In the 1998 Next Generation Internet legislation, Congress specifically directed the committee to report on the health of the nation's computing research program, on whether we are investing at a sufficient level to ensure our world leadership in information technology. The committee reported, and the White House has now responded to that report. After careful review of the Federal programs, however, this Committee has concluded that Federal support for research in information technology is dangerously inadequate. The IT 2 initiative is an excellent mechanism for redressing the underfunding of computing research, and the computing research community and the information technology industry wholeheartedly support it. Let me now go into some more details on the key aspects of this initiative.
Information technology is critically important to the U.S. economy.
And they've become critical to our national economy. The return on past research investments has been spectacular. For a more specific example, NSF's foresighted investments enabled researchers to develop the first hypertext systems in the 1960's. These systems were the forerunners of today's word-processing programs and web browsers. They are also critical in medicine and national defense.