the Na-
turer of supercomputers in the world,
itself or contribute to its support.
and Los Alamos is the most powerful
tional Science Foundation's Director-
Initially, Federal agencies and De-
ate for Computer and Information Sci-
scientific computing center in the
partments will work together to con-
ence and Engineering, supercomputing
world, serving more than 8,000 re-
nect their individual networks. Exist-
and high-speed networking can in-
searchers throughout the Nation via a
ing user communities of Federal net-
crease the productivity of many Amer-
computer network.
works will be expanded. New user com-
ican researchers by up to 200 percent.
The Department's laboratories have
munities will be brought into these
Important policy questions depend
become the world's most demanding,
networks. Network speeds and capa-
on high-performance computing.
sophisticated, and experienced users
bilities will be upgraded as the results
Better models of global climate
of supercomputers. Today, the Depart-
of research carried out under this leg-
change would lead to better policies to
ment of Energy remains the biggest
islation becomes fruitful. Eventually, a
address global warming. In fact,
user of supercomputers with more
national network, operating at over a
today's supercomputers are inad-
than 33 unclassified supercomputers.
billion bits of data per second will be
equate for some global studies that
The Department of Energy and its
in place. Even then, the network will
have been designed. The studies are
laboratories are in a position to help
continue to grow, becoming faster,
waiting for sufficiently powerful su-
the United States maintain its leader-
connecting more and broader user
percomputers. The outcome of these
ship, strengthen the U.S. computing
communities. It will become much like
studies could lead to important policy
industry, and encourage deployment
of high-performance computing in
the telephone system we have in place
decisions with substantial implications
analysis, design, concurrent, engineer-
today.
for the world.
At the same time, each individual
American industry has discovered
ing, and manufacturing.
The bill directs the Secretary to es-
agency will be free to operate its own
the benefits of high-performance com-
individual network to meet individual
puters. When Airbus, a European con-
tablish collaborative consortia be-
sortium, started using supercomputers
tween the Department's national lab-
agency mission needs. To the extent
to help design more efficient air-
oratories and other Federal laborato-
an agency can contribute to" he na-
planes, Boeing and McDonald Doug-
ries or agencies, education institutions,
tional network, it should do so. To the
and industry. The consortia will un-
extent individual agency mission needs
lass were forced to follow. Boeing then
used a supercomputer to design a 30-
dertake basic research and develop-
require autonomy from the national
percent more efficient airplane. This
ment of high-performance computing
network, that autonomy is preserved.
savings offset the cost of the super-
hardware, software, and networks.
This national network can only suc-
computer and helped Boeing to
The consortia will carry out its re-
ceed as a cooperative effort of all the
remain competitive.
search directed at scientific and tech-
interested agencies. We do not know
Arco used a Cray supercomputer to
nical problems which require the ap-
what the network will look like in the
increase production of its Prudhoe
plication of high-performance comput-
coming years. Technology to develop
Bay oil field resulting in an additional
ing resources.
the network envisioned in this legisla-
$2 billion in profits. Alcoa used super-
The consortia will create an inte-
tion is still being developed. This legis-
computing modeling to reduce the
grated, cooperative effort among in-
lation governing the network there-
amount of aluminum needed in its alu-
dustry, universities, and Government
fore must be flexible. Instead of creat-
minum cans by 25 percent. This reduc-
in supercomputing to meet the chal-
ing a rigid, unchangeable management
ion saved billions of dollars from re-
lenge of foreign competition. Manufac-
structure, the legislation simply di-
uced materials, production, and
tuers of high-performance computers
rects the Secretary to establish the
transportation costs.
will send new prototype computers to
network, and to do so in consultation
February 5, 1991
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE
S1561
with other Federal Departments and
(b) "Department" means the Department
needed to carry out the purposes of this
Act, by soliciting and selecting proposals.
of Energy:
agencies.
(c) "Federal laboratory" means any labo-
(1) Each Collaborative Consortium shall-
This country has lost the lead in a
ratory, or any federally funded research and
(A) undertake basic research and develop-
great number of technologies. Today,
development center, that is owned or leased
ment of high-performance computing hard-
we are poised at a crossroad. We can
or otherwise used by a Federal agency or de-
ware and associated software technology;
continue down the road we are on and
partment and funded by the Federal Gov-
(B) undertake research and development
ernment, whether operated by the Govern-
of advanced prototype networks;
ventually lose our lead to foreign
ment or by a contractor;
(C) conduct research directed at scientific
competition, and perhaps ultimately,
(d) "national laboratory" means any Fed-
and technical problems whose solutions re-
the whole supercomputer industry.
eral laboratory that is owned by the Depart-
quire the application of high-performance
We can change our course by taking
ment of Energy:
computing resources;
the actions called for in this bill and
(e) "educational institution" means a
(D) promote the testing and uses of new
put to work the resources found
degree granting institution of at least a bac-
types of high-performance computing and
within our national laboratories. If we
calaureate level; and
related software and equipment;
can make this commitment, this coun-
(f) "software creation" means any innova-
(E) serve as a vehicle for computing ven-
try will maintain its preeminent status
tion or preparation of new computer soft-
dors to test new ideas and technology in a
ware of whatever kind or description wheth-
sophisticated computing environment; and
in the field of high-performance com-
er patentable or unpatentable, and whether
(F) disseminate information to Federal de-
puting.
copyrightable or noncopyrightable.
partments and agencies, the private sector,
I ask unanimous consent that the
(g) "Director" means the Director of the
educational institutions, and other potential
text of the bill and a section-by-section
Office of Science and Technology Policy.
users on the availability of high-perform-
analysis of the bill be printed in the
SEC. 5. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HIGH-PERFORM-
ance computing facilities.
ANCE COMPUTING PROGRAM.
(2) Each Collaborative Consortium shall
RECORD.
There being no objection, the mate-
(a) The Secretary. acting in accordance
be comprised of a lead institution, which
with the authority provided by the Federal
has responsibility for the direction and per-
rial was ordered to be printed in the
Nonnuclear Energy Research and Develop-
formance of the consortium and partici-
RECORD, as follows:
ment Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5901 et seq.)
pants from industry, Federal laboratories or
S. 343
shall establish a High-Performance Com-
agencies, educational institutions, and
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House
puting Program (hereinafter referred to as
others, as may be appropriate.
of Representatives of the United States of
the "HPC Program").
(3) Each lead institution shall be a nation-
America in Congress assembled,
(b) Within one year after the date of the
al laboratory which has the experience in
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall
research on problems that require the appli-
SECTION I. SHORT TITLE
establish a management plan to carry out
cation of high-performance computing re-
This Act may be referred to as the "De-
HPC Program activities. The plan shall-
sources.
partment of Energy High-Performance
(1) be developed in conjunction with the
(4) the consortium may fund research and
Computing Act of 1991".
Director's overall efforts to promote high-
development associated with prototype com-
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
performance computing,
puting technology provided that industrial
The Congress finds that:
(2) summarize all ongoing high-perform-
participants in each consortium shall not be
(a) advances in high-performance comput-
ance computing activities and resources at
reimbursed for costs associated with their
er science and technology are vital to the
the Department that are not classified or
own involvement.
Nation's defense, scientific advancement,
otherwise restricted;
(d) The provisions of the National Cooper-
international competitiveness and long-term
(3) describe the levels of funding for each
ative Research Act of 1984 (15 U.S.C. 4301-
prosperity;
aspect of high-performance computing that
4305) shall apply to research activities taken
(b) the Department of Energy and other
are not classified or otherwise restricted;
pursuant to this section.
'ederal agencies have a critical need for a
(4) establish long range goals and prior-
(e) Each Collaborative Consortium may be
ationwide high-capacity computer net-
ities for research, development, and applica-
established by a Cooperative Research and
tion of high-performance computing at the
work:
Development Agreement as provided in sec-
(c) the Department of Energy is the Fed-
Department, and devise a strategy for
tion 12 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technolo-
eral agency having the greatest degree of
achieving them; and
gy Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3710a).
expertise and knowledge in the research, de-
(5) ensure that technology developed pur-
(f) The Secretary shall report annually to
velopment and use of high-performance
suant to the HPC Program is transferred to
the Committee on Energy and Natural Re-
computers, associated software and net-
the private sector in accordance with appli-
sources of the Senate and the Committee on
cable law.
works;
Science, Space, and Technology of the
(d) the Department of Energy's expertise
SEC. 6. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HIGH-PERFORM-
House of Representatives regarding the
and knowledge is due in part to its owner-
ANCE COMPUTING PROGRAM ACTIVI-
HPC Program.
TIES.
ship and use of the greatest number of
(a)(1) The Secretary shall establish a na-
SEC. 7. GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE SECTOR COOP-
high-performance computers of any Federal
ERATION.
tional multi-gigabit-per-second computer
agency;
(e) the Department of Energy's expertise
network to be known as the "Federal High-
In accordance with applicable law, the
Performance Computer Network."
Secretary may cooperate with, solicit help
and knowledge is due in part to its numer-
(2) The Secretary shall provide for the
from, provide funds to, or enter into con-
ous national laboratories that have person-
linkage of Federal agencies and depart-
tracts with private contractors, industry,
nel with particular expertise in the re-
ments, and other persons as the Secretary
government, universities, or any other
search, design, development and use of
high-performance computers, associated
may deem appropriate.
person or entity the Secretary deems neces-
(3) The Network shall be designed, imple-
sary in carrying out the provisions of this
software and networks; and,
(f) the Department of Energy is the Fed-
mented and managed by the Secretary of
Act.
eral agency that is particularly well
Energy. in consultation with other Federal
SEC. 8. OWNERSHIP OF INVENTIONS AND CRE-
departments and agencies.
ATIONS.
equipped to undertake additional research
(4) The Secretary may make use of exist-
(a) Except as otherwise provided by the
and development of high-performance com-
ing Federal facilities and networks as may
National Competitiveness Technology
puting hardware and associated software,
be appropriate to carry out the require-
Transfer Act of 1989 (103 Stat. 1674) and
and to design, implement and manage a
ments of this section, provided that the Fed-
any other applicable law, title to any inven-
multi-gigabit-per-second nationwide com-
puter network connecting Federal depart-
eral department or agency concurs in such
tion or software creation developed under
this Act shall vest in the United States and
use.
ments and agencies.
(b) The Secretary shall promote education
shall be governed by the provisions of sec-
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
and research in high-performance computa-
tion 9 of the Federal Nonnuclear Energy
The purposes of this Act are:
tional science and related fields that require
Research and Development Act of 1974 (42
(a) to promote the research and develop-
the application of high-performance com-
U.S.C: 5908).
ment of high-performance computers and
puting resources by making the Depart-
(b) Trade secrets and commercial or finan-
associated software; and
ment's high-performance computing re-
cial information that is privileged and confi-
(b) to create a multi-gigabit-per-second na-
sources more available to undergraduate
dential and which is obtained from a non-
tionwide computer network for use by the
and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows,
Federal party participating in research or
Department of Energy and other Federal
and faculty from the Nation's educational
other activities under this Act may be with-
!epartments and agencies.
institutions.
held in accordance with section 552(b)(4) of
EC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
(c) The Secretary shall establish at least
title 5, United States Code.
two Collaborative Consortia, and as many
(c) The Secretary, for a period of up to 5
For the purposes of this Act, the term-
more as the Secretary determines are
years after the development of information
(a) "Secretary" the Secretary of Energy:
1562
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE
February 5, 1991
that results from research and development
Resources, I am pleased to cosponsor
Now some may ask why the Depart-
activities conducted under this title and
the Department of Energy High-Per-
ment of Energy? The answer is really
that would be a trade secret or commercial
formance Computing Act of 1991.
or financial information that is privileged or
quite simple: No other Federal agency
confidential, under the meaning of section
During the 101st Congress, the
or organization has the breadth or
552(b)(4) of title 5, United States Code, if
Energy Committee reported similar
depth of experience in the use of su-
the information had been obtained from a
legislation, and worked cooperatively
percomputers and networks, or in re-
non-Federal party, may provide appropriate
with the Commerce Committee to in-
search and development of supercom-
protection against the dissemination of such
corporate the provisions into S. 1067
puters, supercomputer software and
information, including exemption from sub-
which the Senate passed unanimously.
allied networks.
chapter II of chapter 5 of title 5, United
State Code.
Unfortunately, the House was unable
High-speed computing was first put
SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION.
to act on this bill before adjournment
to use to design the atomic weapons
There is authorized to be appropriated
of the Congress.
that were used to end World War II.
such sums as are necessary to carry out the
The legislation we are today intro-
Today the Department of Energy has
purposes of this Act.
ducing contains the two most signifi-
more computers than any other Feder-
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
cant provisions of last year's bill: First,
al agency, and it's National Laborato-
it would create a nation-wide, high-
ries are the world's most demanding,
Section 1 establishes the short title, "The
Department of Energy High-Performance
speed computer network; and second,
sophisticated and experienced users of
Computing Act of 1991".
it would create supercomputing col-
supercomputers.
Section 2 contains the findings of Con-
laborative consortia to undertake re-
If we can harness this knowledge,
gress.
search and development on high-per-
experience and expertise to develop
Section 3 contains the purposes of the
formance computing hardware and as-
the next round of supercomputers and
Act.
sociated software.
associated software-and transfer that
Section 4 contains definitions of terms
Mr. President, this legislation is of
technology to private industry-we
used in the bill.
Section 5 establishes a high-performance
national importance because advances
can materially benefit our society and
computing program within the Department
in high-performance computing and
economy.
of Energy. The Secretary is directed to es-
networking are vital to our economic
The collaborative consortia created
tablish a management plan to carry out pro-
growth, to our national security and to
by this legislation will be led by the
gram activities.
scientific advancement.
Department's national laboratories,
Section 6 establishes the program activi-
High-performance computing got its
and participants will include private
ties. The Secretary of Energy is to establish
a national multi-gigabit-per-second comput-
start in the late 1940's in the national
industry, researchers from educational
er network to be known as the "Federal
security field, but today it is ubiqui-
institutions and other Federal labora-
High-Performance Computing Network."
tous. Computers run our telephones;
tories. They will undertake research
The Network would link Federal agencies
they are used to design automobiles
and development of high-performance
and departments. The Network is to be de-
and airplanes; they operate machines
computing hardware, software, and
signed, implemented and managed by the
on manufacturing lines; they are inte-
networks.
Secretary.
gral to medical imaging devices; they
Part and parcel of this effort is the
The Secretary is to promote education
are used for oil exploration; and they
need to interconnect agency supercom-
and research in high-performance comput-
were even involved in the writing of
puters through a ultra-high-speed-net-
ing and related fields. The Secretary is to
establish at least two Collaborative Consor-
this statement. Computers are now in-
work. That is why this legislation also
tia to undertake basic research and develop-
volved in every phase of our everyday
proposes to create a ultra-high-speed
ment of high-performance computing hard-
life.
computer network.
ware, software and networks. Also, the Con-
Supercomputers are also an integral
Mr. President, it is for these reasons
sortia are directed to promote testing and
part of the cutting edge of scientific
that I cosponsored last year's legisla-
use of new types of high-performance com-
puting, and to disseminate information on
research. For example, supercom-
tion, and it is for these reasons that I
the availability of high-performance com-
puters are required to run and under-
am cosponsoring this legislation. I
puting facilities.
stand the data created by the super-
look forward to working closely with
The membership of each Consortium
conducting super collider; and the
the distinguished committee's chair-
would include Federal laboratories, indus-
human genome project would only be
man and ranking Republican member
try, universities, and others. Each Consorti-
a dream without a supercomputer; and
to move this legislation as quickly as
um be headed by a Department of Energy
national laboratory that has experience in
supercomputers are used to design
possible.
high-performance computing. Industrial
new drugs to combat illness.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous con-
participants are not to be reimbursed for
Daily supercomputers are being put
sent that the New York Times article
costs associated with their own involvement.
to new uses. For example, a recent
mentioned earlier be printed in the
RECORD.
Each consortium may be established as a
New York Times article reported that
Cooperative Research and Development
supercomputers were employed to
There being no objection, the article
Agreement as provided by section 3710a of
assess the potential damage to the en-
was ordered to be printed in the
title 15 United States Code. The National
vironment of burning the oil that Iraq
RECORD, as follows:
Cooperative Research Act of 1984 also ap-
had spilled into the Persian Gulf. The
[From the New York Times, Jan. 31, 199']
plies to research activities undertaken by
A FRESH EYE ON THE ENVIRONMENT
the consortia.
article also noted that supercomputers
Section 7 authorizes the Secretary to, in
are being put to uses such as providing
(By John Markoff)
accordance with applicable law, cooperate
advanced warning of killer storms, pre-
The world's fastest computers, once used
with and enter into contracts with other
dicting changes in global climate and
almost exclusively to build nuclear weapons
Federal agencies and the private sector to
the monitoring of hazardous wastes. I
and crack codes, are finding a variety of new
carry out the Act.
ask unanimous consent that this arti-
uses as environmental tools.
Section 8 establishes that title to inven-
cle be printed at the end of my state-
In the Persian Gulf, for instance, super-
tions or creations (a defined term which es-
ment.
computers were employed to assess the
sentially deals with software) vests in the
United States in accordance with section
Although existing supercomputers
damage to the environment from the burn-
ing of huge quantities of oil. The computers
5908 of title 42, United States Code. Trade
are making enormous contributions to
also make it possible to warn of killer
secrets or commercial or financial informa-
our society, in order for these ad-
storms further in advance, to understand
tion obtained from non-Federal parties is
vances to continue today's supercom-
the forces changing the global climate and
given protection from disclosure.
puter needs to be made tomorrow's
to help monitor the disposal of hazardous
Section 9 authorizes funding to carry out
home computer.
wastes.
the purposes of the Act.
This legislation would advance su-
Concerned about the potential environ-
0 Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President,
percomputing by creating in the De-
mental damage if Kuwait oil-fields were set
along with the distinguished chairman
partment of Energy a High-Perform-
on fire, the Pentagon last year commis-
and ranking Republican member of
sioned researchers at the Pacific Sierra Re-
ance Computing Program-in effect
search Corporation, a California consulting
the Committee on Energy and Natural
giving the Department a new mission.
company, to create a supercomputer model
February 5, 1991
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE
1563
of such an event. Only a supercomputer,
In addition to the environmental project
applications when it is installed in 1992, will
which can perform billions of mathematical
in the Persian Gulf, the military is using su-
be mostly used to evaluate competing theo-
operations in a second and can store and re-
percomputer weather forecasts to plan
ries about the forces shaping changes in the
trieve large amounts of data, can accurately
bombing sorties. Indeed, many countries
global climate.
simulate the complex chemical interactions
fighting against Iraq are censoring weather
Weapons researchers at Livermore are
in the atmosphere.
forecasts generated by supercomputers to
also exploring how to use software, devel-
The scientists found that little of the
cut off the Iraqis from such information.
oped to monitor radiation leaks at nuclear
moke generated by such fires would reach
In October 1987, a hurricane unexpectedly
test sites, to simulate problems caused by
he upper atmosphere and prevent sunlight
struck southern England, killing 13 people
hazardous waste.
from reaching the earth, creating global cli-
and causing millions of dollars' worth of
The Livermore laboratory, which has a
mate changes and harming agriculture.
damage. The storm was not predicted by the
stable of supercomputers including ma-
Other scientists, who have built supercom-
more modest computers used by British
chines from Cray Research, Bolt Baranek &
puter simulations detailing the climatologi-
weather forecasters. But scientists at the
Newman and Thinking Machines, is perhaps
cal effects of a nuclear war, dispute the un-
European Community Medium-Range
the most striking example of the contrast
derlying assumptions of the Pentagon's
Weather Facility in Reading, England, were
between the declining fortunes of the weap-
model. Dr. Richard Turco, an atmospheric
able to predict the storm on their Cray su-
ons designers and the growing advantages of
scientist at the University of California at
percomputers and issued a warning.
environmental users.
Los Angeles, said that under certain circum-
The cost of the supercomputer is peanuts
Robert Borchers, head of computation for
stances, enough smoke from the fires could
compared to what you can save," said Greg-
Livermore, said it was unlikely that even a
reach the upper atmosphere to cause re-
ory J. McRae, a chemical engineer at Carne-
single large new supercomputer would be
gional cooling.
gie-Mellon. His research on smog formation
purchased this year for the side of the tabo-
Another environmental application of the
has been used by California air-quality au-
ratory that deals with classified weapons.
supercomputer involved smog, which scien-
thorities to help choose the most effective
"We don't know where the money would
tists thought dispersed each evening, only
polution-control strategies.
come from," he said.
to form again in the morning. Recently,
GREENING OF THE SUPERCOMPUTER
In contrast, researchers at the Environ-
using a supercomputer. Carnegie-Mellon
Supercomputers are also widely used for
mental Protection Agency's research labora-
University scientists demonstrated that
dozens of scientific and engineering tasks,
tories at Research Triangle Park in Chapel
smog stays in place high above the ground,
including the simulation of automobile acci-
Hill, N.C., said that they had received ap-
moving lower each morning as warming air
dents to learn how to design safer cars; the
proval to buy two of the world's largest su-
circulates. compounding the new day's pol-
creation of aircraft models to improve their
percomputers but that they had not decided
lution. That knowledge promoted a broad-
aerodynamic efficiency, and the study of
which to buy. The National Weather Serv-
ening of anti-pollution policies aimed
the interplay of specific molecules to create
ice in Camp Springs, Md., is also planning to
mainly at car emissions, and led Los Angeles
more effective medications.
buy two machines from Cray Research this
to adopt the nation's strictest pollution con-
The complexity of creating models of en-
year.
trols.
vironmental conditions has made the ma-
The supercomputer has proved to be a
ACID RAIN SIMULATIONS
chines essential for serious scientific analy-
powerful tool for policy makers, who can
sis.
The Environmental Protection Agency
use it to experiment rapidly by creating a
Environmental projects are the largest
now uses Cray and I.B.M. supercomputers
series of hypothetical situations and meas-
and fastest-growing business for Cray Re-
to run simulations of the formation of acid
uring the effects of isolated changes. For in-
search Inc., the nation's top supercomputer
rain and smog in the eastern United States
stance, Carnegie-Mellon used the computer
maker.
and southeastern Canada. Besides providing
to "remove" cars from the streets of Los An-
"It represents the greening of the super-
a better understanding of this phenomenon,
geles, testing what effect that would have
computer," said John A. Rollwagen, chair-
the supercomputers offer a daily tool to reg-
on pollution. In this and thousands of wide-
man and chief executive of Cray. "It now
ulatory officials. They use information
ranging applications, the supercomputer
rivals anything that the weapons business
gleaned from the models to make decisions
S become indispensable for many public-
has ever had."
on what are permissible emissions from
icy researchers, regulators and corporate
At Cray, which is based in Minneapolis,
large polluters like power plants, and they
.ecutives.
the number of installed multimillion-dollar
can order the plants to reduce output.
"Even in times of fairly tight budget con-
supercomputers purchased for weather and
"In the Northeast corridor, pollutants cre-
straints there is going to be money to buy
environmental applications has jumped to
ated in Baltimore and Washington go up-
these tools," said Willis E. Greenstreet, the
17 at 15 sites, from 4 machines at 4 sites in
stream to Philadelphia and then go to New
director of administration at the North
1988. Cray said another dozen machines
York, and all of that goes to Boston," said
Carolina research operation of the Environ-
were used substantially for such environ-
Gary J. Foley, the director of the E.P.A.'s
mental Protection Agency. "It leads to more
mental applications and for other tasks as
atmospheric rsesearch and exposure assess-
cost-effective regulation."
well. Supercomputers for environmental
ment laboratory. "We can look at this string
Supercomputers, which are thousands of
uses now account for about 20 percent of
of cities and develop better control strate-
times more powerful than a desktop com-
Cray's annual revenue.
gies using our simulations."e
puter, cost $3 million to $30 million each.
Cray is getting more orders for environ-
0 Mr. WALLOP. Mr. President, I am
They were conceived primarily for military
mental applications than any other super-
pleased to cosponsor the Department
purposes that require billions and billions of
computer maker, but others are benefiting
calculations, such as creating the models of
as well. These include I.B.M., Thinking Ma-
of Energy High-Performance Comput-
nuclear explosions that are used in the
chines and Convex Computer in the United
ing Act of 1991 which Senator JOHN-
design of weapons.
States, and NEC and Fujitsu in Japan.
STON is today introducing.
ANALYZING THE WEATHER
Cray was the main beneficiary last year
During the 101st Congress, the Com-
But in the last two years, financing de-
when ETA Systems Inc., a subsidiary of the
mittee on Energy and Natural Re-
clired for computer-intensive military re-
Control Data Corporation, whose machines
sources worked closely with the Com-
search programs, including the "Star Wars"
were popular with meteorologists, went out
mittee on Commerce, Space and
missile-defense system. That forced the
of business. But Cray now faces tough com-
Transportation to develop comprehen-
country's national research laboratories,
petition from NEC. Computer scientists say
NEC's new SX-3 supercomputer rivals the
sive supercomputing and networking
which historically pursued advanced weap-
fastest Cray machine. In December, the
legislation, which unanimously passed
ons programs, to look for new projects.
At the same time, the ability of supercom-
Japanese company announced that it had
the Senate. This occurred too late last
puters to make forecasts has improved to
sold one of the new supercomputers to 8 me-
year for the House to act on the
the point where they have become useful
teorological research center in Brazil.
Senate bill.
for environmental purposes like weather
Cray Research was founded by Seymour
I had hoped that we would pick up
analysis.
Cray, who left in 1989 to form a new compa-
where we left off last year with the
Supercomputers can study the weather
ny, the Cray Computer Corporation. It, too,
Senate-passed bill, but unfortunately
through the use of mathematical models
is benefiting from the growing environmen-
that account for dozens of factors, like at-
tal market. Cray Computer, based in Colora-
that was not agreeable to the Com-
mospheric pressure, temperature, regional
do Springs, recently announced that it had
merce Committee. So instead, both the
topography and wind direction. by breaking
sold its first Cray 3 supercomputer to the
Energy Committee and the Commerce
up a large region into many small areas,
Livermore National Laboratory's energy re-
Committee each start afresh, and dif-
highly accurate forecasts can be developed.
search center.
ferences will have to be worked out
like satellite whether images, which
STUDYING CLIMATE CHANGES
before Senate action can occur.
ly show current conditions, the super-
Computer scientists at the laboratory said
The bill I am today cosponsoring
puter can reliably predict changes in
the new machine, which many scientists
contains the two key elements of last
use weather.
think will be the world's fastest for certain
year's bill. First, it would create super-
1564
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD SENATE
February 5, 1991
computing collaborative consortia to
America to Saudi Arabia-are inextri-
Refuge as it is currently administered
undertake research and development
cably connected. Not only can destruc-
under the National Wildlife Refuge
on high-performance computing hard-
tion in one small area bruise the con-
Administration Act. However, most im-
ware and associated software. Second,
science of man, but it can affect the
portant is that this bill demonstrates
it would create a nationwide, ultra
fragile ecological balance of a tiny
the willing spirit and many opportuni-
high-speed computer network to inter-
world appear more vulnerable with
ties nations can take advantage of
connect Federal agencies and others.
each passing day. Perhaps this envi-
toward the objective of protecting our
The legislation assigns responsibility
ronmental transcendentalism is no-
environment. It is a first step-an im-
for these activities to the Department
where more apparent than in the cir-
portant first step. But it is my hope
of Energy because it is the Federal
cumpolar region which serves as a sink
that it serves as an example of what
agency which has the greatest degree
for global pollution. It gathers the
nations can do with shared objectives,
of expertise and knowledge in the re-
wastes and fallout from all that sur-
a spirit of cooperation, and little bit of
search, development and use of high-
rounds it, and we all know the tragic
effort.
performance computers and networks.
consequences befalling the fragile eco-
It is also my hope that we can build
The Department of Energy is the Fed-
system and biosphere. The wind,
on this effort to actively pursue Arctic
eral agency which makes use of the
water, fish, fowl, caribou, and other
agreements that lead to an Arctic
greatest number of high-performance
animals and plants know no political
refuge protection plan. Such a plan
computers.
boundaries. Whether the pollution
should include international protec-
High-performance computing and
that threatens their pristine and frag-
tion for shared lands and waters, cul-
networking is not only essential to our
ile environment comes from the Soviet
Nation's defense activities, it is also in-
tural and historical sites, and manage-
Union, Brazil, Eastern Europe, or the
ment of fish, birds and wildlife, as well
creasingly critical to our economic
United States is of little consequence-
well-being. Industry is turning to the
as international cooperative efforts to
especially when the contamination
use of supercomputers for product
control the sources of pollutants that
begins to affect the native peoples
design, testing and production. I doubt
affect this fragile environment. The
who depend on the ecosystem.
that a decade from now there will be a
legislation that I am introducing today
Likewise, the contamination of this
single product invented or produced-
should be one of the building blocks
precious international resource poses a
for this effort.
be it a consumer or a military prod-
threat to the Arctic region as a scien-
uct-without the use of high-perform-
tific laboratory for comparisons of the
I ask unanimous consent that a copy
ance computers and high-speed net-
Earth's health. As someone recently
of this legislation be placed in the
works. The only question in my mind
put it: "If the Arctic Systems fail, the
RECORD in its entirety at the conclu-
is whether those products will be made
sion of my remarks.
health and the understanding of the
here in the United States, or produced
health of the entire planet fails." It is
There being no objection, the bill
abroad.
for those and other reasons that I
was ordered to be printed in the
In the academic and research com-
RECORD, as follows:
commend proposals that encourage
munities, high-performance comput-
international cooperation to protect
S. 344
ing and networking is likewise increas-
the precious Arctic area. The Finnish
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
ingly important. There is not a line of
and Pisces Initiatives and the Beringia
Representatives of the United States of
scientific inquiry that is either not
Cooperative Agreement are very im-
America in Congress assembled,
now using supercomputers, or could
portant steps in this process. Likewise,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
not benefit from their use.
I'm proud to announce my own piece
This Act may be cited as the "Northern
Mr. President, it is for these reasons
of legislation, that I am introducing
Yukon-Arctic International Wildlife Refuge
Act".
that I am today cosponsoring this leg-
today.
islation. I look forward to working
Mr. President, today I am introduc-
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF INTERNATIONAL WILD-
LIFE REFUGE AREA.
with them and the distinguished
ing legislation to establish a Northern
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.-
chairman of the committee, Senator
Yukon-Arctic International Wildlife
(1) Effective as of the date the conditions
JOHNSTON, in moving high-perform-
Refuge. It's purpose is to bring these
stated in subsection (b) are met, there is es-
ance computing legislation through
two great nations together in historic
tablished an international wildlife refuge
the Senate.o
cooperation to permanently protect
area to be called the Northern Yukon-Arctic
the last complete Arctic ecosystem in
International Wildlife Refuge, which shall
By Mr. ROTH:
North America, North America's Ser-
include the entire Arctic National Wildlife
S. 344. A bill to establish the North-
rengethi, to fulfill our responsibility as
Refuge administered under the National
ern Yukon-Arctic International Wild-
Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act
stewards of our land, its resources and
life Refuge; to the Committee on Envi-
of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 668dd-668ee).
the life that depends on it.
(2) The Northern Yukon-Arctic Interna-
ronment and Public Works.
This effort will protect all shared
tional Wildlife Refuge is established-
NORTHERN YUKON-ARCTIC INTERNATIONAL
wild bird resources native to North
(A) for the purpose of permanently com-
WILDLIFE REFUGE ACT
America that are in an unconfined
memorating the long-existing relationship
Mr. ROTH. Mr. President, I rise
state and that are protected under the
of peace and good will between the people
today to address our needs as well as
Migratory Bird Treat Act. Likewise, it
and Governments of Canada and the United
our opportunities for international co-
protects wetlands, marine mammals-
States;
operation to protect our world's cir-
including seals, walruses, whales, and
(B) for the purpose of permanently pro-
cumpolar region.
tecting in an undisturbed condition the only
polar bears; and it maintains our com-
remaining complete spectrum of Arctic eco-
During my years in the Congress I
mitment to the principles of caribou
systems in North America;
have expressed my sincere ideology
management as prescribed under the
(C) in fulfillment of our serious responsi-
concerning mankind's responsibility to
Porcupine Management Agreement.
bility as stewards of our land, its resources,
the environment. Simply stated, it is
And it provides for continued protec-
and the life that depends on it;
that man is bound to serve nature
tion of marine and anadromous fish
(D) for the purpose of permanently pro-
through an environmental ethic. Man-
species that inhabit the coastal waters
tecting all shared wild bird resources native
kind has the responsibility to pass on
of the Beaufort Sea. Finally, it reaf-
to North America that are in an unconfined
a life-giving-life-sustaining-environ-
state and that are protected under the Mi-
firms the commitments we made to
ment to future generations. Our natu-
gratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703 et
the residents of these lands, to contin-
seq.), including ducks, geese, and swans of
ral and cultural heritage rank high
ue to provide them with the opportu-
the family Anatidae, species listed as threat-
among our most priceless and irre-
nity for subsistence uses for the re-
ened or endangered under the Endangered
placeable possessions. To loose any of
sources of these lands.
Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.),
these possessions would be a loss to all
Each of these objectives is worthy,
species defined as nongame under the Fish
of mankind.
and this bill is an important step
and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1980 (16
It is often exhibited that all ecosys-
toward caring for our stewardship in
U.S.C. 2901 et seq.), and wetlands listed as
tems-from Alaska to Africa, South
protected under the Convention on Wet-
the entire Arctic National Wildlife
lands of International Importance, especial-
I
102D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H.R.656
To provide for a coordinated Federal research program to ensure continued
United States leadership in high-performance computing.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 28, 1991
Mr. BROWN of California (for himself, Mr. VALENTINE, Mr. BOEHLERT, Mr.
MINETA, and Mr. BROWDER) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
A BILL
To provide for a coordinated Federal research program to
ensure continued United States leadership in high-perform-
ance computing.
1
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
4
This Act may be cited as the "High-Performance
5 Computing Act of 1991".
6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
7
(a) FINDINGS.-The Congress finds the following:
2
1
(1) Advances in computer science and technology
2
are vital to the Nation's prosperity, national and eco-
3
nomic security, and scientific advancement.
4
(2) The United States currently leads the world in
5
the development and use of high-performance comput-
6
ing for national security, industrial productivity, and
7
science and engineering, but that lead is being chal-
8
lenged by foreign competitors.
9
(3) Further research, improved computer research
10
networks, and more effective technology transfer from
11
government to industry are necessary for the United
12
States to fully reap the benefits of high-performance
13
computing.
14
(4) Several Federal agencies have ongoing high-
15
performance computing programs, but improved inter-
16
agency coordination, cooperation, and planning could
17
enhance the effectiveness of these programs.
18
(5) A 1989 report by the Office of Science and
19
Technology Policy outlining a research and develop-
20
ment strategy for high-performance computing provides
21
a framework for a multiagency high-performance com-
22
puting program.
23
(b) PURPOSE.-It is the purpose of Congress in this Act
24 to help ensure the continued leadership of the United States
3
1 in high-performance computing and its applications
2 through-
3
(1) the expansion of Federal support for research,
4
development, and application of high-performance com-
5
puting in order to-
6
(A) establish a high-capacity national re-
7
search and education computer network;
8
(B) expand the number of researchers, educa-
9
tors, and students with training in high-perform-
10
ance computing and access to high-performance
11
computing resources;
12
(C) develop an information infrastructure of
13
data bases, services, access mechanisms, and re-
14
search facilities which is available for use through
15
such a national network;
16
(D) stimulate research on software tech-
17
nology;
18
(E) promote the more rapid development and
19
wider distribution of computer software tools and
20
applications software;
21
(F) accelerate the development of computer
22
systems and subsystems;
23
(G) provide for the application of high-per-
24
formance computing to Grand Challenges; and
4
(H) invest in basic research and education;
1
2
and
3
(2) the improvement of planning and coordination
4
of Federal research and development on high-perform-
5
ance computing.
6 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
7
As used in this Act, the term-
8
(1) "Council" means the Federal Coordinating
9
Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology;
10
(2) "Director" means the Director of the Office of
11
Science and Technology Policy; and
12
(3) "Grand Challenge" means a fundamental
13
problem in science or engineering, with broad economic
14
and scientific impact, whose solution will require the
15
application of high-performance computing resources.
16 SEC. 4. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
17
(a) NONAPPLICABILITY.-Except to the extent the ap-
18 propriate Federal agency or department head determines, the
19 provisions of this Act shall not apply to-
20
(1) programs or activities regarding computer sys-
21
tems that process classified information; or
22
(2) computer systems the function, operation, or
23
use of which are those delineated in paragraphs (1)
24
through (5) of section 2315(a) of title 10, United States
25
Code.
5
1
(b) ACQUISITION OF PROTOTYPE AND EARLY PRO-
2 DUCTION MODELS.-Where appropriate, and in accordance
3 with Federal contracting law, Federal agencies and depart-
4 ments shall procure prototype or early production models of
5 new high-performance computer systems and subsystems to
6 stimulate hardware and software development.
7 SEC. 5. NATIONAL HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING PRO-
8
GRAM.
9
The National Science and Technology Policy, Organiza-
10 tion, and Priorities Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.) is
11 amended by adding at the end the following new title:
12
"TITLE VII-NATIONAL HIGH-PERFORMANCE
13
COMPUTING PROGRAM
14
"NATIONAL HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING PLAN
15
"SEC. 701. (a)(1) The President, through the Federal
16 Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technol-
17 ogy (hereafter in this title referred to as the 'Council'), shall,
18 in accordance with the provisions of this title-
19
"(A) develop and implement a National High-Per-
20
formance Computing Plan (hereafter in this title re-
21
ferred to as the 'Plan'); and
22
((B) provide for interagency coordination of the
23
implementation of the Plan.
24 The Plan shall contain recommendations for a 5-year nation-
25 al effort and shall be submitted to the Congress within 1 year
6
1 after the date of enactment of this title. The Plan shall be
2 resubmitted upon revision at least once every 2 years
3 thereafter.
4
"(2) The Plan shall-
5
"(A) establish the goals and priorities for a Feder-
6
al high-performance computing program for the fiscal
7
year in which the Plan (or revised Plan) is submitted
8
and the succeeding 4 fiscal years;
9
"(B) set forth the role of each Federal agency and
10
department in implementing the Plan; and
11
"(C) describe the levels of Federal funding for
12
each agency and department and specific activities, in-
13
cluding education, research activities, hardware and
14
software development, establishment of a national
15
multi-gigabit-per-second research and education com-
16
puter network, to be known as the National Research
17
and Education Network, and acquisition and operating
18
expenses for computers and computer networks, re-
19
quired to achieve the goals and priorities established
20
under subparagraph (A).
21
"(3) The Plan shall address, where appropriate, the rel-
22 evant programs and activities of-
23
"(A) the National Science Foundation;
24
"(B) the Department of Commerce, particularly
25
the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
7
1
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
2
and the National Telecommunications and Information
3
Administration;
4
"(C) the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-
5
istration;
6
"(D) the Department of Defense, particularly the
7
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency;
8
"(E) the Department of Energy;
9
"(F) the Department of Health and Human Serv-
10
ices, particularly the National Institutes of Health and
11
the National Library of Medicine;
12
"(G) the Department of Education;
13
"(H) the Department of Agriculture, particularly
14
the National Agricultural Library; and
15
"(I) such other agencies and departments as the
16
President or the Chairman of the Council considers ap-
17
propriate.
18
"(4) In addition, the Plan shall take into consideration
19 the present and planned activities of the Library of Congress,
20 as the Librarian of Congress considers appropriate.
21
"(5) The Plan shall identify how agencies and depart-
22 ments can collaborate to-
23
"(A) ensure interoperability among computer net-
24
works run by the agencies and departments;
8
1
"(B) increase software productivity, capability,
2
portability, and reliability;
3
"(C) expand efforts to improve, document, and
4
evaluate unclassified public-domain software developed
5
by federally funded researchers and other software, in-
6
cluding federally funded educational and training soft-
7
ware;
8
"(D) cooperate, where appropriate, with industry
9
in the development and exchange of software;
10
"(E) distribute software among the agencies and
11
departments;
12
"(F) distribute federally funded software to State
13
and local governments, industry, and universities;
14
"(G) accelerate the development of high-perform-
15
ance computer systems, subsystems, and associated
16
software;
17
"(H) provide the technical support and research
18
and development of high-performance computer soft-
19
ware and hardware needed to address Grand Chal-
20
lenges in astrophysics, geophysics, engineering, materi-
21
als, biochemistry, plasma physics, weather and climate
22
forecasting, and other fields;
23
"(I) provide for educating and training additional
24
undergraduate and graduate students in software engi-
9
1
neering, computer science, and computational science;
2
and
3
"(J) identify agency and department rules, regula-
4
tions, policies, and practices which can be changed to
5
significantly improve utilization of Federal high-per-
6
formance computing and network facilities, and make
7
recommendations to such agencies and departments for
8
appropriate changes.
9
"(6) The Plan shall address the security requirements
10 and policies necessary to protect Federal research computer
11 networks and information resources accessible through Fed-
12 eral research computer networks. Agencies and departments
13 identified in the Plan shall define and implement a security
14 plan consistent with the Plan.
15
"(b) The Council shall-
16
"(1) serve as lead entity responsible for develop-
17
ment of the Plan and interagency coordination of the
18
implementation of the Plan;
19
"(2) coordinate the high-performance computing
20
research and development activities of Federal agencies
21
and departments and report at least annually to the
22
President, through the Chairman of the Council, on
23
any recommended changes in agency or departmental
24
roles that are needed to better implement the Plan;
10
1
"(3) review, prior to the President's submission to
2
the Congress of the annual budget estimate, each
3
agency and departmental budget estimate in the con-
4
text of the Plan and make the results of that review
5
available to the appropriate elements of the Executive
6
Office of the President, particularly the Office of Man-
7
agement and Budget; and
8
"(4) consult and coordinate with Federal agencies
9
and departments, and academic, State, industry, and
10
other appropriate groups conducting research on high-
11
performance computing.
12
"(c) The Director of the Office of Science and Technolo-
13 gy Policy shall establish a High-Performance Computing Ad-
14 visory Panel consisting of prominent representatives from in-
15 dustry and academia who are specially qualified to provide
16 the Council with advice and information on high-performance
17 computing. The Panel shall provide the Council with an inde-
18 pendent assessment of-
19
"(1) progress made in implementing the Plan;
20
"(2) the need to revise the Plan;
21
"(3) the balance between the components of the
22
Plan;
23
"(4) whether the research and development
24
funded under the Plan is helping to maintain United
25
States leadership in computing technology; and
11
1
"(5) other issues identified by the Director.
2
"(d)(1) Each appropriate Federal agency and depart-
3 ment involved in high-performance computing shall, as part
4 of its annual request for appropriations to the Office of Man-
5 agement and Budget, submit a report to the Office identifying
6 each element of its high-performance computing activities,
7 which-
8
"(A) specifies whether each such element (i) con-
9
tributes primarily to the implementation of the Plan, or
10
(ii) contributes primarily to the achievement of other
11
objectives but aids Plan implementation in important
12
ways; and
13
"(B) states the portion of its request for appro-
14
priations that is allocated to each such element.
15
"(2) The Office of Management and Budget shall review
16 each such report in light of the goals, priorities, and agency
17 and departmental responsibilities set forth in the Plan, and
18 shall include, in the President's annual budget estimate, a
19 statement of the portion of each appropriate agency or de-
20 partment's annual budget estimate that is allocated to each
21 element of such agency or department's high-performance
22 computing activities.
23
"(e) As used in this section, the term 'Grand Challenge'
24 means a fundamental problem in science or engineering, with
25 broad economic and scientific impact, whose solution will re-
12
1 quire the application of high-performance computing re-
2 sources.
3
"ANNUAL REPORT
4
"SEC. 702. The Chairman of the Council shall prepare
5 and submit to the President and the Congress, not later than
6 March 1 of each year, a report on the activities conducted
7 pursuant to this title during the preceding fiscal year,
8 including-
9
"(1) a summary of the achievements of Federal
10
high-performance computing research and development
11
efforts during that preceding fiscal year;
12
"(2) an analysis of the progress made toward
13
achieving the goals and priorities of the Plan;
14
"(3) a copy and summary of the Plan and any
15
changes made in such Plan;
16
"(4) a summary of appropriate agency and depart-
17
mental budgets for high-performance computing activi-
18
ties for that preceding fiscal year; and
19
"(5) any recommendations regarding additional
20
action or legislation which may be required to assist in
21
carrying out this title.".
22 SEC. 6. NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK.
23
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.-I accordance with the Plan de-
24 veloped under section 701 of the National Science and Tech-
25 nology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976, as
26 added by section 5 of this Act, the National Science Founda-
HR 656 IH
13
1 tion, in cooperation with the Department of Defense, the De-
2 partment of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the Na-
3 tional Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other ap-
4 propriate agencies, shall provide for the establishment of a
5 national multi-gigabit-per-second research and education
6 computer network by 1996, to be known as the National
7 Research and Education Network (hereafter in this Act re-
8 ferred to as the "Network"), which shall link government,
9 industry, and the education community.
10
(b) ACCESS.-The Network shall provide users with ap-
11 propriate access to high-performance computers, computer
12 data bases, other research facilities, and libraries.
13
(c) NETWORK CHARACTERISTICS.-The Network
14 shall-
15
(1) be developed in close cooperation with the
16
computer, telecommunications, and information indus-
17
tries;
18
(2) be designed and developed with the advice of
19
potential users in government, industry, and the higher
20
education community;
21
(3) be established in a manner which fosters and
22
maintains competition and private sector investment in
23
high speed data networking within the telecommunica-
24
tions industry;
HR 656 IH
14
1
(4) be established in a manner which promotes re-
2
search and development leading to deployment of com-
3
mercial data communications and telecommunications
4
standards;
5
(5) be designed to ensure the continued applica-
6
tion of laws that protect copyright and intellectual
7
property rights or that control access to data bases;
8
(6) where technically feasible, have accounting
9
mechanisms which allow, where appropriate, users or
10
groups of users to be charged for their usage of the
11
Network and copyrighted materials available over the
12
Network; and
13
(7) be phased into commercial operation as com-
14
mercial networks can meet the networking needs of
15
American researchers and educators.
16
(d) DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE RESPONSIBILITY.-
17 The Department of Defense, through the Defense Advanced
18 Research Projects Agency, shall be lead agency for research
19 and development of advanced fiber optics technology,
20 switches, and protocols needed to develop the Network.
21
(e) NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION RESPONSIBIL-
22 ITY.-Within the Federal Government, the National Science
23 Foundation shall have primary responsibility for connecting
24 colleges, universities, and libraries to the Network.
HR 656 IH
15
1
(f) ROLE OF THE COUNCIL.-(1) The Council, within 1
2 year after the date of enactment of this Act and consistent
3 with the Plan developed under section 701 of the National
4 Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities
5 Act of 1976, as added by section 5 of this Act, shall-
6
(A) develop goals, strategy, and priorities for the
7
Network;
8
(B) identify the roles of Federal agencies and de-
9
partments implementing the Network;
10
(C) provide a mechanism to coordinate the activi-
11
ties of Federal agencies and departments in deploying
12
the Network;
13
(D) oversee the operation and evolution of the
14
Network;
15
(E) manage the connections between computer
16
networks of Federal agencies and departments;
17
(F) develop conditions for access to the Network;
18
and
19
(G) identify how existing and future computer net-
20
works of Federal agencies and departments could con-
21
tribute to the Network.
22
(2) The President shall report to Congress within 1 year
23 after the date of enactment of this Act on the implementation
24 of this subsection.
HR 656 IH
16
1
(g) USE OF GRANT FUNDS.-The National Science
2 Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administra-
3 tion, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense,
4 the Department of Commerce, the Department of the Interi-
5 or, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health
6 and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection
7 Agency may allow recipients of Federal research grants to
8 use grant funds to pay for computer networking expenses.
9
(h) REPORT.-Within 1 year after the date of enact-
10 ment of this Act, the Director, through the Council, shall
11 report to the Congress on-
12
(1) effective mechanisms for providing operating
13
funds for the maintenance and use of the Network, in-
14
cluding user fees, industry support, and continued Fed-
15
eral investment;
16
(2) plans for the eventual commercialization of the
17
Network;
18
(3) how commercial information service providers
19
could be charged for access to the Network;
20
(4) the technological feasibility of allowing com-
21
mercial information service providers to use the Net-
22
work and other federally funded research networks;
23
(5) how Network users could be charged for such
24
commercial information services;
HR 656 IH
17
1
(6) how to protect the copyrights of material dis-
2
tributed over the Network; and
3
(7) appropriate policies to ensure the security of
4
resources available on the Network and to protect the
5
privacy of users of networks.
6 SEC. 7. ROLE OF THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION.
7
(a) GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES.-The National Sci-
8 ence Foundation shall provide funding to enable researchers
9 to access high-performance computers. Prior to deployment
10 of the Network, the National Science Foundation shall main-
11 tain, expand, and upgrade its existing computer networks.
12 The responsibilities of the National Science Foundation may
13 include promoting development of information services and
14 data bases available over such computer networks; facilita-
15 tion of the documentation, evaluation, and distribution of re-
16 search software over such computer networks; encourage-
17 ment of continued development of innovative software by in-
18 dustry; and promotion of science and engineering education.
19
(b) INFORMATION SERVICES.-The National Science
20 Foundation shall, in cooperation with other appropriate agen-
21 cies and departments, promote the development of informa-
22 tion services that could be provided over the Network estab-
23 lished under section 6. These services shall include the provi-
24 sion of directories of users and services on computer net-
25 works, data bases of unclassified Federal scientific data,
HR 656 IH
18
1 training of users of data bases and networks, access to con
2 mercial information services to users of the Network, an
3 technology to support computer-based collaboration tha
4 allows researchers around the Nation to share informatio
5 and instrumentation.
6
(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.-There ar
7 authorized to be appropriated to the National Science Foun
8 dation for the purposes of this Act $46,000,000 for fisca
9 year 1992, of which $15,000,000 shall be for purposes 0
10 section 6; $88,000,000 for fiscal year 1993, of which
11 $25,000,000 shall be for purposes of section 6:
12 $145,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, of which $55,000,000
13 shall be for purposes of section 6; $172,000,000 for fiscal
14 year 1995, of which $50,000,000 shall be for purposes of
15 section 6; and $199,000,000 for fiscal year 1996, of which
16 $50,000,000 shall be for purposes of section 6.
17 SEC. 8. ROLE OF THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE
18
ADMINISTRATION.
19
(a) GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES.-In accordance with
20 the Plan developed under section 701 of the National Science
21 and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of
22 1976, as added by section 5 of this Act, the National Aero-
23 nautics and Space Administration shall conduct basic and ap-
24 plied research in high-performance computing, particularly in
25 the field of computational science. with emphasis on aeronau-
HR 656 IH
19
1 tics and the processing of remote sensing and space science
2 data.
3
(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.-There are
4 authorized to be appropriated to the National Aeronautics
5 and Space Administration for the purposes of this Act
6 $22,000,000 for fiscal year 1992, $45,000,000 for fiscal year
7 1993, $67,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, $89,000,000 for
8 fiscal year 1995, and $115,000,000 for fiscal year 1996.
9 SEC. 9. ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.
10
(a) GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES.-The National Insti-
11 tute of Standards and Technology shall adopt standards and
12 guidelines, and develop measurement techniques and test
13 methods, for the interoperability of high-performance comput-
14 ers in networks and for common user interfaces to systems.
15 In addition, the National Institute of Standards and Technol-
16 ogy shall be responsible for developing benchmark tests and
17 standards for high-performance computers and software.
18
(b) STUDY OF IMPACT OF REGULATIONS.-(1) The
19 Secretary of Commerce shall conduct a study to evaluate the
20 impact of Federal procurement regulations which require that
21 contractors providing software to the Federal Government
22 share the rights to proprietary software development tools
23 that the contractors use to develop the software, including a
24 determination of whether such regulations discourage devel-
HR 656 IH
20
1 opment of improved software development tools and
2 techniques.
3
(2) The Secretary of Commerce shall, within 1 year
4 after the date of enactment of this Act, report to the Con-
5 gress regarding the results of the study conducted under
6 paragraph (1).
HR 656 IH
NAME: HSY066140
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1
RPTS CRS
2
COURT REPORTING SERvices, Inc.
3
4
HSY066140
5
JOINT HEARING ON H.R. 656, THE
6
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING ACT OF 1991
7
THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1991
8
U.S. House of Representatives,
9
Subcommittee on Science,
10
Subcommittee on Technology and Competitiveness,
11
Committee on Science, Space and Technology,
12
Washington, D.C.
13
14
15
16
The subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 9:37 a.m.,
17
in Room 2318, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Rick C.
18
Boucher [chairman of the Subcommittee on Science] presiding.
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2
19
20
Mr. BOUCHER. This joint meeting of the Subcommittee on
21
Science and the Subcommittee on Technology and
22
Competitiveness will come to order.
23
Today we receive testimony on H.R. 656, authored by the
24
chairman of our full committee, Representative Brown, which
25
embodies the high-performance computing initiative long
26
advocated by Representative Brown, and by Senator Al Gore of
27
Tennessee, from whom we will be pleased to hear this
28
morning.
29
It's also satisfying to note the strong support of the
30
Administration for this effort, and we welcome as another of
31
our witnesses Dr. Allan Bromley, the President's science
32
advisor, who will elaborate on the Administration's
33
position.
34
High-performance computing, which comprises large capacity
35
data networks and supercomputers and the software to exploit
36
the capabilities of both, is evolving into a powerful engine
37
of scientific and technological progress. Ever more capable
38
networks connect scientists and engineers with one another
39
and with special research facilities and data bases. The
40
future points toward information superhighways with
41
applications for commerce, education, and research, limited
42
only by our imaginations. Supercomputers play an
43
increasingly prominent role in science and engineering
NAME: HSY066140
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44
research. In some research fields, they are auxiliary aids;
45
in others, they are the only means through which progress
46
can occur.
47
The opportunity now exists to accelerate development of
48
all aspects of high-performance computing so that we can
49
successfully confront the most difficult problems that
50
currently serve as barriers to scientific and technological
51
progress and to the future well-being of society. These
52
problems often are referred to as ''grand challenges" and
53
include the modeling of climate to assess the consequences
54
of human activities on the environment, detailed analysis of
55
the structure of materials to allow development of better
56
high- temperature superconductors, better understanding of
57
turbulent combustion processes that would lead to highly
58
fuel efficient and less polluting vehicles, and
59
determination of the function of biologically important
60
molecules to unlock the secrets of cell biology and thereby
61
make enormous strides in the cure of disease.
62
Our witnesses today will comment on the proposal to
63
develop and implement a national high-performance computing
64
program that will build on existing R&D activities of the
65
Federal Government to achieve orders of magnitude
66
improvements in network capacity and computing performance.
67
The bill calls for an interagency initiative that places
68
responsibility for planning and coordinating with the White
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69
House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The
70
principal agencies contributing to the initiative--the
71
National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research
72
Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, and the National
73
Aeronautics and Space Administration--are all represented
74
here this morning.
75
The bill authorizes the development of a multi-gigabyte
76
national research and education network, development of new
77
classes of supercomputers, development of the software that
78
is needed to fully exploit the capabilities of the most
79
powerful computers, and the vigorous basic research and
80
education program in computer and computational sciences.
81
The four components of the high-performance computing
82
program will help consolidate and focus research and
83
development activities so as to capitalize on our lead over
84
international competitors in some areas and accelerate
85
developments in other areas where the competition is
86
tighter.
87
This morning we are seeking the views of a broad range of
88
witnesses on the specific provisions of H.R. 656. We hope
89
to discover how the bill might be improved to help us
90
achieve its legislative objectives. We will welcome each of
91
our witnesses and look forward to their presentations.
92
It's now my privilege to recognize the co-chairman for
93
this hearing, the chairman of this committee's Subcommittee
NAME: HSY066140
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5
94 on Technology and Competitiveness, the gentleman from North
95
Carolina, Mr. Valentine.
96
[The prepared statement of Mr. Boucher follows : ]
97
98
********** INSERT **********
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6
99
100
Mr. VALENTINE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
101
I am extremely pleased to have the opportunity to chair
102
jointly with Mr. Boucher this hearing on high-performance
103
computing, and I will make these opening remarks very brief.
104
Over the past few years, there have been tremendous
105
advances in computer hardware, networking, and computational
106
technology. These advances have resulted in an exponential
107
increase in scientific communications and computing that has
108
had a positive impact on the way universities and industry
109
and Government interact in research.
110
These interactions have encouraged interdisciplinary
111
research that is necessary to solve the extremely difficult
112
scientific problems facing our country today. However, we
113
must continue to move forward in the area of
114
high-performance computing. Advances in interactive
115
communications could provide a virtual proximity for
116
conducting meetings, workshops, and educational activities.
117
Time and money could be saved in the way we conduct our
118
business, and resources could be shared across multiple
119
institutions to enhance the capabilities of those who are at
120
the low end of the scale.
121
Cooperative efforts must be encouraged and supported to
122
explore and exploit parallel computing. Both hardware and
123
software technology advances are needed to process and
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7
124
access the tremendous data bases that will be generated in
125
projects like the human genome research and Mission to
126
Planet Earth.
127
There are many other areas that I could talk about, but
128
for the sake of brevity, I shall not. Let me conclude by
129
saying that America must maintain its leadership in high-
130
performance computing, and high-performance computing
131
enhances basic scientific research and the transfer of this
132
research into technologies and products that support our
133
competitiveness in the global marketplace.
134
I'm encouraged that the President has proposed a high-
135
performance computing and communications program. I am
136
pleased that there is legislation in the Senate introduced
137
by Senator Gore similar to H.R. 656. I look forward to
138
hearing the testimony of Senator Gore and Dr. Bromley and
139
the other distinguished witnesses. I'd like to especially
140
welcome Mr. Larry Lee, the Director of the North Carolina
141
Supercomputer Center, which is in our district.
142
I look forward to working with Mr. Boucher and other
143
members of the Science Committee in the passage of this
144
legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
145
[The prepared statement of Mr. Valentine follows:]
146
147
INSERT **********
NAME: HSY066140
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8
148
149
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and now
150
recognizes the ranking minority member of the Science
151
Subcommittee, the gentleman from California, Mr. Packard.
152
Mr. PACKARD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
153
Welcome, Senator Gore. We appreciate you being here and
154
certainly are looking forward to your testimony regarding
155
the bill that you've introduced as S. 272 and its companion
156
bill, H.R. 656.
157
I would like also to welcome Dr. Bromley, whom we've heard
158
before before this committee, our science advisor to the
159
President and the Director of the Office of Science and
160
Technology Policy.
161
High-performance computing and computer communication
162
networks are becoming increasingly important to the
163
advancement of scientific research and economic competition.
164
This act has the potential to extend U.S. technology
165
leadership in high-performance computing. It will also spur
166
U.S. productivity and international competitiveness and
167
enhance the Nation's educational infrastructure.
168
The United States currently reigns as the world leader in
169
high-performance computing; however, aggressive steps must
170
be taken to maintain that dominant position. Certainly,
171
Japan and Europe are both rapidly gaining ground on the
172
international race for superiority in high-performance
NAME: HSY066140
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173
computing. This interagency initiative will work to ensure
174
America's preeminence in this technology.
175
At this point, one of my major concerns is the extent of
176
the Federal Government's involvement in developing the
177
national research and education network. I look forward to
178
testimony which will clarify the exact role of the Federal
179
Government.
180
Future goals for the initiative include developing the
181
hardware and the software to such a level that the so-called
182
''grand challenge" problems can be tackled. Key to solving
183
these grand challenges will be utilizing-- or rather the
184
utilization of--the five NSF supercomputer centers, of which
185
the San Diego Supercomputer Center, located at the
186
University of California at San Diego, is a shining example.
187
This center provides access to leading edge supercomputing
188
and visualization, extensive application software, and
189
comprehensive user service. I fully anticipate that the San
190
Diego Supercomputer Center will play a vital role in this
191
initiative.
192
I will conclude my statement at that point but certainly
193
look forward to the testimony of all of the witnesses, and I
194
want to thank the chairmen of both of the subcommittees for
195
this joint hearing.
196
[The prepared statement of Mr. Packard follows:]
197
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198 ********** INSERT **********
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199
200
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
201
Mr. Lewis from Florida, the ranking minority member of the
202
Subcommittee on Technology and Competitiveness.
203
Mr. LEWIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, my
204
chairman, for holding this hearing, and thank you for coming
205
over, Senator Gore, and discussing the merits of your bill.
206
Few areas in the United States' technology are recognized
207
as having been developed here first and in which we are
208
still the world's leader as the area of high-performance
209
computing. The benefits of this U.S. position have been
210
taken to make contributions both to our economy and to our
211
advances in other fields of technology. The question is:
212
how can we maintain our status as number one in the world?
213
Before us are two initiatives. One is the high-
214
performance computing legislation, H.R. 656, and the second
215
one is the Administration's high-performance computer
216
initiative. Which is best? Maybe neither but a combination
217
of both. I look forward to today's testimony, and we have a
218
sterling list of witnesses who are going to help us make
219
those decisions.
220
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
221
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and is now
222
pleased to recognize the chairman of the full Committee on
223
Science, Space, and Technology and the author of H.R. 656,
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12
224
the gentleman from California, Mr. Brown.
225
Mr. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
226
Last night the President, in a moving and excellent
227
speech, indicated that our highest priority in this
228
post-Gulf war period was to restore America's economic
229
leadership, and he challenged us to pass enabling
230
legislation to do that and accomplish other high priority
231
items within 100 days. I think we ought to accept that
232
challenge. This is a crucial item in restoring America's
233
competitive leadership in the world.
234
This committee has for many years had on a bipartisan
235
basis a strong interest in this kind of legislation,
236
exemplified by the leadership of Mr. Boehlert and others on
237
the minority side as well as those on the majority side. I
238
would like to have this committee accept as a goal to move
239
this legislation, and I hope Senator Gore can make the same
240
commitment in the Senate within that 100-day period and get
241
this effort to restore America's economic leadership off to
242
a good start, and I very much appreciate the contribution of
243
the witnesses here this morning in helping us do that.
244
Thank you.
245
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
246
the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Gilchrest.
247
Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
248
They say this is the information age, and I come before
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249
this hearing to listen to the witnesses as someone who knows
250
very little about computers--even home computers--so I will
251
be, I'm sure, fascinated with the testimony, and I look
252
forward to it.
253
We hear a great deal about infrastructure. I think
254
probably the most--in my judgment, anyway--important
255
infrastructure in the United States and probably the world
256
is education, and the way education is successfully
257
completed or is successful is through the continuing flow of
258
information. So if we can provide this flow of information
259
to our public schools, our research facilities in a
260
networking fashion to enhance the quality of life for people
261
through our constant improvement of competitiveness with the
262
rest of the world, then we will have completed our task, and
263
we can turn it over to the next generation to improve upon
264
it some more.
265
So I look forward to the testimony this morning.
266
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
267
the gentlewoman from Missouri, Mrs. Horn.
268
Ms. HORN. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
269
I have no opening statement. I do look forward to
270
listening to our illustrious guests. Thank you.
271
Mr. BOUCHER. The gentleman from Florida, Mr. Bacchus.
272
Mr. BACCHUS. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
273
I'd just like to say a personal word of welcome to Senator
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274
Gore. His family and mine hail from the same part of the
275
back woods in Tennessee. My grandmother has been voting for
276
people named Gore for about half a century. I was born in
277
Nashville and went to Vanderbilt, as he did, and Senator
278
Gore's father was one of my professors during my senior year
279
at Vandy after I worked in his last campaign as a volunteer.
280
One of the reasons I came to Congress was to work with
281
people like Al Gore. I'm very glad especially that he has
282
taken the time so often to come over to our side. I think
283
that's one of the reasons he's done so well on the other
284
side is that he has learned from us as well.
285
I'm a very strong supporter of this legislation, and
286
again, sir, welcome.
287
Mr. BOUCHER. The gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Henry.
288
Mr. HENRY. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
289
I don't have an opening statement, but I do have an issue
290
I would like to be raised in my absence, since I have a
291
markup which begins in another committee in about five
292
minutes, and it picks up on a comment of Mr. Gilchrest's
293
which I think is very central to part of this debate.
294
I wanted to acknowledge Chairman Brown's, Mr. Boehlert's,
295
and Senator Gore's leadership on this. These are not
296
sunshine patriots that jumped on an issue because it became
297
popular; they're the people who made it popular by pushing
298
the issue long before it was. I recognize their leadership
NAME: HSY066140
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299
on this and commend them for the fact that this is now
300
central to the issue of the debate on America's
301
technological competitiveness, the issue of technology
302
development, technology transfer, technology adaptation, and
303
competitiveness in the truest sense of the word. They're
304
tough issues because they're vanguard issues.
305
Senator, I'm very genuine in expressing my appreciation
306
for what you've done.
307
Part of that leadership reflected itself in fighting for
308
and celebrating victories over the years in establishing the
309
superconducting centers through the National Science
310
Foundation and the NSF net programs, which went on-line
311
about three years ago. I just want to put on the agenda my
312
concern that as we move forward on this new initiative we
313
not lose sight of what is there in place and to keep that
314
educational networking vital and strong.
315
And I mention it only because, to the best of my knowledge
316
in a preliminary and rather rudimentary looking at the
317
budget, we have a Presidential initiative, which I commend --
318
I think which we all commend--we're trying to shape and fine
319
tune it, but it leaves the NSF net flat, and I think that
320
has created some concern in the university community and
321
some of the research community, and I just want to be sure
322
we not lose sight of that component as we address the
323
grander whole.
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324
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Please excuse my
325
absence.
326
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
327
the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Costello.
328
Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Chairman, I have an opening statement,
329
but out of respect for Senator Gore's schedule, I would ask
330
that it be entered into the record at this time.
331
Mr. BOUCHER. Without objection, it will be made a part of
332
the record.
333
[The prepared statement of Mr. Costello follows:]
334
335
INSERT **********
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
17
336
337
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New
338
Hampshire, Mr. Swett.
339
Mr. SWETT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
340
I just wanted to say that I have a meeting coming up that
341
organizes the Economic Development Subcommittee on the
342
Public Works and Transportation Committee so I won't be able
343
to attend the hearing, but I appreciate the work that you're
344
doing, Senator Gore, and I just wanted to add that my
345
experience on the infrastructure issue from highways,
346
bridges, and intermodal transportation is not unlike the
347
kind of issues that we're dealing with here on this
348
subcommittee, and I appreciate that work, I applaud it. My
349
computer experience is extensive, and I understand the great
350
power and wealth that can be derived from a better
351
intermodal connection of our informational system.
352
I look forward to your testimony, and I look forward to
353
success in this committee.
354
Thank you very much.
355
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
356
the gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Thornton.
357
Mr. THORNTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
358
We have a rare moment of opportunity in this country with
359
the events that have been transpiring over the past year and
360
a half and this initiative by our own chairman, minority
NAME: HSY066140
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18
361
leader, minority representatives, and by my distinguished
362
former colleague, great friend, and neighbor, Senator Gore.
363
It's a pleasure to welcome you. I'm looking forward to
364
your testimony.
365
Mr. BOUCHER. The gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Roemer.
366
Mr. ROEMER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
367
As Mr. Swett said, I, too, have an Education Subcommittee
368
hearing to go to. In terms of brevity, I will just say that
369
we're delighted to have you here. I've heard a lot about
370
you, Senator Gore, being a freshman here, that you got your
371
start on this committee. I'm anxious to work with you from
372
the Senate side and with the chairman on this committee to
373
forge a relationship for our new domestic agenda, combining
374
education and technology--an opportunity that I have as a
375
freshman on these two very exciting committees--and the
376
exciting challenges we face as a country coming up into a
377
new century, and I look forward to working with you.
378
Thank you.
379
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman.
380
It is a particular pleasure this morning to welcome our
381
first witness, Senator Al Gore from Tennessee, who has long
382
been the leading advocate in the Congress for the
383
development of a high-performance computing and networking
384
program.
385
Senator Gore, we congratulate you on the success that you
NAME: HSY066140
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19
386
have had in bringing the initiative to this point, and we
387
note with satisfaction the strong support now offered by the
388
Administration for that initiative.
389
So with those comments, it is a pleasure to welcome you
390
this morning, and we'll be very pleased to receive your
391
testimony.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
20
392
393
STATEMENT OF HON. ALBERT GORE, JR., A UNITED STATES SENATOR
394
FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE
395
Senator GORE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
396
As a neighbor, I'm especially grateful to you for your
397
courtesy in inviting me this morning, and, Congressman
398
Valentine, thank you for co-chairing this hearing and for
399
your friendship as well.
400
We worked recently on the Carnegie Commission Panel on
401
Science in the Congress together, and Congressman Boucher
402
and I have worked on a number of initiatives together over
403
the years, and I have previously come to express my
404
heartfelt joy that Congressman Brown is chairman of this
405
committee now. You may get tired of hearing that, but we're
406
really excited at the dynamism and leadership that is
407
already evident here.
408
May I express my thanks to Mr. Packard and Mr. Lewis for
409
convening this hearing as well and to Congressman Sherwood
410
Boehlert and to all members of the committee. I appreciate
411
your invitation to be here.
412
As a former member of this committee, I note with pride
413
that this whole endeavor that we're discussing here today
414
began about 12 years ago in this very committee room. As a
415
new member of this committee, I began exploring the areas of
416
computational science, what the implications were for our
NAME: HSY066140
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21
417
country, what our Nation's capacity was to make good use of
418
computers and how we might deal with the information
419
revolution, and in that connection I would like to thank the
420
staff of this committee on both sides, the present staff and
421
their predecessors, for the help that I have had over the
422
years, and I include Dave Clement in this. I don't see him
423
here today, but it has been a bipartisan working
424
relationship from the very beginning, and I am grateful for
425
that.
426
You have a great witness list today, Mr. Chairman, and I
427
will ask your consent to put my full formal statement in the
428
record and just talk about why I think this initiative is SO
429
important, and in the course of my remarks, I will attempt
430
to briefly address some of the questions and inquiries that
431
came out in the opening statements.
432
One other introductory comment. Several people here have
433
already noted the key role played by Dr. Allan Bromley in
434
bringing us to the point we're at here today. If I might
435
add to those words briefly my own personal statement of what
436
a joy it is to work with Dr. Bromley on an issue like this,
437
it took very little time for him, after coming into the
438
Administration, to take command of a whole series of issues.
439
I've had my disagreements with him on a few of those issues,
440
but I have strongly agreed with him on most of them, and
441
this is one where we really see eye-to-eye, and there is
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 22
442
very little difference between the Administration's plan and
443
H.R. 656 and S. 272.
444
That's not by accident, incidentally. Several years ago,
445
this committee and the Senate Commerce Committee, and then
446
subsequently the House and Senate, passed legislation called
447
the Supercomputer Network Study Act. It directed the
448
Administration of then-President Reagan to conduct a full
449
and extensive study of what should be done here. We made
450
specific suggestions on the direction we thought it ought to
451
move in.
452
Well, they undertook that study, and after several years
453
they came back and said, ''You know, we agree with you.
454
This is something that ought to be done. This is in the
455
best interest of our country. " And we worked together with
456
the Administration to develop the details of how this ought
457
to proceed. It is not an accident that these plans are
458
moving in parallel here in the House and in the Senate and
459
in the Administration.
460
Of course, any Administration would like us to appropriate
461
all the money we appropriate each year and never give any
462
guidance as to exactly how it should be spent, but we take
463
that with a grain of salt. The details of the plans are
464
really in conformity, and that is partly due to Dr.
465
Bromley's leadership and his powers of persuasion within the
466
Administration. He used them, incidentally, in a hearing
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
23
467
Tuesday on the Senate side, and we have very strong
468
bipartisan support over there.
469
You know, I was thinking listening to your statements this
470
morning about the celebration we all shared in last night,
471
and I don't think it's stretching things too much to say
472
that one of the principal reasons our military coalition was
473
able to win such a decisive victory was that we had a
474
superior command of information in all its forms. One of
475
the media focuses of this war was the smart bomb and the
476
technology that made it possible for those bombs to avoid
477
civilian casualties and go right to the military targets,
478
the information management involved in the massive logistics
479
effort-- the list of examples is virtually endless, and I'll
480
not even start going through more of them, but the point is
481
we had a superior command of information. Our ability to
482
win the economic battles of the future with Japan and a
483
unified Europe, for example, will also depend on whether or
484
not we develop a superior command of information of the kind
485
directly relevant to success in the world economy.
486
The word ""infrastructure"" has already been brought up
487
here this morning. Let's think about that word because it
488
represents an important focal point for national unity of
489
purpose. Democrats and Republicans have arguments from time
490
to time, especially about the role of Government in moving
491
our country forward. One thing Democrats and Republicans,
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
24
492
conservatives and liberals have always been able to agree on
493
is that infrastructure, which empowers individuals and
494
empowers companies and empowers the whole Nation to perform
495
more efficiently and to reach toward more of our potential--
496
infrastructure represents one of those tasks appropriately
497
assigned to Government. It's one of the ways we can work
498
together as a country through Government to build a brighter
499
future for all of our citizens.
500
The future is arriving more quickly these days. It
501
becomes a cliche to talk about how fast things are speeding
502
up. Members of this committee know that better than members
503
of any other committee in Congress. But still it sometimes
504
leaves us behind, and in the debate about infrastructure,
505
that's true, because even though we agree on infrastructure,
506
we still think of it in terms of roads and bridges, deep
507
water ports, railroad lines, and the like. But, Mr.
508
Chairman, look at the dramatic success of some of these
509
newly emerging countries in the world economy that have
510
practically no natural resources, practically nothing to
511
work with except the ingenuity of their people and their
512
ability to use knowledge and information.
513
Clearly, we have to think of our national infrastructure
514
in broader terms, newer terms, and define it in ways that
515
include our ability to use information. We're now part of a
516
global civilization. It has been prematurely heralded and
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 25
517
announced several times in this century since the days of
518
Woodrow Wilson, but now it is here, partly due to the
519
electronic media that lets us sit in our living rooms and
520
watch the bombs dropping in Baghdad, that lets people
521
everywhere in the world hear music recorded in Nashville,
522
Tennessee.
523
The world is being brought together, and this global
524
civilization and this global marketplace is based on shared
525
knowledge in the form of digital code. Digital code is now
526
the lingua franca of global civilization, and those nations
527
best able to use knowledge and information in the form of
528
digital code will be those nations best positioned to better
529
the lives of their people and compete successfully in this
530
new global civilization. We have a lead in network
531
technology, but it's generally assumed to be about 18 months
532
over the Japanese, and if we sit on our lead, we'll lose it
533
the way we have in some other critical areas.
534
I want to make it possible for a school child in Tennessee
535
or Arkansas or Virginia or the other States represented here
536
to come home after school and, instead of playing Nintendo,
537
plug into the Library of Congress with a device that looks
538
very much like a Nintendo machine and no more expensive. We
539
know exactly how to do that today. All the technologies are
540
available today. What's missing? The political imagination
541
and willpower. It's present in this committee.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
26
542
Now, we do have some problems. This information
543
revolution has created fantastic new abilities to shape the
544
world around us, to unlock the secrets of nature, and all
545
the rest, but it has resulted in the accumulation of more
546
data than we can possibly absorb. It's just stacking up
547
unused. We don't take advantage of it. It reminds me of the
548
way we used to approach agricultural policy. We had these
549
huge silos of grain rotting while people starved to death by
550
the millions. We're trying to work our way away from that.
551
Well, now we have these silos of data rotting, sometimes
552
literally, while the hunger for information on how to solve
553
these unprecedented problems is more severe now than at any
554
time in the history of humankind.
555
Take the LANDSAT program, just as one example, capable of
556
taking a complete photograph of the earth's surface every 18
557
days. It's been up there taking pictures for almost 20
558
years. Ninety-five percent of those pictures have never
559
fired a single neuron in a single human brain. They just
560
sit there stored in digital form in Sioux Falls, South
561
Dakota, in that case, because we don't use them. That
562
problem is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
563
Look at the Mission to Planet Earth Program, which both of
564
our committees are looking at. When it's up there
565
operating, it will send information equivalent to the entire
566
Library of Congress every five days. A little bit less than
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
27
567
that. Well, if we can't even use the LANDSAT photos, how
568
are we going to use that? Well, if you look at our ability
569
to learn and to deal with information and analyze our brains
570
in the terms that might be applied to a computer, you'd say
571
that we have a low bit rate but very high resolution. The
572
telephone company years ago decided that seven numbers was
573
the most we could remember, and then they added three. Bit
574
by bit, information cannot be absorbed in great quantities.
575
But we also have high resolution. What that means very
576
simply is that if we're presented with a billion or a
577
trillion bits of data all arrayed in a mosaic pattern, such
578
as a picture, we can absorb it just like that.
579
Supercomputers make two unique contributions to our ability
580
to deal with information. The first is it gives us the
581
ability to take massive amounts of information and configure
582
it into patterns or pictures or three-dimensional moving
583
graphics, mosaics of meaning which enable us to absorb lots
584
of information quickly.
585
The second thing supercomputers enable us to do is to go
586
into a vast ocean of information and quickly pick out those
587
particular scattered bits which are necessary to make up one
588
of those patterns. We're doing that now with great success.
589
Unfortunately, our infrastructure needed to enable us to
590
share those pictures, those patters, those graphics is not
591
capable of doing it. In order to use one of these new
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 28
592
machines, you almost have to be in the same building with it
593
because our network of communications lines has been driven
594
by supply and demand forces responding mainly to the demand
595
for voice communication and streams of numbers--bit, bit,
596
bit.
597
We face a chicken-and-egg dilemma, a very classic problem,
598
and I would say this especially in response to Mr. Packard's
599
query about--a very sincere question--what exactly is the
600
Government's role here? Well, the marketplace is not
601
conveying to us the demand for these new kinds of
602
information services because the network to deliver them is
603
not in place. The market is not conveying to us the demand
604
for this new network because the information services which
605
will be delivered over it are not yet being offered to the
606
public. It's a chicken-and-egg dilemma.
607
How do we get over that hurdle? We get over it the same
608
way we built the interstate highway system. No private
609
company could have gone to the capital markets and raised
610
the money to capitalize the interstate highway fund. The
611
Government did it. Then user fees were available to keep it
612
going on an ongoing basis. This network should be and will
613
be privatized as soon as it is feasible to do so. You know,
614
the NSF net, which was referred to earlier, is now
615
contracted out to private companies. This will operate the
616
same way. More than that. The unique physical
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 29
617
characteristics of this network offer tremendous
618
opportunities. Let me explain briefly what I'm talking
619
about there.
620
Fiber optic cable is the first communications media which
621
can have its capacity greatly upgraded without putting more
622
cables in the ground or on the poles. All you have to
623
change is the electronics at either end--the switches, the
624
software, the algorithms. So as the Government stimulates
625
the development of the new switches, et cetera, necessary to
626
upgrade the capacity of the fiber already there to build
627
this backbone network, that technology will become available
628
to the private sector to quickly expand the reach of the
629
network. The same switches will be able to expand the
630
capacity of other fiber optic cables already in place. The
631
demand will grow. We'll unleash the forces of supply and
632
demand in a way that will quickly expand this network far
633
beyond the backbone pattern that will be authorized in this
634
legislation and in the President's plan. We need to do
635
more. We need to create digital libraries, which will also
636
be done in this legislation, to get started on the task of
637
configuring the information so that it is accessible through
638
the network.
639
Scientists are now saying that this development, our
640
ability to use supercomputers in this form and share the
641
data, is so important that it has actually led to a third
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 30
642
branch of knowledge creation, the first two being, of
643
course, inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. You
644
have a theory, you test it out. You look at the world and
645
gather facts and try to explain it. Computational science
646
is a third entry on that very short list. We can model
647
versions of the way the world can work and learn from it.
648
Some of you witnesses will explain this far better than I
649
can, but, members of the committee, we've got the first two
650
branches of knowledge creation handled pretty well, but this
651
third one is going to determine the future of the world
652
economy and the future of virtually every business in
653
America. We need to empower our businesses and our
654
individuals to participate fully and to compete more
655
effectively than the peoples of any other nation on Earth.
656
Now, in conclusion, I will cover a lot of things in my
657
prepared statement that I did not cover here, including the
658
specifics of H.R. 656 and S. 272, rather, which I should be
659
talking about, but I've worked very closely with Congressman
660
Brown and am very proud to be his partner and Congressman
661
Boehlert's partner and the others here who are working on
662
that. I'm beginning to feel I've spent so much time on the
663
generalities that I haven't gone through the specifics, but
664
maybe since I've consumed the time I have I'll just leave
665
that for the record and respond to any questions you might
666
have about it.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 31
667
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
668
[The prepared statement of Senator Gore follows : ]
669
670
********** INSERT **********
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 32
671
672
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the Senator for that very
673
well stated view of the need for the high-performance
674
computing and networking initiative. What I think we all
675
agree on is the need for the initiative. What perhaps there
676
is not total agreement on is the need for the legislation
677
itself, and what I would ask the Senator is perhaps to share
678
with this committee some of the specific reasons that we
679
should pass legislation in order to provide a framework into
680
which this high-performance computing initiative can fit.
681
Senator GORE. Well, let me just give one example. The
682
Administration's plan does not include the concern expressed
683
earlier by Mr. Gilchrest about education. Not
684
intentionally; it was an understandable oversight which they
685
will remedy next year, I'm sure. But that's an example of
686
how Congressman Brown's bill and its companion in the Senate
687
can supplement what the Administration has done, just as
688
they have supplemented some of the things that we started
689
here.
690
Dr. Bromley has done well in getting a commitment from OMB
691
to support this initiative. But you know what? That
692
commitment is only for one year. This is a five-year
693
program. This committee has the power with the concurrence
694
of the Congress to authorize a program for five years and to
695
send a clear and unmistakable signal to the private sector
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 33
696 that this is going to happen. And it will happen, and I
697
have great confidence in Dr. Bromley, but I also understand
698
that any Administration--and we Democrats have certainly been
699
guilty of this just as much as Republicans as they've had
700
the White House- whenever we've controlled the Presidency,
701
our President has often stated a preference to have the
702
Congress just appropriate the money and get out of the way.
703
"Just give us the money and don't worry about how we spend
704
it. Trust us, we'll do it. "
705
Well, I trust them, but the conditions that led OMB to
706
sign off on this this year could potentially change next
707
year. I've known Offices of Management and Budget to
708
suddenly do irrational things and say, "Well, yes, we liked
709
that program last year, but we've got some hard choices, and
710
we're just going to have to cut it out this year. We
711
ought to be willing to say here in this Congress, "This is
712
important to the future of this country, and we want to get
713
on with it. "
714
You know, there's a private company already looking at
715
what we're doing based in Michigan. I know Congressman
716
Henry had another hearing to go to, but the Merit Company in
717
partnership with MCI and IBM have already announced a non-
718
profit corporation in the private sector to say, ''As soon
719
as this network is up and going, we're going to commit a lot
720
of money privately to quickly expand it as far as we can. "
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
34
721
So that's yet another reason why we need that multi-year
722
commitment.
723
Now, finally, in response to your question, we've spent a
724
lot of time in Congress, especially in this committee,
725
looking at exactly how this should be done, and the Congress
726
must be an integral part of this whole initiative, as it has
727
been from the start.
728
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
729
the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Valentine.
730
Mr. VALENTINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
731
I must say, Senator, that I'm proud to have known you when
732
you served on this committee. I don't mean to suggest that
733
you have become better at expressing yourself since I first
734
admired that quality here, but I want to compliment you on
735
the job that you have done here. You have succeeded, I
736
think, in translating a lot of very complicated scientific
737
words into language that is easy, relatively speaking, to
738
understand.
739
I want to ask just a couple of questions, and maybe both
740
of them have some parochial basis. Our district includes--
741
the Second District in North Carolina is very much like many
742
others but very different in many ways in that it has Duke
743
University and the major developed part of the Research
744
Triangle Park, and then it has a lot of rural, isolated
745
areas in the eastern part of our State. Let me comment
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 35
746
before coming to my question. It is certainly hoped that
747
when we develop the ability to plug in these small, isolated
748
high schools into the Library of Congress, and even the
749
homes, that we can also do something about the motivation to
750
cause that plug to be utilized rather than some other
751
electronic devices that will be in those places.
752
I understand how this legislation will apply to places,
753
certain parts of our district, but what are your ideas as to
754
how this can assist your constituency in the hills of
755
eastern Tennessee and my folks in Vance County, North
756
Carolina, which is a relatively remote agricultural area?
757
Senator GORE. Well, that's probably the best question of
758
all because it strikes right at the heart of what my concern
759
is all about. I want children in Carthage, Tennessee,
760
population 2,000, to be able to get the educational
761
advantages that will come from these stunning developments.
762
I don't think it is feasible for the Federal Government--and
763
I know you're not suggesting this; this is a way of leading
764
into my answer--I don't think it's feasible for the Federal
765
Government with taxpayer money to build a network reaching
766
into every home in the country. Everybody realizes we can't
767
do that, shouldn't try to do that. But it is possible for
768
us to demonstrate what can be done and unleash forces within
769
the marketplace which will inevitably lead precisely to that
770
result.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 36
771
Now, as an aside, let me say that I've supported, along
772
with Congressman Boucher, a very controversial bill which
773
we're not discussing here today that would allow cable
774
television--I mean telephone companies to get into the cable
775
television business, and that's another way to unleash
776
market forces to put fiber to the home. But that bill has
777
uncertain chances of passage, and we understand that, but
778
that is an example of unleashing the forces of supply and
779
demand.
780
Let's assume that bill doesn't pass. Let's assume it does
781
not pass. I believe that when graduates of the University
782
of North Carolina have the experience of dealing with
783
knowledge in this revolutionary form and then go to a
784
community that's just five miles off the trunk line, and the
785
other businesses and people in that community begin to share
786
the understanding of how important it is for their community
787
to have that, there will be a number of private companies
788
interested in extending that fiber to that community.
789
You know, my home town is not on the interstate highway
790
system like a lot of cities are not, but once it was built,
791
States and localities and, in some cases, even private
792
turnpike companies built access roads to get to it because
793
it was there. I went to Research Triangle recently to talk
794
with the scientists there who are pioneers in this new
795
computer display technology called ''virtual reality.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
37
796
Very, very exciting. It's got a lot of attention in the
797
press, and it really is one of the most powerful ways to
798
present information that's ever been created. That can be
799
taken by fiber out to schools in the rest of your district
800
and in the rural areas of my State.
801
Mr. VALENTINE. One final question. Thank you. Give us
802
the prospects for this legislation in the Senate. You know,
803
the Senate to most of us is a strange and unusual place.
804
[Laughter. ]
805
Senator GORE. I don't know how you could get that
806
impression, Mr. Valentine.
807
[Laughter. ]
808
Mr. VALENTINE. What do you think the prospects are? How
809
long will it take, if you can say?
810
Senator GORE. Well, this is on the priority list and on
811
the listing by the majority leader of our priority measures
812
this year. It was listed as one of the high priorities, and
813
the notation afterwards was ''minimal controversy. We
814
passed it unanimously last year. There are disagreements
815
with the Energy Committee about the role that the Department
816
of Energy will play in the network.
817
Dr. Bromley has had similar controversies with the
818
Department of Energy in his efforts to get the
819
Administration all unified. The Department of Energy has
820
agreed to the plan that Dr. Bromley has presented, and that
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 38
821
is the bureaucratic relationship which is encompassed in
822
H.R. 656 and S. 272. We anticipate that that remaining
823
controversy will be resolved quickly this year and that we
824
will pass this legislation early on, and I welcome the
825
challenge of 100 days that Congressman Brown laid down.
826
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman.
827
The gentleman from Oregon--California, Mr. Packard.
828
Mr. PACKARD. Thank you very much.
829
I appreciate you addressing briefly the concern that I
830
expressed relative to the role that Government would play.
831
I'd like you to elaborate, if you would, Senator, briefly on
832
how your legislation--what role in terms of ownership, in
833
terms of operation of the network after it's implemented,
834
and how that will articulate with the private sector and the
835
university systems as it moves from a Government program to
836
a private program.
837
Senator GORE. Mr. Packard, those are questions I've spent
838
a lot of time on. Let me begin my response by saying I
839
believe it's noteworthy that the private companies which one
840
might expect to be most concerned are supporting the
841
legislation. MCI, Sprint, AT&T, et cetera, are supporting
842
the legislation. One of the reasons is that all of the
843
principal sponsors have said from the very beginning and
844
reaffirmed at every occasion our full and unqualified intent
845
to transition this into the private sector as soon as it
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 39
846
becomes feasible to do so. Also, the NSF net model provides
847
reassurance because a transition has taken place there on
848
terms satisfactory to companies like Sprint, MCI, AT&T.
849
This network will present some unique challenges. We do
850
not yet know how to answer all of the questions encompassed
851
in your query, but the old saying 'Where there's a will,
852
there's a way'' certainly applies here, and the close
853
consultation and communication with those companies that are
854
naturally involved in this debate will continue. The NSF
855
net model presently serves as the model of choice with
856
whatever wrinkles are necessary as we discover that it
857
doesn't exactly apply. I could just say we'll do it that
858
way, but I want to tell you I'm convinced there are
859
differences, and we need to just acknowledge that we don't
860
know all those answers yet.
861
Mr. PACKARD. Well, I certainly don't disagree with the
862
role that Government needs to play initially. I think,
863
though, one of my concerns not only in this program but in
864
many of our Government programs- NASA as well as many of our
865
other science research programs is that the transition-- we
866
will never really remain competitive internationally until
867
we allow- unlock the private sector to do what Government can
868
often provide the seed money as well as the ingenuity
869
initially, but until the private sector really becomes a
870
part of it, we just simply cannot remain competitive.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
40
871
That's true on our launch services, it's true in many of our
872
space programs, it will be true in this case, and that's, of
873
course, the reason for the question. I certainly applaud
874
the efforts that the legislation lends itself to.
875
Senator GORE. Mr. Chairman, at the risk of taking too much
876
time in response to this, please allow me to answer your
877
question on another level. The reason capitalism has routed
878
communism in the philosophical war of this last half-century
879
can be seen partly in information terms as well. Capitalism
880
allows control over the information about supply and demand,
881
the decisions over the future course of our economy, to be
882
dispersed as widely as possible among the people who are
883
closest to the information. That's one of the main reasons
884
capitalism is superior. Communism failed because it relied
885
on a single processor of economic information, and it's
886
inefficient. It doesn't work, and it doesn't unlock the
887
higher fraction of human potential in creativity.
888
The same thing is true with computer science. We need to
889
give this country the advantages of--we've already given it
890
the advantages of capitalism and democracy, or our founders
891
did. We need to make sure that our approach to computers is
892
the same way and not just have them in these single
893
institutions that people have to go to, but disperse it
894
widely with this network.
895
Mr. PACKARD. Thank you very much.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 41
896
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
897
California, Mr. Brown.
898
Mr. BROWN. Mr. Brown is going to pass.
899
Mr. BOUCHER. All right.
900
The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Gilchrest.
901
Mr. GILCHREST. I almost feel like I should pass, too, but
902
I'll ask my question. Sometimes I feel I should pass
903
because I'm inadequate as far as my knowledge is concerned
904
toward these fantastic and wonderful things. I will say
905
that the spread of information, I think, has continued this
906
experiment called democracy because people have access to
907
it, and maybe we should put a television in everybody's home
908
in Iraq and show them ''Family Ties'' and gradually they'll
909
evolve into our democratic philosophies. But the spread of
910
information is paramount. I don't mean to make light of
911
that because I couldn't agree with you more on that
912
particular topic.
913
This is a more mundane question, I suppose. Some of the
914
problems in developing this network perhaps will be
915
managerial problems, finding the right facility for
916
connecting the network of these supercomputers, and so on.
917
Is there any thought given to--we are now in the process
918
across this Nation of closing bases and military facilities
919
and labs, and many of these military labs have the
920
infrastructure that might be needed in connecting some of
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 42
921
these--making it possible for this network to work. Would it
922
be possible to consider some of those military labs that are
923
on the docket to be consolidated or closed to be turned over
924
to a research university to be used--or they could take it
925
over, in other words--the private sector could take over some
926
of these military labs where the infrastructure is already
927
established to be a part of this network of supercomputers.
928
Senator GORE. That's a very interesting idea, Mr.
929
Gilchrest. I'd like to reflect on it. Just briefly, one of
930
the theorists in this area, Dr. William Wulf, has long
931
talked about a national co-laboratory because the definition
932
of laboratory really changes with this network, and people
933
in locations like the ones you mentioned could have upgraded
934
capacity because they could share with the people in other
935
locations in a co-laboratory where the work exists within
936
the network. So it's something that is worth exploring, and
937
I'd like to reflect on it.
938
Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Senator Gore.
939
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
940
Mr. BOUCHER. The gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Thornton.
941
Mr. THORNTON. Thank you very much.
942
I do want to again express my appreciation for the
943
splendid work that has been done in bringing this forward.
944
I sometimes wonder if we're not perhaps at the stage where
945
the automobile once was as an early developing instrument of
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
43
946
transportation and communication, and highways had to be
947
built for those automobiles to travel. And I wonder if the
948
possibility of home computers using digital codes and fiber
949
optics as a means of communication may not really be at the
950
stage of early automobiles. And are you describing the need
951
to develop a transportation system, a highway system, SO
952
that these private uses may be employed?
953
Senator GORE. That's right on the money. Just exactly
954
right, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, the interstate
955
highway analogy was the way I first started thinking about
956
this, and I think that's most appropriate.
957
Mr. THORNTON. In the interest of your time, I'm not going
958
to pursue further, but I would be delighted to add my
959
support to this legislation and also to work with you and
960
the Chairman on your fiber optics program.
961
Senator GORE. Congressman Thornton, it's a great thing for
962
this committee and all of us to have your services back here
963
in the Congress. It's a great pleasure to serve with you
964
again.
965
Mr. THORNTON. Thank you very much.
966
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman.
967
The gentleman from California, Mr. Rohrabacher.
968
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
969
Senator, there are some people who I've heard-- especially
970
out in California--who actually don't like the highway system
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
44
971
and think that the U.S. highway system screwed things up.
972
[Laughter. ]
973
Mr. ROHRABACHER. In fact, some people and a lot of
974
environmentalists in California have made these arguments in
975
our universities that--and I'm not making them necessarily; I
976
mean, I think some of the points that you've made are
977
interesting, and I'm going to watch this legislation very
978
closely, and I have not really made up my mind as to which
979
way to go on this--
980
Senator GORE. Well, commuting by wire as an alternative to
981
the clogged highways has been much discussed and will become
982
more of a reality with this.
983
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Well, and there is some argument that
984
perhaps other modes of transportation might have been
985
developed that might have been better for the environment
986
had we not put the money in, and sometimes when the
987
Government starts directing the future rather than leaving
988
it up to the people, sometimes it makes mistakes, and when
989
it makes mistakes it really makes big mistakes.
990
For example, also--another example might be the railroad
991
system where when the Government was deeply involved in the
992
railroads, compared to those railroads which were just
993
totally private operations, the Government-directed
994
railroads where we helped them out actually cost a lot of
995
money and there was a great deal of corruption back in the
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 45
996
last century.
997
Let me just ask you some specific questions, and again,
998
I'm not really stating a position on this because I don't
999
have a position on it yet, and I'm fascinated by some of the
1000
points you've made today, and I think you've made your case
1001
very well. But does your legislation envision that the
1002
Government will be buying and owning supercomputers, high
1003
end switches, fiber optic cable, and other hardware? Do you
1004
envision that the Government is actually going to own this
1005
hardware?
1006
Senator GORE. For the backbone network, the Government
1007
will do this, but it will be transitioned into the private
1008
sector as soon as it is feasible to do so. Just as the
1009
Government stimulates the development of new technologies on
1010
a demonstration basis and they become available in a lot of
1011
different fields, that would be the case here, and the
1012
switches that would be a part of the backbone network would
1013
then be available to anybody in the private sector who
1014
wanted to buy them.
1015
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Could you please, as you see it, tell us
1016
the difference between what your approach is and what Dr.
1017
Bromley will tell us is the approach of the Administration?
1018
Senator GORE. The approaches are--
1019
Mr. ROHRABACHER. The central difference.
1020
Senator GORE. They're very, very close because of the
PAGE 46
NAME: HSY066140
1021
reasons I outlined earlier. We've worked together for a
1022
long time now. The central--we have education as a major
1023
component of ours, and they don't disagree with that. They
1024
think that that ought to be added. But the major
1025
difference, I guess, is the often-stated preference by
1026
Administrations controlled by both parties that the Congress
1027
simply appropriate money and not give any direction as to
1028
how to spend the money. That's really the only remaining
1029
difference, and they're not going to war over that one.
1030
Mr. ROHRABACHER. All right. Just one note. Your approach
1031
to fiber optics in terms of deregulating certain elements of
1032
the telecommunications industry I believe is an approach
1033
that we could afford now in terms of solving a certain
1034
problem without using Government funds, and many times
1035
instead of appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars
1036
some of the things might be accomplished by giving tax
1037
incentives or clearing away regulation, and I will be
1038
looking at this issue very closely to see if this approach
1039
is necessary in terms of the allocating of funds or if there
1040
could be another approach with actually deregulation and tax
1041
incentives.
1042
Senator GORE. Let me clarify, if I might. The entrance of
1043
telephone companies into the cable TV industry would be
1044
useful, in my opinion, to get that last mile to the home of
1045
fiber, but that development, as unlikely as it is to occur,
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
47
1046
if it did occur, that would not stimulate the development of
1047
the switches and the software and the algorithms and the
1048
national network involved here, nor would it establish the
1049
digital libraries or the educational component of this
1050
legislation or the other features of it.
1051
I might also say that in connection with the concerns
1052
about the private sector, again it is noteworthy that the
1053
private companies with the most at stake in this whole field
1054
and all the related fields are almost unanimous in their
1055
support of this initiative. Many of them have made
1056
statements like "This is the single most important thing
1057
this country can do for our future. " It has attracted very
1058
broad support within the private sector.
1059
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Well, I appreciate your testimony, and
1060
we'll look very closely at the legislation.
1061
Senator GORE. Thank you.
1062
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman.
1063
The gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Bruce.
1064
Mr. BRUCE. Good testimony, great questions, and I will
1065
yield to another member. Thank you.
1066
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman.
1067
The gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Kopetski.
1068
Mr. KOPETSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
1069
Senator Gore, I'm very impressed with your testimony as
1070
well. I represent part of Oregon where we have Hewlett-
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 48
1071
Packard and Mender Graphics and part of Techtronics, some of
1072
the leading edge companies in the world in some of their
1073
technologies that they have developed, and our State is also
1074
developing an education network as a State resource for
1075
providing education and seminars throughout the State using
1076
computer technologies. We also know from the
1077
high-definition television issue that Japan, for example,
1078
decided 10 years ago or 15 years ago to get into HDTV. We
1079
didn't. Now we're trying to catch up.
1080
My question to you is what if we don't do this? What does
1081
this mean in terms of Japan and Germany? What are they
1082
doing? What are the consequences for the United States if
1083
we don't have a coordinated approach?
1084
Senator GORE. First, as an aside, we have an opportunity
1085
to blow Japan out of the water on HDTV because they have
1086
gone with the analog approach, and we are demonstrating now
1087
something called VHDTV--very high- definition
1088
television--based on the digital technology, which this very
1089
network and related developments will make it possible for
1090
us to exploit to the detriment of these analog investments
1091
by the Japanese. But if we do not have the boldness to take
1092
advantage of the areas where we do have a lead, then we'll
1093
watch that lead go over to the Japanese and others who do
1094
have that boldness. We have about an 18-month lead here.
1095
The Japanese are now at work trying to put in place a
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 49
1096
fiber network linking every significant factory on all the
1097
islands of Japan in a grid that will enable them to shift
1098
work around to computer-controlled machines that have slack
1099
capacity among the other things they're planning. They're
1100
also planning to take fiber to every home. So if we don't
1101
move to exploit the advantage we have, then we'll lose the
1102
advantage. It's a simple as that.
1103
Mr. KOPETSKI. Thank you.
1104
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
1105
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
1106
Indiana, Mr. Roemer.
1107
Mr. ROEMER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
1108
Thank you, Senator, for taking time out of your schedule,
1109
too, and coming over here. I know that there are other
1110
freshmen on this committee. Given the prominence that you
1111
have gained from your hard work on this committee, we take a
1112
lot of energy and skill in following your example here.
1113
One of the questions I have for you, Senator, is in
1114
looking at section 5 of H.R. 656, we see all the different
1115
agencies that are coordinating together. Let me just name a
1116
couple of them: the National Science Foundation, the
1117
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the
1118
Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and other
1119
relevant agencies, and then they are coordinated through the
1120
Federal Coordinating Council for Science Engineering and
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 50
1121
Technology.
1122
Following up on my colleague from Oregon's question, and
1123
not in terms of emulating the Japanese--I don't think that
1124
many of our solutions in education or trade are in emulating
1125
the Japanese--but do we need to get some other way within the
1126
Department of Commerce or some other agency to better
1127
coordinate our trade in long term development of getting our
1128
products from the research and development stage to the
1129
commercial application stage, whether it be fiber optics,
1130
high-definition television, superchips, magnetic levitation
1131
trains?
1132
Senator GORE. Well, Congressman, thank you first for your
1133
kind words, and your question is a broad one and a very
1134
appropriate one. I personally support some kind of civilian
1135
DARPA. I don't have specific suggestions for you here this
1136
morning about how to do that. I recognize there would be a
1137
lot of concerns about it, and I'd want to reflect on those
1138
concerns. But I think we do need an American model for
1139
competing more effectively.
1140
Now, where that relates to this project--I want to come
1141
back to this for a minute in the context of your question--
1142
one of the advantages we have with this effort is quite a
1143
few years of experience in working out exactly how these
1144
agencies can coordinate their efforts, and there is, as Dr.
1145
Bromley will tell you, a very impressive working
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 51
1146
relationship between all of the departments and agencies
1147
involved. You might look at the organizational chart and
1148
ask yourself, ''How in the world can this thing operate the
1149
way it does?, but the fact is it does because all of the
1150
key players are making it operate, and they've worked out
1151
the thousands of subtle arrangements at a, you know,
1152
sub-cabinet level that make the information flow smoothly
1153
and make the decisions in a timely way.
1154
This model is one that is proven to be successful. That
1155
is why it is in the legislation that Congressman Brown and I
1156
have introduced.
1157
Mr. ROEMER. Senator, just to--and I know, you know, maybe
1158
there's something that you and I can work on in the future,
1159
and if you do have any immediate comments on what kind of
1160
role you might see for DARPA, as a staff member on the
1161
Senate side, I work closely with DARPA. I know that there
1162
has been some ongoing give-and-take and tugs between the
1163
Reagan Administration and what role DARPA would play. Do
1164
you have any immediate comments? And if not, that's fine,
1165
but I would sure like to--
1166
Senator GORE. I'd like to follow up with you.
1167
Mr. ROEMER. Okay.
1168
Senator GORE. Perhaps we could work together on this
1169
initiative. I would welcome a chance to do that. We used
1170
to have a kind of civilian DARPA in DARPA, but he was fired.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 52
1171
[Laughter. ]
1172
Senator GORE. And I regretted that.
1173
Mr. ROEMER. I look forward to it, Senator. Thank you
1174
again.
1175
Senator GORE. Very good.
1176
Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. I apologize to the other
1177
witnesses for the time I've consumed in my responses, but
1178
thank you. Have I forestalled?
1179
Mr. BOUCHER. We have one other member present--
1180
Senator GORE. I'm sorry.
1181
Mr. BOUCHER. who I'll call on. He's shaking his head, th
1182
gentleman from Iowa.
1183
The Chair thanks Senator Gore very much for the
1184
enlightening testimony this morning, and I would simply like
1185
to underscore a comment by the gentleman from North Carolina
1186
that you do have an exceptional ability to take technical
1187
concepts, translate them into understandable language, and I
1188
think that was a very remarkable presentation this morning.
1189
Senator GORE. Are you getting all this down?
1190
[Laughter. ]
1191
Senator GORE. I appreciate it, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
1192
Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you, Senator.
1193
Mr. BOUCHER. Now we are pleased to welcome to this joint
1194
hearing the President's science advisor, Dr. D. Allan
1195
Bromley, and we will be very pleased, Dr. Bromley, to hear
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 53
1196
your comments concerning the Administration's position with
1197
regard to the high-performance computing and networking
1198
initiative, and without objection, your written statement
1199
will be made a part of the record, and we'll be pleased to
1200
hear your summary.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 54
1201
1202
STATEMENT OF D. ALLAN BROMLEY, SCIENCE ADVISOR TO THE
1203
PRESIDENT; DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1204
POLICY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
1205
Mr. BROMLEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It always
1206
is a great pleasure--
1207
Am I connected? Okay.
1208
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman--both Chairman Valentine
1209
Chairman Boucher, members of the two subcommittees.
1210
It's a great pleasure on this particular topic to follow
1211
Senator Gore, because he has given you a very elegant
1212
presentation--a very elegant and eloquent presentation of
1213
much of the background that I would otherwise have wished to
1214
present. So as Director of the Office of Science and
1215
Technology Policy, what I would like to do is simply give
1216
you some further detail as to the Administration's
1217
initiative, the President's initiative, and I would comment
1218
then on two concerns that I have with respect to the
1219
legislation under consideration here this morning.
1220
I think that it is important to recognize that the
1221
prominence given to high-performance computing and
1222
communication in the budget that the President forwarded is
1223
a very real indication of the importance that he attaches to
1224
it and that we in the Administration attach to this effort.
1225
Indeed, personally, I can think of very few other activities
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 55
1226
that we collectively in this Nation could take that have the
1227
potential for such a great impact on our society, and so it
1228
is with very real pleasure that I appear before you this
1229
morning, and I want to tell you something about this
1230
initiative, how it was developed, and what it contains.
1231
The overall goals of high-performance computing and
1232
communication are symbolized in the document that we have
1233
made available to you, the document entitled ''Grand
1234
Challenges: High-Performance Computing and Communication, "
1235
by problems of very high scientific and social value that we
1236
simply can't attack in effective fashion at the present
1237
time. These are very important problems, they are within
1238
our reach technologically, but in order to make them
1239
accessible, we must move forward with the kind of program
1240
and the kind of initiative that the President has set
1241
forward.
1242
What we have in mind is the full integration of component
1243
programs in all of the major Federal agencies, bringing them
1244
together into a national program, as distinct from a
1245
combination of heterogeneous agency programs, that will move
1246
us forward in the directions that Senator Gore described
1247
just before me. The initiative proposes that we should
1248
increase our support for this activity across the spectrum
1249
of the agencies by 30 percent in moving from what was
1250
appropriated in 1991 to what we have requested in 1992.
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1251
It is also our goal to double the investment in this area
1252
over the five-year planning period that is reflected in the
1253
document that we have made available to you. During that
1254
period, we wish to increase the speed, the memory capacity,
1255
and the information transfer rates by factors between 100
1256
and 1,000. Those factors are within reach technologically,
1257
and those factors can make not just a quantitative
1258
difference in what we can do, they can make a very major
1259
qualitative difference as well.
1260
As Senator Gore spelled out for you, this is not a new
1261
initiative. The whole high-performance computing and
1262
communication initiative dates back to the early 1980s and
1263
before. I think originally it was a recognition in the
1264
scientific and technological communities that simply they
1265
had reached barriers in their approach to the most important
1266
problems in field after field and that they could not
1267
proceed without substantial improvement in the computational
1268
facilities available to them, and it was in 1982, under a
1269
request from this committee, that the Federal Coordinating
1270
Council examined the status of supercomputing in the United
1271
States, reviewed the role of the Federal Government, and
1272
there were seven subsequent years of reports and studies and
1273
planning, and that culminated in September of 1989 in the
1274
issuance of a report by my office entitled "The Federal
1275
High- Performance Computing Program. "
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57
1276
Now, what we have brought forward for you in the 1992
1277
budget is the detailed plan for implementing the program
1278
that was discussed in broad outline in that earlier report.
1279
Eight major agencies are participating in this program. The
1280
program, if implemented, will of course affect all of the
1281
Federal agencies. But the thing that I want to emphasize
1282
here and pay tribute to is the remarkable level of mutual
1283
trust, of cooperation, and of synergism that has been
1284
developed among those eight agencies over the period of the
1285
last year, two years, as they have worked on a weekly and
1286
sometimes daily basis to put together the initiative that we
1287
bring to you here.
1288
What has been involved here is not just simply looking at
1289
one another's program. What is involved here is actually
1290
taking the programs of each agency, looking at them in
1291
detail, if necessary taking them apart, rebuilding them,
1292
restructuring them so that they fit into a coherent whole so
1293
that we get the maximum impact for every dollar that we can
1294
invest in this area, every dollar that you gentlemen can
1295
make available to us. And I think that we have here an
1296
example of participation and cooperation that is unique both
1297
within and outside of Government. It is, I think, also an
1298
indication of what we can accomplish under the new and
1299
restructured Federal Coordinating Council where the members
1300
are now cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries, and the
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1301
heads of the independent agencies so that once decisions are
1302
made in the committees of the FCCSET and are approved by
1303
this group of members, then the decisions remain intact
1304
through all subsequent budget negotiations, and this gives
1305
me a much greater degree of confidence that this program
1306
will in fact move forward as it is presented to you and as
1307
it has been agreed to by all of these FCCSET members.
1308
Now, there are four specific components in the program
1309
that we are proposing, and there has been some confusion, I
1310
believe, as to what those components comprise, and I want to
1311
take just a moment to run through the four.
1312
The first has to do with high-performance computing
1313
systems, and you will note, ladies and gentlemen, that I do
1314
not use the word ""supercomputer."" We are talking here not
1315
only about supercomputers but about high-performance
1316
computers of all sizes and kinds because on our ultimate
1317
network we will have a great many different kinds and sizes
1318
of computers, and in the final system the user should not
1319
either care or know what computer is actually doing work for
1320
him or for her because it is one of the fundamental truths
1321
of computer science, computational science, that different
1322
problems require quite different architectural structures in
1323
the computers that work on them if they are to be done with
1324
maximum efficiency. So one of the goals is to demonstrate
1325
the working of a complex system that involves a great many
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 59
1326
kinds of high-performance systems.
1327
Another part of the program is to make sure that we use
1328
the purchasing power of the Federal Government in a coherent
1329
way to provide for a viable domestic industry on a
1330
continuing basis to maintain our leadership and our
1331
innovative potential in the development of this kind of
1332
hardware on the leading edge of computer science. We have a
1333
leadership role, and it's one that we can keep. It is also
1334
one that we can easily lose.
1335
The second component of our program recognizes that no
1336
matter how powerful is the computational system, if the
1337
software--if the actual interface with the user--is not
1338
friendly, then it isn't going to work. And the one thing
1339
you can say about supercomputers and high-performance
1340
computer software is that in general it is not user
1341
friendly. It has been developed by mavens who work on
1342
nuclear weaponry and on high-performance aircraft, and the
1343
average individual would have a rough time getting these
1344
programs to perform. So we have a real challenge here.
1345
This again is an area where we have international
1346
leadership, but an area of leadership that we could easily
1347
lose.
1348
Thirdly, the area where there is the greatest perhaps
1349
misunderstanding and potential for confusion is that
1350
relating to the information highway that Senator Gore just
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 60
1351
discussed. The idea here is clearly in the end to make the
1352
kind of power that I've been discussing and the kind of
1353
software for use of that power available across the Nation
1354
to any citizen who wants it, to any home that wants it, to
1355
any school, to any small industry, as well as to the major
1356
industries and the major laboratories that now have it. But
1357
it is important to realize that the Government is not going
1358
to provide that; we are not suggesting that.
1359
What we are suggesting is that we develop here a national
1360
research and education network--that's what NREN stands for --
1361
and I would simply emphasize that education has been part of
1362
our program from the very beginning. We did not amplify to
1363
a great extent in this report on the educational potential
1364
of this, although I would be happy to do it in response to
1365
questions, because in parallel with this activity--and I hope
1366
that many of you gentlemen have already seen the report --
1367
the FCCSET organization was producing a report on education
1368
and human resources that was highlighting that particular
1369
role, and we did not wish to duplicate between the two
1370
reports. Rather, we are focusing again on maximizing the
1371
coordination not only among agencies in a particular area of
1372
activity like high-performance computing but rather among
1373
agencies in a great many areas which overlap and which have
1374
common links, and this is just an example.
1375
What we have--and this is important to understand--is a
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1376
system that began with networks that were within single
1377
agencies. DOE had a net, the Department of Defense had a
1378
net, NSF had a net. These were all pulled together to
1379
become Internet. Internet was managed by NSF. And what we
1380
propose is that that Internet be expanded, expanded
1381
substantially, in terms of what it has in the way of
1382
hardware to provide capacity, what it has in the way of
1383
off-ramps to make capacity available to a great many
1384
organizations and institutions that don't now have it. But
1385
it is important to recognize that even in this network the
1386
Government does not own the fiber, that we have gone to the
1387
commercial carriers, and they have the fiber, and it would
1388
be my hope and certainly the plan that we outline here that
1389
in the ultimate system it would be a public utility in
1390
exactly the same sense that the telephone system is a public
1391
utility; not only that, it would be as commonplace, as
1392
natural to have in your home and to use in your home as the
1393
telephone. That is the only way, ladies and gentlemen, that
1394
we can be truly competitive in the world that we face as we
1395
move into the next millennium, and we have the opportunity
1396
to move into that millennium with real leadership.
1397
The fourth component of our program is no less important
1398
than the first three, and that has to do with the people who
1399
will not only move this area forward, who will be the
1400
leaders in computer science not only nationally but
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
62
1401
world-wide, the leaders in computational science, but
1402
equally important and all too frequently forgotten in our
1403
entire approach to science and technology is the forgotten
1404
middle--the technicians, the folk who come usually from
1405
two-year colleges who actually operate the network, who
1406
maintain the network, who maintain the computers that are on
1407
the network--and unless we act aggressively to improve our
1408
rate of production of people in that category and unless we
1409
give them more prestige, a greater reward structure, more
1410
recognition, we will in fact have a major gap in the program
1411
that we are bringing to you. So this is a very important
1412
part of the initiative.
1413
Now, what we seek--just to give some specific goals, we
1414
seek 1,000-fold improvement in useful computing capacity,
1415
and we seek that within the next five years. That means
1416
that we will be doing one trillion operations per second,
1417
and the focus we would like to see is on generic
1418
technologies that are applicable not specifically to this
1419
program but to a great many programs but also happen to be
1420
crucial to this one. And from the very beginning, we want
1421
to see the private sector involved to the maximum possible
1422
extent. This is important for two reasons. One, because
1423
they bring their own experience, expertise, leadership to
1424
bear on the initiative, and secondly, because if they are
1425
involved from the beginning, I believe that we can move this
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 63
1426
entire program into the public utility that I foresee in the
1427
future on a much more rapid basis than would otherwise be
1428
the case.
1429
In software development, we're going to focus on these
1430
grand challenges because by doing so I think we will be able
1431
to demonstrate in a way that is quite unique--I wish I had
1432
the opportunity to show you this morning some films made in
1433
some of the Nation's supercomputer laboratories showing the
1434
totally new capacity that becomes available with this high-
1435
performance systems, because we can demonstrate to the
1436
entire Nation that there are a great many things that they
1437
can do that they can't have right now, and this is what we
1438
need to get public support for the entire program.
1439
I've said that we're going to try and expand the Internet
1440
to a national research and education net, and the goal there
1441
is to get a 100-fold increase in the rate at which data can
1442
be transmitted. We want to have levels of gigabits per
1443
second. Obviously, we have to expand the number of on- and
1444
off-ramps so that a great many more people get access to the
1445
system.
1446
Small businesses, in my view, are one of the most
1447
important groups to consider because they are the ones who
1448
can probably use this with the highest effectiveness in
1449
creating new jobs, in moving forward the innovation that
1450
they already demonstrate to a very high degree in this
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 64
1451
country. Second most important area, as far as I'm
1452
concerned, is the secondary and elementary schools of the
1453
Nation because, as Senator Gore touched on, a single fiber
1454
entering a school room makes it possible for every student
1455
in that room to receive individualized, self-paced
1456
instruction in any topic with reinforcement where
1457
appropriate, with repetition where necessary, and with the
1458
kind of new graphic presentations that can really grasp the
1459
enthusiasm and interest of youngsters, and that in the long
1460
run is probably the most important thing we can possibly do.
1461
And I would have to say that no plan of this kind is any
1462
better than its execution, and the execution of this plan, I
1463
believe, will rely very heavily on the synergy that's been
1464
developed between the agencies that are involved in its
1465
creation. What we have tried to do is allocate the
1466
responsibilities in this program SO that each agency is
1467
responsible for the area in which it has the greatest
1468
experience, an area in which it does best, and that is the
1469
sort of thing we have tried to do in all of the FCCSET
1470
activities, namely to maximize the critical effectiveness of
1471
our activities by drawing on the special expertise of each
1472
of the participating agencies.
1473
Now, I don't think I have to recite for you again the long
1474
list of "hope for" benefits that we foresee; "hope for''
1475
is far too pessimistic. I am absolutely confident that the
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 65
1476
benefits will arise that Senator Gore spelled out for you,
1477
and I will not attempt to do that. I think it is important
1478
also to mention that although the numbers are very crude,
1479
back in 1989 we contracted with Los Alamos to do a study to
1480
try to give us some feeling for the economic benefit that
1481
would be reflected if you gentlemen were to agree to support
1482
the program we're talking about here, and I emphasize that
1483
this kind of economic modeling is open to considerable
1484
question and error, but it is important to note that the
1485
result that has come out of this study is that the payback
1486
is in the range-- according to the group that studied it--is
1487
in the range from $170 billion to $500 billion over the next
1488
decade. And those, despite the fact that they may be wrong
1489
by significant factors, are still very impressive numbers
1490
and represent a very significant payback.
1491
Now, with respect to the legislation both in the Senate
1492
and here in the House, I would say, first of all, as Senator
1493
Gore said in response to some of your questions, that the
1494
goals that are outlined are goals that we fully share, that
1495
the programs are remarkably similar. I have, however, two
1496
concerns, and let me be very candid and explicit about those
1497
concerns.
1498
The first concern is that this is an area perhaps par
1499
excellence in the whole field of technology that is moving
1500
very rapidly. It is the intention of our Administration
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 66
1501
group to revisit this plan on at least an annual basis and
1502
change it as appropriate to the changing technology and to
1503
the experience we have gained up to this point. If that
1504
flexibility for change along the way is not retained, then I
1505
am concerned because we will not be able to move forward in
1506
the optimal fashion to use what technology can make
1507
available to us. And I register that simply as a concern,
1508
and it's something that we must, I hope, address jointly to
1509
make sure that we don't lose that flexibility.
1510
The second concern I have reflects the simple fact that
1511
the major players in this program come before different
1512
committees of the Congress, and we have spent a year
1513
hammering out differences among the agencies and have
1514
arrived at a point where all of the participating agencies
1515
and their senior personnel--their secretaries, their
1516
administrators, whatever is appropriate--have agreed to
1517
participate in the program as indicated. Now, should it
1518
turn out that for whatever reason different committees
1519
choose to act differently on various components of this, the
1520
cohesion that is all important in the program that we bring
1521
forward could very rapidly disappear, and it would require
1522
the group to go back and rework the plan essentially from
1523
scratch to maintain the maximum benefit under new conditions
1524
and perhaps new assignments of responsibility.
1525
So I would raise that only as a concern, and I would hope
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 67
1526
that working together with you gentlemen and your colleagues
1527
in other committees that we can hope to get the kind of
1528
cooperation and coordination that now exists in the agencies
1529
in bringing forward the plan.
1530
And so, Mr. Chairman, let me conclude my remarks at that
1531
point. My formal testimony contains considerably greater
1532
detail, but I would welcome your questions.
1533
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
1534
[The prepared statement of Mr. Bromley follows : ]
1535
1536
INSERT **********
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 68
1537
1538
Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Dr. Bromley. We
1539
appreciate your attendance here this morning and those very
1540
well expressed views.
1541
I wonder at the outset if you would take just a moment to
1542
comment on the potential and the time frame against which we
1543
could expect to see a commercialization of this network
1544
following the investment by the Federal Government in jump-
1545
starting the system.
1546
Mr. BROMLEY. Well, I think it is important, sir, to begin
1547
by noting that, as Senator Gore mentioned earlier, we
1548
already have Advanced Network Services--a not-for-profit
1549
organization that has been set up--supported by but
1550
independent of IBM, MCI, and the Merit operation out of the
1551
University of Michigan originally-- that is being set up
1552
already and poised to begin to commercialize, to begin to
1553
work toward this utility starting as soon as we start. So
1554
it's not going to be a process of the Government working for
1555
a time and then industry coming in. I think that it has
1556
been critical to have industrial participation all the way
1557
through the planning, and we have vehicles already in place
1558
that are ready to move as soon as we get started.
1559
So I would see that essentially simultaneously with
1560
action--and action, I may say, sir, is already under way. It
1561
should not be forgotten that the Federal Government is
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 69
1562
already investing just about half a billion dollars a year
1563
in high-performance computing in the various agency
1564
programs, so there's a great deal of work already in place.
1565
What this initiative does is to bring it together in a
1566
coherent fashion and move it all forward, hopefully in a
1567
better and more productive fashion. But a lot is under way.
1568
The ties with industry are already very strong, and in the
1569
Administration, in parallel with the FCCSET activity, we
1570
have activity in the President's Council of Advisors in
1571
science and technology. We have a panel on high-performance
1572
computing and communication chaired by Dr. Soloman Buxbaum
1573
of AT&T, and that is very important to bring the private
1574
sector input into all these discussions from the very
1575
outset.
1576
Mr. BOUCHER. Would you care to make just a comment perhaps
1577
to expand a bit upon what Senator Gore said about the need
1578
for this initiative at the outset in order to jump-start the
1579
process? To state that question a different way, why can't
1580
we simply at this point leave it entirely to the private
1581
sector? Why is the Government role really necessary?
1582
Mr. BROMLEY. I think there are several reasons, sir.
1583
Perhaps one of the most important is that this half billion
1584
dollars that we are spending now has created centers of
1585
excellence in our national laboratories, in the
1586
supercomputer centers, in the major research universities,
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 70
1587
but these have been isolated, and the access to those
1588
centers of excellence by the industrial sector, with the
1589
exception of some very large industries that you could
1590
easily name, has been rather small. And so what I see as
1591
perhaps the greatest need for Federal action at this time is
1592
simply the bringing together of the excellence that we
1593
already have into a critical mass that will move us forward
1594
then in a defined direction with a coherent input from all
1595
the players.
1596
It's the problem we face in area after area. We have here
1597
in the U.S. the innovative skill, the know-how, frequently
1598
the technology, but we tend to ride off in all directions,
1599
and the major role I see for this initiative is the focusing
1600
of the activity and then the augmenting of that activity by
1601
coherent action by the Federal Government.
1602
Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much.
1603
The Chair's time has expired, and in the interest of
1604
moving the hearing along, I'll just make one further
1605
comment, and that is this. I, for one, very much welcome
1606
your suggestion that we need to work in partnership in
1607
ensuring that as we structure this legislation it not serve
1608
as a restriction or create some inflexibility on the part of
1609
the various agencies that will be coordinating the
1610
initiative, and I give you that pledge on the part of this
1611
member and would very much welcome any recommendations that
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 71
1612
you care to make on amendments that we should make to the
1613
bill at this point that would be in furtherance of that
1614
objective.
1615
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina.
1616
Mr. VALENTINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
1617
Dr. Bromley, I want to say also that we from my part
1618
welcome you here. I know you think that you work for the
1619
Congress almost, you're down here SO often, but that is some
1620
indication of how bad we need you.
1621
Mr. BROMLEY. It's a pleasure, sir.
1622
Mr. VALENTINE. What role do you foresee in the
1623
Administration's high-performance computer initiative for
1624
existing supercomputer centers such as those supported by
1625
NSF, DOE, and NASA?
1626
Mr. BROMLEY. I see a very crucial role for them, Mr.
1627
Valentine, because they have already, in the fields in which
1628
they have been operating, demonstrated where the frontiers
1629
are and even more important where the frontiers can be, and
1630
so they are the sort of point institutions as we move
1631
forward in this initiative. So I see a very important role
1632
for them.
1633
Mr. VALENTINE. One of the witnesses who will testify with
1634
panel four, Dr. Larry Lee, Executive Director of the North
1635
Carolina Supercomputer System, is here today. I mentioned
1636
his name earlier, but he wasn't here to hear it. I want to
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 72
1637
be sure he understands that I welcomed him, and I welcome
1638
him again. We're very proud of him and his institution.
1639
How will non-Federally funded supercomputer centers such
1640
as the North Carolina Supercomputer System fit into this
1641
initiative?
1642
Mr. BROMLEY. We have in the Nation, sir, a very tightly
1643
knit community of the people at the forefront of computer
1644
science and computational science. These are bonds of
1645
personal friendship, institutional relations that are
1646
already very strong, and so I have no question whatsoever
1647
but what we will be drawing on a great many centers that are
1648
not at this moment necessarily part of any Federal program.
1649
We will be drawing on expertise wherever we can find it in
1650
the Nation, and the fortunate thing is, typical of our
1651
structure and the way science is done in this country, all
1652
the leading people know all the other leading people and
1653
know where to get the expertise when it's required.
1654
And so if someone has something to contribute to this
1655
program and is not already part of it, one of the early
1656
moves that we foresee is bringing them into the activity and
1657
taking advantage of their experience, giving them the
1658
advantage in turn of what we're trying to put together. I
1659
look on this as a very highly cooperative activity.
1660
Mr. VALENTINE. Thank you, Doctor.
1661
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 73
1662
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman.
1663
The gentleman from California, Mr. Packard.
1664
Mr. PACKARD. Thank you.
1665
You alluded, Dr. Bromley, to the changes in the request
1666
from the 1991 appropriations versus the 1992 request and the
1667
five-year, but you didn't mention any figures. What are the
1668
figures?
1669
Mr. BROMLEY. We are requesting this year, sir, $638
1670
million.
1671
Mr. PACKARD. And last year?
1672
Mr. BROMLEY. Last year we were just under $500 million.
1673
We're talking about a 30 percent increase.
1674
Mr. PACKARD. And the five-year plan? What does it call
1675
for, about?
1676
Mr. BROMLEY. The total of the five-year plan?
1677
Mr. PACKARD. Yes.
1678
Mr. BROMLEY. We're talking about doubling it, bringing it
1679
up to $1 billion at the end of the five years.
1680
Mr. PACKARD. Okay. And Senator Gore referred to very
1681
modest, almost insignificant differences between S. 272
1682
versus H.R. 656 and the President's proposal or your
1683
proposal. What are the differences, in your view?
1684
Mr. BROMLEY. Well, to take a very minor difference first,
1685
I think between S. 272 and the bill we're considering here
1686
there really are very small differences. There is only the
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1687
one section having to do with the protection of intellectual
1688
property, so there really is no major difference there.
1689
Mr. PACKARD. Is the protection adequate, in your judgment,
1690
in both pieces of legislation?
1691
Mr. BROMLEY. No, I think it's an area--I think that your
1692
bill here raises a very important issue, and it's one that
1693
merits consideration and thought because this is an area
1694
where as we move into the international marketplace and
1695
interact with our competitors abroad, the question of
1696
protection of intellectual property, particularly in the
1697
software area, becomes a significant one. So that's an
1698
important point.
1699
In the other Senate bill that is under consideration, S.
1700
343, there are substantial differences because that bill
1701
does not have the coordination among the agencies that is in
1702
your bill and in S. 272 and in the President's initiative.
1703
Those are the primary differences.
1704
Mr. PACKARD. Thank you. Does the President's initiative
1705
require the authorizing committee?
1706
Mr. BROMLEY. Does it require it? No, sir.
1707
Mr. PACKARD. So what role do you see this committee having
1708
in moving the President's initiative?
1709
Mr. BROMLEY. I believe, sir, that if this committee could
1710
provide authorizations in a timely fashion and work with us
1711
and the Administration and with your colleagues in the
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1712
appropriation committees and subcommittees to move forward
1713
an appropriation bill that maintains the cohesion that we're
1714
talking about in this initiative that that would be
1715
enormously helpful.
1716
Mr. PACKARD. If S. 272 and H.R. 656 were rolled into one,
1717
would the Administration be satisfied to see that one piece
1718
of legislation move?
1719
Mr. BROMLEY. I would simply have to repeat the
1720
Administration concerns that I mentioned earlier. First, we
1721
want to be sure that flexibility is maintained so that we
1722
don't freeze a rapidly moving technology for a five-year
1723
period when we really should be changing it on an annual
1724
basis. That's the prominent concern I have. A secondary
1725
concern is this one about losing the hard won coherence and
1726
integration that we have because of different actions by
1727
different subcommittees.
1728
Mr. PACKARD. Last year there were disputes concerning the
1729
Department of Energy's involvement in the legislation, and
1730
that, I think, led to the demise of the legislation in the
1731
last session. Are there any conflicts in the Executive
1732
Branch at the present time concerning DOE's role, and is the
1733
Administration solidly behind the NSF taking the leading
1734
role versus DOE?
1735
Mr. BROMLEY. I have spoken with Admiral James Watkins, the
1736
Secretary of Energy, who is a member of FCCSET, and I've
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1737
been assured by him that the Department of Energy stands
1738
fully behind the commitment made in moving forward this
1739
initiative in the 1992 budget. In fact, the same is true of
1740
the Department of Defense, which is one of the other major
1741
players in this that falls in another--
1742
Mr. PACKARD. So at the present time you see no major
1743
impediments from different agencies within the Government?
1744
Mr. BROMLEY. I have been assured by the highest level
1745
personnel in all the agencies that they have in good faith
1746
signed off on this initiative and their participation in it.
1747
Mr. PACKARD. It's a pleasure to have you with us, Dr.
1748
Bromley. It always is.
1749
Mr. BROMLEY. Thank you.
1750
Mr. PACKARD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
1751
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
1752
at this time the gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Thornton.
1753
Mr. THORNTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
1754
It's a great pleasure to see you, Dr. Bromley.
1755
Mr. BROMLEY. Thank you.
1756
Mr. THORNTON. I noticed in your testimony that you do
1757
think it is very important to have the Congressional support
1758
and endorsement of this program, and I would like to get a
1759
clearer understanding of what form that support might take.
1760
Mr. BROMLEY. Well, I think--in two sentences, sir, I think
1761
that it is very important for any of these major initiatives
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1762
of major national importance to be carried forward with the
1763
highest possible degree of cooperation between the
1764
Administration and the Congress. I think that in your
1765
committee, in the authorizing committees, and in the
1766
appropriations committees we have, I think, work to do to
1767
make sure that we don't lose the kind of cohesion, the kind
1768
of integration that has been built in where each agency is
1769
by design playing a role that compliments and adds to those
1770
of all the other agencies.
1771
If agencies are moved out independent of any suggestion of
1772
this initiative, then we lose the whole coherence and would
1773
essentially have to start over again. So the support here,
1774
I think, is crucial to moving this in a reasonable fashion.
1775
Mr. THORNTON. Would you not agree that in addition to
1776
coherence among agencies, continuity over time is also a
1777
very important function for that?
1778
Mr. BROMLEY. I would indeed, sir.
1779
Mr. THORNTON. I'm recalling the circumstances in which I
1780
found myself on this committee a few years ago where the
1781
President had eliminated the Office of Science Advisory to
1782
the President, and the idea was that it really wasn't needed
1783
to have that coherent and that continuing idea, and yet out
1784
of that came the initiative that there should be a statutory
1785
base for this in order to provide for continuity but also to
1786
provide for flexibility and for the advice to be given not
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1787
only to the President but, as you so ably do, to this
1788
committee and to the Congress, and it just seems to me that
1789
statutory language does provide for continuity that may not
1790
be available without some written basis. Would you agree
1791
with that, sir?
1792
Mr. BROMLEY. I would find it somewhat difficult to
1793
disagree with you in this particular instance. It
1794
demonstrates how ephemeral life really is.
1795
[Laughter.]
1796
Mr. THORNTON. Well, I'm very glad that we have a statutory
1797
base for the science advisor to the President, and I hope
1798
that we'll give careful thought to that lesson from the past
1799
as we consider whether or not the support that Congress can
1800
give to this might indeed be in the form of legislation.
1801
Mr. BROMLEY. Mr. Chairman, if I might just add a
1802
clarification, one of my staff has just reminded me that in
1803
fact North Carolina is a part of the network already, and SO
1804
I'm delighted that we already have your constituents and
1805
colleagues firmly aboard.
1806
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
1807
Maryland, Mr. Gilchrest.
1808
Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
1809
Dr. Bromley, could you make a distinction between the
1810
thrust with the President's initiative for education and
1811
Senator Gore's idea that his plan or his initiative
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79
1812
emphasized a much greater amount of--his plan proposed to do
1813
more for education than the President's plan? And the other
1814
question is could you tell us how H.R. 656 in its present
1815
form, if it were passed, in your opinion, could hinder the
1816
creative natural flow of pure research?
1817
Mr. BROMLEY. Could hinder?
1818
Mr. GILCHREST. Hinder, yes.
1819
Mr. BROMLEY. Let me respond to the first part of the
1820
question about education. I think frankly that there is a
1821
little misunderstanding here because in the document that we
1822
have sent forward, the grand challenges, we do in fact list
1823
education as one of the four major components of our
1824
program, and we have not amplified that in major sections of
1825
the document because, as I mentioned earlier, at the same
1826
time that this document was being prepared by a committee
1827
under the Federal Coordinating Council we were also doing
1828
one that was specifically on education, and in that document
1829
we cross reference this one.
1830
And so, quite frankly, I don't see that there's any
1831
difference at all in the amount of potential educational
1832
impact, educational opportunity, in S. 272 and in the
1833
President's initiative. They really both recognize this as
1834
one of the extremely important areas but an area that has
1835
not been much explored yet. That's the important thing. An
1836
area where we have a tremendous opportunity that hasn't yet
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
80
1837 been realized. But there really is no difference between
1838
the two in that respect.
1839
In terms of your second question, I frankly see no way in
1840
which H.R. 656 would hinder research and development at all.
1841
I think it would certainly move it forward without question.
1842
Mr. GILCHREST. I'm trying to understand. The only real
1843
difference, then, as I see it, between the President's
1844
initiative and H.R. 656 is if we went through the statutory
1845
route, then there would be a--we would be covering the same
1846
ground again, and as we went through various committee
1847
hearings, the splintering up of the program could be caused?
1848
Mr. BROMLEY. Two things, sir, if I may. The first is that
1849
the legislation is talking about taking a five-year look at
1850
the system and in a sense specifying a five-year program. My
1851
concern, and I raise it only as a concern, is that in an
1852
area where the technology is changing by orders of magnitude
1853
per year, I am concerned that we, in specifying a five-year
1854
program, may regret that as we, each year of that five,
1855
discover that we really would like to make some major
1856
changes in the program as we go along. That's the first
1857
concern.
1858
The second concern is the one you mentioned, that of
1859
trying to maintain the coherence and integration in the
1860
various agencies that are being considered by different
1861
committees.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE
81
1862
Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Dr. Bromley.
1863
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
1864
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
1865
the gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Roemer.
1866
Mr. ROEMER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
1867
Good to see you again, Dr. Bromley, and your testimony
1868
last time before the committee was one of the first
1869
testimonies that I had heard, and it was very, very
1870
articulate and visionary, and I have to admit even with an
1871
advanced degree, I'm a little lost in some of the technical
1872
terms today, and my constituents are always interested in
1873
what I'm doing in my committee assignments, SO please bear
1874
with my naivete in terms of some of the science.
1875
If I could, what are the implications here in the
1876
supercomputers and the communications for trade and for our
1877
domestic industry? If you could answer specifically that.
1878
Also, did I hear you correctly in your payback numbers of
1879
someplace between $170 billion and--
1880
Mr. BROMLEY. Yes, $170 billion and $500 billion.
1881
Mr. ROEMER. And then in terms of tying this all in, too,
1882
if you could give me specific examples in energy and
1883
environment and national security, that would be very
1884
helpful.
1885
Mr. BROMLEY. Let me attempt to do that. First of all, in
1886
the environment-- let me take that as an example--the major
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 82
1887 problem facing us at the present time is being able to make
1888
predictions of what climate will be like in particular
1889
regions of our Nation or of the globe over extended periods.
1890
There are currently in the world six independent so-called
1891
global circulation models that are run on very large
1892
supercomputers. When asked at this time what the future
1893
holds for the American Midwest, three of them tell us that
1894
it will be hotter and dryer, and three say it will be colder
1895
and wetter. On that basis, it is extraordinarily difficult
1896
to make reasonable policy--at least, policy that I would
1897
recommend to anybody.
1898
Mr. ROEMER. It's like our local weather stations, right?
1899
Mr. BROMLEY. So what we recognize very early in the game
1900
is that in order to improve that situation, in order to be
1901
able to do better than just make predictions as we now can
1902
for global averages of various things like temperature and
1903
precipitation and so on, in order to be able to make it for
1904
a region like the American Midwest, we need these large
1905
factors of improvement in speed and memory capacity to do
1906
the calculations. Then we need the speed in information
1907
transfer to be able to take this flood of data that will be
1908
coming in from the senses that we will both be flying in
1909
space and have on the ground.
1910
As Senator Gore said, we're going to get the equivalent of
1911
the Library of Congress in 4.8 days from the one EOS
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 83
1912
platform alone in Mission to Planet Earth, and to bring all
1913
that together to allow us to discern patterns, to make
1914
predictions, we require absolutely the kind of power we're
1915
talking about here.
1916
In the military, obviously, one of the areas that is still
1917
of importance to us is the design of advanced weaponry.
1918
There supercomputers got their birth. We are very much
1919
interested in advanced aerodynamics, the design of new plane
1920
geometries. There you must have the supercomputers. But
1921
perhaps the most interesting example I can think of in the
1922
military is one that was demonstrated dramatically- but very
1923
few people know about it--in Desert Storm, and that is the
1924
fact that because our pilots and our tankers and our
1925
military personnel had in almost every case been able to run
1926
their mission--whether it was with a plane, with a tank, with
1927
a helicopter-- had been able to run their mission in a
1928
simulator driven by a very powerful computer so that they
1929
could practice their run, see their target, see what the
1930
surroundings of the target looked like as they came in on
1931
it, that had an enormous impact on the rather dramatic
1932
successes that all of us witnessed on our televisions, and
1933
that's the kind of thing that is going to be increasingly
1934
important in the military. It's the training that can be
1935
done with simulation of real world situations, making that
1936
available to everybody in the military rather than just to a
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 84
1937
few people who are going to fly shuttle flights, for
1938
example.
1939
In energy, we have, again, a tremendous research program
1940
that requires the best possible computational tools and,
1941
more important, the best possible intercommunication of
1942
laboratories. We have in this Nation in the national
1943
laboratories supported by the Department of Energy one of
1944
the world's major resources in terms of technology,
1945
know-how, but they're relatively isolated. What we need is
1946
to have a transparent connection between workers in the labs
1947
so that an individual sitting in Argonne could be working
1948
with someone in Oak Ridge or in Berkeley or in Brookhaven as
1949
easily as with the person next-door. That, too, is
1950
possible.
1951
And so we can go through any of those particular fields
1952
you care to mention, but to answer the first part of your
1953
question about what's the impact on industry, the biggest
1954
impact, I believe, sir, will be on small industry, industry
1955
that hires less than 500 people. History has shown us over
1956
the last decade that those are the industries that have
1957
really produced the most innovative new products, services,
1958
they are the industries that have created a lion's share of
1959
the new jobs.
1960
Up to now, they have had to do without the power that
1961
major companies have been able to afford. The major
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 85
1962
companies have their own supercomputers. We want to make
1963
the same kind of power available to the person with 20
1964
employees who is trying to design something absolutely new
1965
that he would like to see designed in detail in all possible
1966
aspects but none of his computational capacity is up to the
1967
task. We would like him to be able to pick up his interface
1968
in his office just as easily as he picks up the telephone
1969
and get that capacity.
1970
Mr. ROEMER. Could you talk a little bit more about how
1971
that relates to education with the fiber optics coming into
1972
the classroom? And after both chairmen from North Carolina
1973
and Virginia, maybe we could do an experiment in Indiana on
1974
my schools to get that fiber optic going into Indiana school
1975
children.
1976
Mr. BROMLEY. The technology, both hardware and software,
1977
sir, are now available, and demonstrations can be arranged
1978
that we'd be happy to do for you if you are interested in
1979
it, where a single fiber optic comes into the classroom, and
1980
each student in the classroom has his own small terminal
1981
with a display panel and a keyboard. The software that's
1982
running on this system, depending on whatever subject you
1983
select, takes the student through whatever section of the
1984
material is appropriate for that time, that period in his
1985
exposure, and presents concepts in a very attractive,
1986
graphic fashion, then asks questions. If the youngster
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 86
1987
responds correctly, he gets a starburst and all sorts of
1988
things that reinforces it and comments saying, "Well
1989
done,' and so on.
1990
If he doesn't get it and doesn't understand it, then the
1991
system quietly takes him back through it and keeps doing it
1992
in slightly different ways until all at once the youngsters
1993
realize, "I understand it,'' and then the system gives them
1994
a tremendous award, and the important thing is that it's
1995
self- paced. It isn't the way it is in ordinary school
1996
rooms where if a kid misses it when the teacher presents it,
1997
the chances of the teacher knowing that he has missed it and
1998
coming back to fix that on the spot is very small. And
1999
having missed one thing, it's then much easier to miss the
2000
next one. And after you've missed a whole series of
2001
concepts, you're lost.
2002
Mr. ROEMER. How can I get an example either in person or
2003
by film or--
2004
Mr. BROMLEY. If you would simply call my office, we will
2005
take care of arranging one for you.
2006
Mr. ROEMER. Great. How far away are we from commercially
2007
developing that and getting that into many of our schools?
2008
Mr. BROMLEY. These systems are now commercially available.
2009
These are commercial companies that make these now
2010
available. The situation we face now is simply convincing
2011
school districts, States that this is a good investment at a
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 87
2012
time when investments in new hardware and software are
2013
difficult for obvious budgetary reasons.
2014
Mr. ROEMER. And finally, Dr. Bromley, your payback figure
2015
of $170 billion to $500 billion, what kind of time frame is
2016
that based on?
2017
Mr. BROMLEY. Ten years:
2018
Mr. ROEMER. Ten years. Thank you.
2019
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and at this
2020
time would recognize the gentleman from California, Mr.
2021
Mineta.
2022
Mr. MINETA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'd like
2023
to submit a statement for the record and ask unanimous
2024
consent for its inclusion.
2025
Mr. BOUCHER. Without objection, so ordered.
2026
[The prepared statement of Mr. Mineta follows:]
2027
2028
********** INSERT **********
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 88
2029
2030
Mr. MINETA. Dr. Bromley, we all admire your work and
2031
appreciate very, very much your efforts there. I'm
2032
wondering what is it about H.R. 656 that seems to give you
2033
heartburn about this whole issue about flexibility? What is
2034
it that you're afraid that this legislation, as you keep
2035
reiterating the word ''inhibit' inhibit what?
2036
Mr. BROMLEY. Well, sir, we have come up with--we have taker
2037
a snapshot, if you will, of the computer and computational
2038
science of today, and this program that we present is the
2039
best program we can put together that we base on a five-year
2040
plan knowing what we know today, making the decisions that
2041
are the most sensible ones based on that information for the
2042
next five years.
2043
But we fully anticipate that a year from now we will have
2044
made enough progress so that we'll want to change those
2045
directions for the next four years or the next five and that
2046
each year as we go along we'll want to make substantial
2047
change in the program to take advantage of new things we've
2048
learned, new technology that's been developed, and so on.
2049
And I registered the concern that if we freeze in a specific
2050
program over a five-year period, then it may well be
2051
difficult to make the changes that would be most appropriate
2052
in view of the technology and in view of the developments
2053
that have taken place. That's all.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 89
2054
Mr. MINETA. Well, it seems to me the legislation, though,
2055
does speak to that in the sense that it says, "Even though
2056
there shall be a five-year plan, the plan shall be
2057
resubmitted upon revision at least once every two years
2058
thereafter. "
2059
Mr. BROMLEY. That's in the right direction.
2060
Mr. MINETA. Isn't that the kind of flexibility--I mean, yo
2061
know, coming from Silicon Valley, I know that the
2062
obsolescence--you sort of work on a three-year obsolescence
2063
cycle--
2064
Mr. BROMLEY. That's right.
2065
Mr. MINETA.--so, you know, it is something that you sort O
2066
build in knowing that you're going to have to fine- tune it,
2067
even though it may be a five-year plan. Any plan, whether
2068
it's a capital improvement program when I was mayor for the
2069
city of San Jose or any other program, you have a five-year
2070
plan. As my dad said when we were in business, he said,
2071
''Plan your work and work your plan.'' I think that's what
2072
we're saying in this legislation, and to reiterate again
2073
what my colleague, Congressman Thornton, said, you have
2074
backsliding, and so what you need is a backstop to
2075
backsliders, and I think that's what this legislation does,
2076
is to keep that from becoming abandoned in terms of whatever
2077
good that comes out of this.
2078
So it seems to me that flexibility is something that is
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 90
2079
inherent in this legislation and that there is recognition
2080
that, as you say, if there are orders of magnitude of change
2081
that that will be reflected in this and that we aren't
2082
engraving something in some marble for ever and ever.
2083
Mr. BROMLEY. If I could--I understand your point, sir.
2084
Mr. MINETA. Please.
2085
Mr. BROMLEY. If I could just extend my slightly, one of
2086
the things that your bill does is to define the roles of the
2087
agencies, and again, part of my concern is that it may well
2088
be that we will want to change the relative roles of
2089
agencies as we go forward. Now, if we can arrange to do
2090
these things, then my concern, of course, gets very much
2091
less.
2092
Mr. MINETA. I wonder to what extent the change in the
2093
missions of those agencies become legislative and wouldn't
2094
be superseded in any event by that change rather than what's
2095
held here in H.R. 656?
2096
Mr. BROMLEY. I would simply say, sir, that we would
2097
welcome the opportunity to work with you because what we--I
2098
think we share the same goals here in great detail, and I am
2099
simply registering concerns that I have, that my colleagues
2100
have having spent the last year pulling this together and
2101
trying to make all the pieces fit. We would be, as you can
2102
imagine, very distressed if something happened to take that
2103
apart before we really got off the mark.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 91
2104
Mr. MINETA. And when you spoke earlier, you used the
2105
phrase 'critical mass, " and I'm wondering what is the
2106
critical mass in this instance? Is that the fiscal year
2107
1991 sum, fiscal year 1992, and what you envision by the
2108
fifth year, or are you talking about the technology within
2109
the industry, or--
2110
Mr. BROMLEY. I'm talking about a different dimension, sir.
2111
What I'm talking about in critical mass is bringing
2112
together enough good people to work on a focused, directed
2113
program with a specific set of goals in mind so that their
2114
activities and their innovative skills are brought together
2115
and focused so that the sum is vastly greater than you would
2116
get just by adding up the individual efforts. It's in that
2117
sense rather than a financial or funding sense.
2118
Mr. MINETA. In that sense, what about the--is the emphasis
2119
on the technology part of it, or to what extent do you bring
2120
along the human factors aspect of it as well?
2121
Mr. BROMLEY. Your point is very well taken. The program
2122
has four components, sir. One has to do with the hardware
2123
where we want to maintain our leadership, the high-
2124
performance hardware itself; the second has to do with the
2125
software that makes it possible to communicate with that
2126
hardware; the third has to do with the networking that makes
2127
it possible for many people to get access to the system, use
2128
the software and hardware; and the last and certainly not
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 92
2129
least important is the people who will not only do the
2130
frontier development in computer science and engineering but
2131
also those people who will maintain and operate the systems
2132
and networks and make that power available to the users on
2133
demand. So that's a very important part.
2134
Mr. MINETA. And given those four factors, have you
2135
apportioned the amounts of money that you have envisioned
2136
here to those efforts?
2137
Mr. BROMLEY. Yes, we have, sir.
2138
Mr. MINETA. And roughly what would be the breakdown?
2139
Mr. BROMLEY. Well, I don't have that specific number, but
2140
if you look on page 26 of the document "The Grand
2141
Challenges" that I believe you have, pages 26 and 27 show
2142
you the breakdown, first of all, of activity among the
2143
participating agencies, and page 24 gives you a detailed
2144
breakdown which shows you down at the bottom of the page--
2145
you see "Basic Research and Human Resources,' and if you
2146
look at the chart, 20 percent of the 1992 initiative is
2147
devoted specifically to that component whereas, for example,
2148
high- performance computing systems--that's the hardware
2149
part-- gets 25 percent, and so on. But the little pie chart
2150
in the inset on the bottom of page 24 probably is the most
2151
concise statement of how that breakdown is recommended.
2152
Mr. MINETA. Now, is your only concern about this
2153
legislation this inhibition of flexibility?
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PAGE 93
2154
Mr. BROMLEY. No, there are two. First is the potential
2155
inhibition of flexibility, and the second is that we have
2156
devoted an enormous amount of effort to getting all the
2157
agencies to agree to accept the specific responsibilities
2158
laid out in this table, and if it should turn out that-some
2159
of the major players here in particular report to different
2160
Congressional committees, and if the action of those
2161
committees was not coordinated, then we might find that it
2162
would be quite impossible to move forward with the kind of
2163
participation that we envisage in putting the plan together.
2164
So I'm simply registering a concern and asking for your help
2165
to ensure that since the agencies within the Administration
2166
have signed off that this is what they want to do, are
2167
prepared to do, we need your help in making it possible for
2168
them to in fact do that.
2169
Mr. MINETA. Very well. Dr. Bromley, I assume that your
2170
testimony here has been cleared by OMB prior to its
2171
submission.
2172
Mr. BROMLEY. Oh, indeed it has. Indeed it has.
2173
Mr. MINETA. Well, I'm just going to make an editorial
2174
comment and let it go at that, and that is that we, I think--
2175
and especially the gentleman from California--at the time of
2176
your appointment were very happy that the President made
2177
your selection, and frankly I think a lot of times you're
2178
inhibited, your flexibility is inhibited, by idealogues
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 94
2179
somewhere else. Now, I know that sometimes for you your job
2180
is like shoveling sand against the tide, and I recognize
2181
that, and SO I just want to commend you for what you're
2182
doing down there, and I know that our committee will
2183
continue to work with you to make sure that we do things
2184
that are in the best interest of the country regardless of
2185
idealogues. Thank you very much, Doctor.
2186
Mr. BROMLEY. Thank you, sir.
2187
Mr. MINETA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
2188
Mr. BOUCHER. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
2189
once again the gentleman from California, Mr. Packard.
2190
Mr. PACKARD. I apologize for coming back, but the question
2191
was asked Senator Gore, and I think it reflects the concern
2192
certainly on this side of the aisle, one of the concerns of
2193
the legislation, and that is that will the Government end up
2194
owning and operating in perpetuity a system, wonderful as it
2195
may be, and his answer was that in the initial stage they
2196
will develop and operate and own, but the goal is to have a
2197
transition to the private sector.
2198
In your strategy, in your proposal, it mentions that the
2199
Government would become a prototype user for early
2200
commercial high-performance computing and communication
2201
products. You have inserted that transition, I believe,
2202
conceptually into your proposal. How can we ensure that
2203
that transition will take place with legislation?
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PAGE 95
2204
Mr. BROMLEY. Let me begin, if I may, sir, by just
2205
reviewing what I see as the transition. At the beginning,
2206
we're going to start off with a series of major pieces of
2207
hardware--supercomputers high-performance computers-- that are
2208
presently owned by educational institutions, by the Federal
2209
Government, in national laboratories, and we're going to tie
2210
those together with a network of fibers that are owned by
2211
the common carriers-- by AT&T, by Sprint, by MCI, whoever. The
2212
Government isn't going to own that at all. The Government
2213
will own some of the hardware that's on the system.
2214
Mr. PACKARD. The high-end switches and the supercomputers.
2215
Mr. BROMLEY. That's right. That's correct. But as we
2216
move forward, we already see these organizations like
2217
Advanced Network Services being crafted by the private
2218
sector, ready to move in to expand the network, first of
2219
all, so that more people have access to this hardware that
2220
is already available, and I would anticipate fully that
2221
within a very short time we're going to find private sector
2222
organizations buying in, providing pieces of major hardware
2223
that will be connected into the network, but I emphasize
2224
that the network we're talking about here, the national
2225
research and education network, is not the network that we
2226
envisage as coming hopefully toward the end of this decade.
2227
That one is one that we would see completely put together by
2228
private sector organizations.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 96
2229
We would certainly want to have interconnects so that that
2230
particular system could talk to our test bed. That's really
2231
what the NREN is is a test bed to figure out how to make all
2232
these things work so that they're transparent to the user,
2233
so that the guy sitting down in his office at his work
2234
station has a particular problem. We want to have the
2235
system sufficiently smart so that when it sees what this
2236
problem is, it will simply take the problem and direct it to
2237
the appropriate hardware somewhere on the net. It could be
2238
on the West Coast, the East Coast, it could be anywhere, and
2239
you don't want to know what piece of hardware is doing your
2240
work for you because when it's finished, something sends you
2241
back your answer, and that's all you need to know.
2242
Now, as we progress, I see that system probably continuing
2243
its role as a test bed for the really advanced frontiers of
2244
computational science, attacking the grand challenges, and
2245
so on, and in parallel with this, the public utility that
2246
will draw on this NREN for its architecture, for a lot of
2247
its software, and that we will interconnect them so that on
2248
some appropriate basis--there will obviously be regulatory
2249
questions, just as in the telephone system--but on some
2250
appropriate basis, just as you pay for your telephone, you
2251
pay for connection to a system that has a certain
2252
capability, and you pay appropriate to whatever the
2253
capability is.
NAME: HSY066140
PAGE 97
2254
Mr. PACKARD. Thank you very much.
2255
Mr. BOUCHER. Dr. Bromley, we greatly appreciate your
2256
attendance here this morning and your lengthy and
2257
informative testimony, and I want to commend you once again
2258
on the foresight that you've demonstrated in bringing this
2259
initiative forward. This subcommittee will look forward to
2260
working very closely with you as the initiative advances,
2261
and again I would underscore our willingness to receive from
2262
you any recommendations that you now have or will have over
2263
the next several weeks or months in terms of how this
2264
legislation might be restructured to resolve the problems
2265
with potential inflexibility that you've demonstrated and
2266
stated here today.
2267
Mr. BROMLEY. Well, I would thank you, Mr. Chairman, and if
2268
I might first of all say that my colleagues will welcome the
2269
opportunity to work with you because, as I say, we share
2270
common goals, and secondly, if I might in closing take the
2271
opportunity again, Mr. Chairman, to express to you my
2272
appreciation of the remarkable job that has been done by the
2273
agency representatives who have worked long and hard during
2274
this past year in putting this document together and in
2275
putting the program together. It does represent, I believe,
2276
a new high in cooperation and mutual trust across the whole
2277
spectrum of the agencies. Thank you, sir.
2278
Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Dr. Bromley.
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PAGE 98
2279
Mr. BOUCHER. We will welcome now our third panel of the
2280
morning, and I would ask each of these panelists to come
2281
forward now: Dr. Kenneth King, the President of EDUCOM; Dr.
2282
Glenn Ricart, the Director of SURAnet; Mr. Jim Young, the
2283
Vice President for Regulation and Industrial Relations for
2284
Bell Atlantic; Dr. George Johnston, Research Scientist, the
2285
Plasma Fusion Center for MIT; and Dr. Stewart Personick, the
2286
Assistant Vice President for Information Networking as Bell
2287
Communications Research.
2288
Gentlemen, we welcome you here this morning. Without
2289
objection, your written statements will be made a part of
2290
the record. The subcommittee has a five-minute rule with
2291
regard to opening statements, and in view of the hour, I
2292
would ask the panelists to please adhere to that rule and
2293
summarize your testimony within that five-minute period, and
2294
the subcommittee will withhold questions until all of the
2295
panelists have delivered their opening statements.
2296
We welcome you here this morning, and, Dr. King, let's
2297
begin with you. We'd be happy to hear your testimony.