Networking and Information Technology Research and Development for Department of Energy Missions Act

Summary: Authorizes laboratories administered by the National Nuclear Security Administration to compete for funding authorized in this Act.
Authorizes appropriations for FY2001through 2005.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as ``Networking and Information Technology 
Research and Development for Department of Energy Missions Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Department of Energy, especially in its Office of 
        Science research programs, has played a key role in the 
        development of high performance computing, networking and 
        information technology. Important contributions by the 
        Department include pioneering the concept of remote, 
        interactive access to supercomputers; developing the first 
        interactive operating system for supercomputers; establishing 
        the first national supercomputer center; laying the 
        mathematical foundations for high performance computing with 
        numerical linear algebra libraries now used by thousands of 
        researchers worldwide; leading the transition to massively 
        parallel supercomputing by developing software for parallel 
        virtual machines; and contributing to the development of the 
        Internet with software that is now used in the TCP/IP system 
        responsible for routing information packages to their correct 
        destinations.
            (2) The Department of Energy's contributions to networking 
        and information technology have played a key role in the 
        Department's ability to accomplish its statutory mission in the 
        past, in particular through the development of remote access to 
        its facilities. Continued accomplishments in these areas will 
        be needed to continue to carry out these missions in the 
        future.
            (3) The Department of Energy, through its portfolio of 
        unique facilities for scientific research including high energy 
        and nuclear laboratories, neutron source and synchrotron 
        facilities, and computing and communications facilities such as 
        the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center and 
        Energy Sciences Network, has a unique and vital role in 
        advancing the scientific research, networking and information 
        technology infrastructure for the nation.
            (4) The challenge of remote creation of, access to, 
        visualization of, and simulation with petabyte-scale (1,000,000 
        gigabyte) data sets generated by experiments at DOE scientific 
        facilities is common to a number of different scientific 
        disciplines. Effective treatment of these problems will likely 
        require collaborative efforts between the university, national 
        laboratory and industrial sectors and involve close 
        interactions of the broader scientific community with 
        computational, networking and information scientists.
            (5) The solution of contemporary challenges facing the 
        Department of Energy in developing and using high-performance 
        computing, networking, communications, and information 
        technologies will be of immense value to the entire nation. 
        Potential benefits include: effective earth, climate, and 
        energy systems modeling; understanding aging and fatigue 
        effects in materials crucial to energy systems; promoting 
        energy-efficient chemical production through rational catalyst 
        design; predicting the structure and functions of the proteins 
        coded by DNA and their response to chemical and radiation 
        damage; designing more efficient combustion systems; and 
        understanding turbulent flow in plasmas in energy and advanced 
        materials applications.

SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY PROGRAMS.

    (a) High-Performance Computing Act Program.--Section 203(a) of the 
High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5523(a)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (3), by striking ``and'';
            (2) in paragraph (4), by striking the period and inserting 
        ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding after paragraph (4) the following:
            ``(5) conduct an integrated program of research, 
        development, and provision of facilities to develop and deploy 
        to scientific and technical users the high-performance 
        computing and collaboration tools needed to fulfill the 
        statutory missions of the Department of Energy.''.
    (b) Computation, Networking and Information Technology 
Collaborative Program.--Within the funds authorized under this Act, the 
Secretary shall provide up to $25,000,000 in each fiscal year for a 
program of collaborative projects involving remote access to high-
performance computing assets or remote experimentation over network 
facilities. The program shall give priority to cross-disciplinary 
projects that involve more than one office within the Office of Science 
of the Department of Energy or that couple the Office of Science with 
Departmental energy technology offices.
    (c) Program Line Authority.--To the extent consistent with their 
national security mission, laboratories administered by the National 
Nuclear Security Administration may compete for funding authorized in 
this Act to the same extent and on the same terms as other Department 
of Energy offices and laboratories. Such funding at laboratories 
administered by the National Nuclear Security Administration shall be 
under the direct programmatic control of the sponsoring program for the 
funding in the Department of Energy.
    (d) Merit Review.--All grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, 
or other financial assistance awarded under programs authorized in this 
Act shall be made only after being subject to independent merit review 
by the Department of Energy.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Energy 
for the purposes of carrying out section 203 of the High-Performance 
Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5523) and this Act $190,000,000 for 
fiscal year 2001; $250,000,000 for fiscal year 2002; $285,000,000 for 
fiscal year 2003; $300,000,000 for fiscal year 2004; and $300,000,000 
for fiscal year 2005.