IP: Coverage of CRA/TechNet news conference

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Federal Funds Sought for Technology Research
> Jim Puzzanghera
> 09/02/1999
> San Jose Mercury News
>
> WASHINGTON--As the 30th anniversary of the Internet's first heartbeat
> approached, high-tech leaders and a top Clinton administration official
> warned Wednesday that Congress is being dangerously shortsighted in failing
> to pay for the type of federal research that helped bring the Information
> Age to life.
>
> Spending bills working their way through Congress and the Republican
> majority's $792 billion tax-cut plan would sharply reduce proposed increases
> on basic research in information technology at a time when a presidential
> commission has declared that such funding is "seriously inadequate."
>
> Republicans say their hands are tied by spending caps put into place by the
> 1997 balanced-budget agreement. But White House Chief of Staff John Podesta
> said Wednesday that President Clinton's proposed budget would increase
> civilian research and development money within those caps. He charged that
> Republicans have chosen to reduce that research and development funding by
> $1.8 billion -- or approximately 8 to 10 percent -- to help pay for other
> priorities, such as the large tax cut.
>
> "And as if this year's cuts weren't devastating enough, the Republican
> budget and tax plans could reduce discretionary domestic spending by roughly
> half in the coming decades, inevitably leading to even further cuts in
> research and development," Podesta said in a speech at the National Press
> Club. "This is a 19th-century budget for a 21st-century economy. It appears
> that these Republicans grew up watching too much Fred Flintstone and not
> enough Jetsons."
>
> Podesta reiterated Clinton's determination to veto the GOP tax-cut plan and
> asked that Republicans work with the administration to restore the research
> and development funding.
>
> Defenders of such high-risk, long-term research point out that today's
> booming economy is being fueled in great part by one of those federally
> funded projects -- the Defense Department initiative started in the 1960s to
> hook up university researchers in a computer system now known as the
> Internet.
>
> "The fact is, hundreds of billions of dollars are being generated because of
> that investment," said Vinton Cerf, senior vice president for Internet
> architecture and technology for MCI WorldCom and one of the fathers of the
> Internet. "Now is the right time to make these investments when we have the
> type of surpluses we do."
>
> Without such investments, there might be no new information-technology
> advances to boost the economy 10 or 20 years from now, he said. Industry
> leaders said shareholders will not allow high-tech companies to do such
> long-term research, leaving the responsibility in the hands of the federal
> government.
>
> This week, high-tech industry and academic groups -- including the Palo
> Alto-based lobbying group TechNet -- have written to congressional leaders
> and the White House urging them to find a way to restore the
> information-technology money.
>
> "Unless immediate steps are taken to reinvigorate federal research in this
> critical area, we believe there will be a significant reduction in the rate
> of economic progress over the coming decades," the co-chairs of the
> President's Information Technology Advisory Council wrote in a letter sent
> to 84 members of Congress.
>
> Proposals to significantly increase funding for information-technology
> research have run into trouble in Congress, as have several other science
> and technology proposals made by the Clinton administration, such as funding
> for NASA space programs, a new generation of fuel-efficient vehicles and a
> controversial public-private research partnership called the Advanced
> Technology Program.
>
> An administration proposal to spend $366 million more on
> information-technology research in the coming fiscal year -- bringing the
> total to $850 million -- has been cut by about $80 million so far as
> Congress prepared next week to continue appropriating money for various
> government agencies. And a $4.8 billion bipartisan proposal spearheaded by
> the Republican chair of the House Science Committee to nearly double federal
> information-technology research over the next five years has not yet come to
> a vote.
>
> Basic research money goes to universities and research institutions, helping
> them attract top faculty, leading to better-educated science and engineering
> students, said Ken Kennedy, a professor of computational engineering at Rice
> University in Houston and a member of the President's Information Technology
> Advisory Council.
>
> "I, for one, find it astonishing at a time when information has delivered in
> part ... the kind of budget surpluses we're seeing, that we're ready to
> reduce the long-term investment in information technology," Kennedy said
> Wednesday at a Washington news conference in which he, Cerf and others
> pressed for the funding.
>
> Eric Benhamou, chief executive officer of 3Com Corp., said the investment in
> federal money the industry is seeking next year is not that much.
>
> "Let's keep things in perspective -- $366 million is really a small amount
> of money with potentially enormous returns," he said.
>
> # # #
>
> Tech Industry Urges Federal Funding For R&D
> Mary Mosquera
> 09/01/1999
> CMP TechWeb
>
> WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The technology industry called on Congress Wednesday to
> increase funding for IT research to fuel continued economic growth.
>
> The funding proposed in the fiscal year 2000 budget by the GOP congressional
> leadership falls short of federal agency budget requests, according to the
> Technology Network, an industry group, and the Computing Research
> Association , an academic group.
>
> "The federal government is important to R&D funding precisely because it is
> able to make long-term investments that create new industries and improve
> the quality of life," said 3Com CEO Eric Benhamou, who is also a member of
> the TechNet board and a presidential commission on information technology.
>
> The two organizations said they want Congress and President Clinton to work
> together to follow funding recommendations from the President's Information
> Technology Advisory Committee, an independent congressionally chartered
> group of IT and research representatives. Those funding recommendations are
> also embodied in legislation, the Networking and Information Technology
> Research and Development Act, H.R. 2086, and in the administration's
> Information Technology for the 21st Century initiative.
>
> "Economic growth increasingly depends on the development and diffusion of
> information technologies," said Edward Lazowska, chairman of the Computing
> Research Association . "The prosperity we see today comes from those
> investments in the past," he said The technology groups recommend $286
> million for IT research in targeted agencies out of the president's total
> almost $2 trillion budget for fiscal year 2000, which begins Oct. 1. But
> pending congressional bills are appropriating only $80 million for IT
> research at the National Science Foundation, for research in software,
> networking, and high-end computing, DARPA, the defense agency researching
> advanced information systems for national security, and the Energy
> Department, for research in advanced computing in science.
>
> "It's a very small amount of money, and even that small amount of money can
> make a significant difference," Lazowska said, adding it ultimately creates
> these technologies that change lives and heighten prosperity.
>
> Congress returns next week from its summer recess facing budget battles to
> fund the government for the next fiscal year. Additionally, Clinton has
> pledged to veto a $792 billion a Republican-led tax cut, which includes a
> five-year R&D tax credit for tech businesses, because it is too expensive.
> The administration said it wants a smaller tax cut and extended R&D tax
> credit.
>
> The economy needs both an R&D tax credit and full funding for basic
> research, said Vint Cerf, Internet pioneer and a member of the president's
> IT advisory group.
>
> "If I had to make a choice between the two, it would be a very unwise choice
> because you could cripple the engine that is driving this whole information
> technology explosion," Cerf said. The R&D tax credit, which expired June 30,
> is one of the ways industry can capitalize on the results of its research,
> he said.
>
> # # #
>
> White House Blasts GOP Tax-Cut Plan
> That Calls for Reduction in R&D Funds
> By Bob Davis
> 09/02/1999
> The Wall Street Journal
> Page B15
>
> WASHINGTON -- The White House criticized Republican lawmakers for voting to
> cut research-and-development funds, broadening its attack on the GOP tax cut
> as dangerous and ill-considered.
>
> "Their hunger for that tax cut is so strong they're willing to throw
> overboard" science programs, White House Chief of Staff John Podesta said.
>
> He mixed specific criticisms of how cutbacks in technology development could
> hinder U.S. economic growth with attention-getting soundbites that are sure
> to be repeated as lawmakers return to Washington next week after their
> August recess.
>
> "It appears that Republicans grew up watching too much Fred Flintstone and
> not enough time watching 'The Jetsons,' " Mr. Podesta quipped.
>
> Republicans are vulnerable politically because of cutbacks approved by
> appropriators, mainly in the House. The two parties compete to be seen as
> friends of R&D, both because of its futuristic image and because of
> potential campaign contributions. The technology industry also can turn out
> high-tech stars to press its case.
>
> A few hours after Mr. Podesta's broadside, for instance, high-tech lobbyists
> called a news conference to argue for more funding. The speakers included
> Vinton Cerf, an MCI WorldCom Inc. executive who is considered one of the
> inventors of the Internet, and Eric Benhamou, chief executive of 3Com Corp.,
> a celebrated Silicon Valley executive.
>
> "The health of information technology is just as important to the future as
> the health of our citizens," Mr. Cerf said.
>
> The administration and high-tech industry are particularly upset over
> Republican lawmakers' failure to approve much funding for a $366 million
> program to boost information technology. The program is designed to spur
> research of superfast computers and wireless networks. It also is a favorite
> of Vice President Al Gore, whose pet projects have been targeted for sharp
> reductions by Republican lawmakers.
>
> A spokesman for the House Science Committee's Republican majority, which has
> supported the computing initiative, chalked up the actions by appropriators
> to a tight budget. "They're in the process of making funding priorities," he
> said.
>
> Mr. Podesta also faulted House Republicans for approving deep cuts in the
> National Aeronautics and Space Administration budget and for failing to
> boost the National Science Foundation's budget by as much as the
> administration sought.
>
> The House will vote next week on the bill containing funding for the two
> agencies. House appropriations subcommittee Chairman James Walsh of New York
> already has said he wants to add some money back for science. Committee
> Republicans approved NASA cuts of about $1 billion to pay for veteran
> benefits.
>
> # # #
>
> CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
> Thursday, September 2, 1999
> Technology Leaders Urge Congress to Increase Spending for Basic Research
> By KELLY McCOLLUM
>
> Washington
>
> Information-technology experts from industry and academe pleaded Wednesday
> for increased federal support for technology research, arguing that such
> spending has stimulated and will continue to stimulate the U.S. economy.
>
> The experts stated their case here at a news conference to promote spending
> on a technology-research program that is known as Information Technology for
> the 21st Century, or "IT2." It was proposed early this year by President
> Clinton.
>
> The President's plan calls for an additional $366-million in fiscal year
> 2000 to support research in computing and networking through the Defense
> Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, the National
> Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and
> other agencies. Money provided to those agencies would make its way to
> academic researchers in the form of research grants.
>
> But because of spending caps that are intended to keep the federal budget in
> balance, the increases called for in the President's plan are not included
> in the current Congressional budget proposals. Of the $286-million in
> increases requested by the N.S.F., DARPA, and the Department of Energy,
> Congressional committees have so far approved only $70- to $80-million.
>
> House and Senate negotiators have yet to meet to iron out differences in
> their respective proposals, and speakers at the news conference clearly
> hoped the legislators could be swayed to appropriate more.
>
> The speakers outlined an assortment of arguments for increasing spending.
> They credited recent economic growth in the United States largely to
> high-technology industries. Those industries, in turn, benefit from
> government support of basic research, with colleges and universities playing
> a key role, the speakers said.
>
> "Without sufficient funding, we will not be able to attract the faculty to
> support the students who will go into these fields," said Ken Kennedy, a
> professor of computer science at Rice University.
>
> David C. Nagel, the president of AT&T Labs, said academic research is a
> motivator for the technology industry. Successful companies like Yahoo! and
> Excite were born through the efforts of university students, he noted,
> adding that academic institutions provide the workers and knowledge needed
> to fuel corporate research. "Our economic growth will suffer if we don't
> have continued contact with our colleges and universities," he said.
>
> By promoting basic, long-term, scientific research, universities and
> government laboratories fill a need that cannot be replicated by private
> industry, said Vinton Cerf, vice-president for Internet Architecture and
> Technology at MCI WorldCom. Because shareholders are interested in
> short-term gains on their investments, "corporations can't do the long-term,
> high-risk investment that government has been doing in the past," said Mr.
> Cerf, who helped design the basic protocols that make the Internet possible.
>
> The conference was organized by the Technology Network, a
> technology-industry lobbying group, and the Computer Research Association,
> an organization of academic computer-science and computer-engineering
> departments.
>
> On 30th birthday of Internet, technology leaders push . . .
>
> # # #
>                                                   By Jim Puzzanghera
>                                            INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU
>
> WASHINGTON - As the Internet's 30th birthday
> approaches, high-tech leaders and a top Clinton
> administration official charged yesterday that
> Congress was dangerously shortsighted in failing to pay for the kind of
> federal research that helped foster the information age.
>
> Spending bills working their way through Congress and the Republican
> majority's $792 billion tax-cut plan would shrink proposed increases in
> funding for basic information-technology research at a time when a
> presidential commission has declared that such funding already is "seriously
> inadequate."
>
> Both political parties are trolling for the financial and political support
> of the high-tech community as the elections approach, and both advocate
> increased government financing for technology research.
>
> Republicans, however, say their hands are tied by
> spending caps set by the 1997 balanced-budget
> agreement. Advocates of greater increases in
> government support for high-risk, long-term research respond that today's
> booming economy is fueled largely by a federally funded project - the
> Defense Department initiative begun in the 1960s to connect university
> researchers in a system now known as the Internet.
>
> "The fact is, hundreds of billions of dollars are
> being generated because of that investment," said Vinton Cerf, senior vice
> president for Internet architecture and technology for MCI WorldCom and one
> of the fathers of the Internet. "Now is the right time to make these
> investments, when we have the type of surpluses we do."
>
> Without such investments, there might be no new
> information-technology advances to boost the
> economy 10 or 20 years from now, he said. Industry leaders said shareholders
> would not allow high-tech companies to do such long-term research, leaving
> the responsibility to the federal government.
>
> This week, high-tech industry and academic groups
> wrote congressional leaders and the White House
> urging them to restore the information-technology
> money.
>
> "Unless immediate steps are taken to reinvigorate
> federal research in this critical area, we believe there will be a
> significant reduction in the rate of economic progress over the coming
> decades," the cochairmen of the President's Information Technology Advisory
> Council wrote in a letter sent to 84 members of Congress.
>
> Proposals for significant increases in funding for information-technology
> research have run into trouble in Congress. So have several other science
> and technology proposals made by the Clinton administration, such as funding
> for NASA space programs; new-generation, fuel-efficient vehicles; and a
> controversial public-private research partnership called the Advanced
> Technology Program.
>
> But White House chief of staff John Podesta said
> yesterday that President Clinton's 2000 budget
> would propose increases in civilian research and
> development money within the spending caps, and that Republicans had chosen
> to reduce that R&D funding by $1.8 billion - about 8 to 10 percent - to help
> pay for their tax cut and other priorities.
>
> "The Republican budget and tax plans could reduce
> discretionary domestic spending by roughly half in the coming decades,
> inevitably leading to even further cuts in research and development,"
> Podesta said in a speech at the National Press Club.
>
> An administration proposal to spend $366 million more on
> information-technology research in the
> coming fiscal year - bringing the total to $850
> million - has been cut by about $80 million so far. A $4.8 billion
> bipartisan proposal spearheaded by the chairman of the House Science
> Committee to nearly double federal information-technology research over the
> next five years has not yet come to a vote.
>
> "I for one find it astonishing at a time when
> information has delivered in part . . . the kind of budget surpluses we're
> seeing, that we're ready to reduce the long-term investment in information
> technology," said Ken Kennedy, a professor of computational engineering at
> Rice University and a member of the President's Information Technology
> Advisory Council,
> at a news conference here yesterday.
>
> ==========
>
> More Govt Help Needed For Research - Tech Group
> View on the web at: http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/99/135680.html
>
>  By David McGuire Newsbytes
> WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A.,
> 01 Sep 1999, 3:27 PM CST
>
> The responsibility for performing fundamental information technology
> research can't be pawned off entirely on the IT industry,a cadre of
> corporate and academic leaders said today. The government must play a
> greater role in funding basic research efforts, they argued.
>
> "The appropriations levels that we've seen (for IT research) are very
> disappointing,"
> said Ken Kennedy, a professor of Computational
> Engineering at Rice University at today's event.
>
> At the press conference - which was sponsored by the Computing Research
> Association (CRA), in conjunction with high-tech lobbying
> firm the Technology Network (TechNet) - executives and academics pleaded for
> increased funding of the Department of Energy (DOE), Defense Advanced
> Research Projects Agency                   (DARPA) and National Science
> Foundation (NSF).
>
> But as Newsbytes reported Tuesday, while Republican leaders have gone to
> lengths
> to paint the GOP as the technology-friendly party in Washington,
> congressional Republicans appear in no rush to bolster the funding levels
> for high-tech-oriented government agencies.
>
> "There is a place for government funding of fundamental research, but we
> think the private sector is ultimately the best place for that kind
> of research to occur," House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas,
> spokesperson Richard Diamond said
> Tuesday.
>
> Speakers at today's event argued that corporate-funded research is, by
> necessity,                  focused on short-term developments and
> innovations, and unlikely to generate the
> kind of major advances critical to supporting the
> nation's technology-reliant economy.
>
> "Companies do R&D (research and development), but they do a lot more 'D'
> than they do 'R,'" said Vinton Cerf, senior vice president for Internet
> architecture and technology at MCI WorldCom, at today's meeting.
>
> 3Com Corp Chairman and CEO Eric A. Benhamou agreed with Cerf's assessment.
> Only about 1-2 percent of 3Com's total research budget goes toward
> long-term, fundamental research, he said.
>
> CRA and TechNet are recommending that Congress support the recommendations
> of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee
> (PITAC) by boosting the funding levels of six high-tech oriented agencies by
> $1.4
> billion over the next five years.
>
> Recent Senate and House appropriations bills have borne bad tidings for
> three of the agencies included in PITAC's recommendations.
>
> The DOE - which purports to be the nation's largest supporter of basic and
> applied research - requested $70 million over its current research funding -
> got $0 in additional appropriation in bills from both houses of Congress.
>
> DARPA, which requested $70 million for IT research, got appropriations of
> $45 million
> and $30 million from the Senate and House, respectively. And the NSF, which
> played
> a central role in the development of the Internet, requested more than $140
> million for
> research activities, and received a House appropriation of $35 million.
>
> The Senate has not yet completed its NSF appropriation recommendations.
>
> In a related development today White House Chief of Staff John Podesta said
> the Republican-sponsored tax cut would "make deep cuts" in US
> civilian research and development efforts, which would "guarantee that
> federal funding of R&D is slashed in the future," (see related Newsbytes
> article).
>
> Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com .
>
> # # #