In addition, I serve on the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association. The members of the Computing Research Association are nearly 200 industrial research laboratories and academic departments in computer science and computer engineering, where most of the nation's cutting-edge research and graduate education in the critical fields of computer science and computer engineering takes place. It' s these 200 members of the Computing Research Association who I represent today. This Directorate is responsible for virtually all of the research in computing, information and communications that's sponsored by the Foundation, which in turn represents a high proportion of all federally-sponsored fundamental research in these areas. In support of the NSF request, there are a half dozen points that I'd like to touch upon quickly.
Information technology is vital to our society - economically and socially.
In addition, information technology has a huge impact on other segments of the economy, such as manufacturing, finance, education, science, and engineering. The development of the nation's information infrastructure holds the promise of greatly amplifying the already enormous impacts of information technology. It will extend to rural America a number of benefits that urban dwellers take for granted in areas such as health care, libraries, government information, cultural resources, and entertainment. It will revolutionize commerce and education. My teenage sons already use Internet resources almost daily in their education.