Newsgroups: soc.roots
Date:         Sun, 24 Jan 1993 15:29:13 PST
Reply-To:     Tom Lincoln <lincoln@IRIS.RAND.ORG>
From:         Tom Lincoln <lincoln@IRIS.RAND.ORG>
Subject:      New support for technology.. from another electronic source
Comments: To: Roots-L@vm1.nodak.edu

*******************************************

Computing news from the Hill

On Thursday, January 21, less than 24 hours after President Clinton
was inaugurated, Senate Democrats introduced S. 4, the National
Competitiveness Act.  This bill includes most of the components of
three bills introduced in the last Congress, but blocked by the
Bush Administration:

        Senator Hollings' Manufacturing Strategy Act

        Senator Gore's Information Infrastructure and Technology Act (S. 2937)

        Senator Hollings' Wind Engineering Act (S. 3273)

Both the Manufacturing Strategy Act (S. 1330) and S. 3273 came very
close to passing last year but were blocked (partly because Hollings'
was in a tight reelection race).  S. 2937 (known also as Gore II) was
doomed the minute he was tapped to run for Vice President.

The computing R&D section of the bill is identical to S. 2937 except
that if authorizes funding for FY93-95 rather than FY93-97.  The rest
of the bill only covers two or three years, so the funding numbers
were dropped for the sake of consistency.

In floor statements, the sponsors of the bill (Hollings, Mitchell,
Rockefeller, Reigle, Lieberman, Bingaman, Kerry, Moseley-Braun, and
others) made clear that they plan to work closely with the new
Administration to quickly revise and expand the legislation.  There
is broad support for the legislation which has the support for many
of the key Democrats involved in technology policy.  Last year, this
legislation was a key component of the Economic Leadership Strategy
announced and endorsed by Majority Leader Mitchell, Hollings,
Rockefeller, Gore, Bingaman, Lieberman, and other members of the
ELS group.

By introducing the bill on the first day bills could be introduced and
by giving it one of the first five bill numbers (which are reserved
for five of the bills Democrats are most eager to pass; Republicans
get S.6 through S. 10), the Senate Democratic leadership is signalling
that technology and competitiveness will be at the top of the agenda
in the 103rd Congress.

As he has in the past, Hollings will take the lead in expanding Federal
efforts to help the manufacturing sector and to give the Department of
Commerce (esp. its National Institute of Standards and Technology) a
large role in civilian technology development.

Senator Rockefeller (D-WV) and Senator Hollings (D-SC) are expected
to carry forward the computing technology initiatives started by
Vice President Gore (the High-Performance Computing Program and
S. 2937).  During the campaign, both Clinton and Gore gave several
speeches supporting programs like those called for in S. 4.  Their
September 21, 1992, technology policy paper specifically calls for
accelerating development of the information infrastructure and
doubling the NIST budget.  In the House, Congressman George Brown,
Chairman of the House Science Committee, and Congressman Rick
Boucher (D-VA), Chairman of the Science Subcommittee, are expected
to introduce a companion bill(s) to S. 4 within the next week or
two.  Boucher has scheduled hearings on computing technology and
the information infrastructure for the first week of February.
(For details, call 202/225-8844).  Congressman Markey (D-MA), head
of the House Telecommunication and Finance Subcommittee, held a
hearing January 19 on the information infrastructure.  Witnesses
included Craig Fields (head of the Micro-electronics and Computer
Technology Consortium in Austin) and John Sculley (CEO of Apple)
and Mitch Kapor of EFF.

In addition to S. 4, Senate Democrats are developing a larger
package of technology and competitiveness legislation that will
bills on defense conversion, redirecting the DOE labs, helping
small businesses develop and commercialize new technologies,
ensuring a strong basic R&D base, and improving worker education
and training.  They are working in concert with the new Administration
which is assembling a similar package.

FUNDING FOR COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

                        (In millions of dollars)
                        FY93    FY94    FY95    TOTAL
NSF  education          20      40      60      120
     libraries          10      20      30       60
NIST manufacturing      30      40      50      120
NIH  health care        20      40      60      120
NASA libraries          10      20      30       60

  TOTALS                90     160     230      480

====================

RE the prior Gore-2 bill:

It called for:

> - the NSF to fund projects to connect primary and secondary schools
> to NSFNET and to develope educational software and provide teacher
> training

> - NIST to develope networking technology for manufacturing

> - NIH in conjunction with the NSF and others to develope applications
> of advanced computer and networking technology for health care. This
> includes networking to link hospitals, doctor's offices and
> universities so mediucal data and imagery can be shared. It also
> charges the development of new software for manipulating medical
> imery and data.

> - provides funding to NSF and NASA to develope technology for
> "digital libraries", hugh data bases that store tex, imery, video
> sound etc. It also funds the development of prototype "digital
> libraries" around the US.>

..... so here comes FirstSearch et al...

Tom