Sen. Clinton Raises Concerns About DARPA Computer Science

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Peter Harsha <harsha () cra org>
Date: November 2, 2005 8:09:59 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Sen. Clinton Raises Concerns About DARPA Computer Science

Hi Dave,

From my post at the Computing Research Policy Blog:
http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000430.html

(The blog post has the full text of Sen. Clinton's remarks, excerpted  
below)

-Peter

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) put the President's nominee for Director  
of Defense Research and Engineering, John Young, on notice at his  
Senate confirmation hearing last week that she expects the new  
Director to address her concerns with DARPA (which DDR&E technically  
oversees), particularly DARPA support for university-led computer  
science research. Those concerns turns out to be ones shared by the  
computing research community, including "nonfiscal limitations such  
as the classification of work in areas that were previously  
unclassified; precluding university submissions as prime contractors  
on certain solicitations; [and] reducing the periods of performance  
to 18 to 24 months."

	"This kind of short-term focus is not conducive to university  
programs to address broad fundamental technological and scientific  
challenges, especially when we know that research in computer science  
will be at the very core of network-centric warfare.

	"So I would hope, Mr. Young, that you would look into this and,  
assuming you are confirmed, that you would take this as a very  
serious charge, because we just had another study by the National  
Academy of Sciences that basically said the United States is losing  
its technological and scientific leadership, and that's going to have  
long-term consequences certainly for defense but also for our  
standard of living and our economic prosperity."

Clinton rightly notes that these concerns are shared by not just the  
university researchers directly affected by these policies, but many  
of the industrial and multi-disciplinary users “downstream” who have  
come to depend on advances in information technology for their own  
progress. Additionally, the DOD's own Defense Science Board, the  
National Academies, the President's Information Technology Advisory  
Committee, and several Congressional committees have all raised  
concerns about the impact of DARPA's move away from long-term,  
university-led research in information technology and its  
implications for the country's long-term health and prosperity.

Unfortunately, as we've noted recently, at the same time these  
concerns about the state of computer science research at DARPA are  
being raised, one of the agency's truly positive activities - its  
Cognitive Computing program - is imperiled by a sizeable cut approved  
in the Senate version of the FY 2006 Defense Appropriations bill  
(H.R. 2863). The Senate bill would cut $55 million from DARPA's $114  
million “Learning, Reasoning, and Integrated Cognitive Systems”  
account, a move that would hamper advancements in defense-related  
information technology in the short- and long-term and would also  
slow technological advancement essential to current and future  
military operations in Iraq and around the globe. We at CRA hope that  
Clinton will help urge her colleagues on the conference committee  
negotiating the bill to abandon the cut and provide the President's  
requested funding level, the level approved in the House version of  
H.R. 2863.

I've included the whole of her statement -- which is very good --  
after the jump. The importance of her remarks are multi-fold. One,  
she's placed an important marker down for the computing research  
community -- the concerns of the community will be on the new DDR&E's  
plate as soon as he takes the job. Second, she's raised the profile  
of the concerns among the rest of the members on the Senate Armed  
Services Committee and staff (though they're already pretty  
sympathetic). And finally, it never hurts to have the current  
frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008 using  
her five minutes at a confirmation hearing to talk about your concerns.

Anyway, read the whole thing after the jump -- and if you get a  
chance, especially if you're at a NY institution, drop Senator  
Clinton a note of thanks for looking out long-term research....

-Peter Harsha
--
Peter Harsha
Director of Government Affairs
Computing Research Association
1100 17th St. NW, Suite 507
Washington, DC 20036
p: 202.234.2111 ext 106
c: 202.256.8271
CRA's Computing Research Policy Blog: http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog


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