HPC R&D Act Passes House

On March 12, 2007, In Policy, By Peter Harsha

The High Performance Computing R&D Act, which we’ve reported on previously, was approved by the House today on a voice vote. The bill would amend the original High Performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991 (HPCC) to attempt to provide sustained, transparent access for the research community to federal HPC assets, assure a balanced research portfolio and beef up interagency planning. We like the bill and have endorsed it. (Here’s what it does (pdf) to current law.)
The bill now heads to the Senate. Previous versions of the bill in prior sessions of Congress have not fared well in the Senate, usually for reasons unrelated to the actual bill (Senate traffic jams and disputes between the House Science and Senate Commerce committees over other legislation are the most-often cited difficulties). But, talking with Senate staff, it appears the path to enactment this session is a bit smoother and freer of obstructions than in previous years. We understand that a bill very similar to the HPC R&D Act will be introduced soon in the Senate with a bipartisan set of co-sponsors — and we’ll have more detail soon.
For now, here’s a link to the House Science and Technology Committee’s press release marking the passage of the bill, and a snippet:

Research and Science Education Subcommittee Chairman Brian Baird (D-WA) sponsored the bill along with co-sponsor, Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) – who proposed similar legislation in both the 108th and 109th Congress.
“Information technology is an engine that drives economic growth in this country,” said Chairman Baird.  “It creates high-wage jobs, provides for rapid communication throughout the world, and provides tools for closing the knowledge gap.  This bill will help develop and deploy the fastest, most up-to-date, and technologically advanced super-computing systems that are essential for U.S. scientific, industrial, and military competitiveness.”

Previous coverage.

 
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GENI Science Council Named

On March 12, 2007, In Computing Community Consortium (CCC), Research, By Peter Harsha

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC), in consultation with the National Science Foundation, has selected the initial membership of the Science Council for the Global Environment for Networking Innovations (GENI). This GENI Science Council (GSC) will represent the computing research community in guiding the Science Plan for GENI — an experimental facility planned by NSF in collaboration with the research community, “to enable the research community to invent and demonstrate a global communications network and related services that will be qualitatively better than today’s Internet.”
The initial members are:

* member of Interim CCC Council
+ member of CRA GENI Advisory Board
++ member of GENI Planning Group
The members of the GSC were selected from a pool of more than 100 specific individuals nominated by the computing community representing roughly 20 research areas.
In selecting the GSC, CCC and NSF considered a number of criteria, including trying to insure that most GENI-relevant research communities were represented on the GSC, that the members should have strong individual reputations in the GENI-relevant research communities and recognized as “deep thinkers,” and that the selection process seek diversity of all sorts: geographical, institution type, gender, ethnic, etc. In addition, the CCC intends to add representation from the networking industry that builds components and provides network engineering expertise for the alternative technologies, but will wait to add those individuals until the results of the GENI Project Office (GPO) solicitation are known. (It was felt that individuals who are likely to have key roles in the GPO shouldn’t serve on the GSC, so that the GSC can offer independent advice if requested.)
Scott Shenker will serve as Chair of the GSC, and Ellen Zegura will serve as Vice Chair. A few details remain, including establishing the terms of service (and determining the staggering of the terms of the initial appointees) — but those are expected to be worked out shortly.
Additional detail (pdf) on the selection of the GENI Science Council.
More on GENI. And a helpful FAQ.
More on CCC.

 
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Support ACI FY08 Funding

On March 9, 2007, In American Competitiveness Initiative, Funding, FY08 Appropriations, By MelissaNorr

The American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) introduced by the President during the 2006 State of the Union is a commitment to the doubling of the research budgets for NSF, NIST, and the Department of Energy Office of Science. Much of that commitment was met by congressional appropriators in FY 07, as they increased the budgets for the three agencies in the year end “continuing resolution.” The President remained committed to ACI in his FY 08 budget request, asking for 7 to 14 percent increases for the three agencies.
The FY08 requests of $6.43 billion for NSF and $4.4 billion for the Office of Science would keep both agencies on the doubling path, which has received much bipartisan support in the past.
Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Christopher Bond (R-MO) are circulating a letter to colleagues asking for their support of the $6.43 billion request for the National Science Foundation in FY 2008. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) are circulating a similar letter to colleagues asking for their support for the Administration’s $4.4 billion request for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science in FY08. The letters will be sent to the chair and ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee and the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, respectively.
So far the NSF support letter has been signed by Christopher Bond (R-MO), Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Carl Levin (D-MI), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Barack Obama (D-IL), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
The Office of Science letter has been signed by Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), John Kerry (D-MA), Carl Levin (D-MI), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Barack Obama (D-IL), Pat Roberts (R-KS), John Rockefeller (D-WV), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), George Voinovich (R-OH), John Warner (R-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
During the FY 07 appropriations process, these “ask” letters were remarkably influential on congressional appropriators, helping position science funding as a “national priority” and carving out increases for three key science agencies even as many other agencies were held flat or cut. We’re asking for your help in making this similar effort by Lieberman, Bond, Bingaman and Alexander equally effective. Please fax your state Senators (especially if they’re not on the list above – but even if they are) and ask them to sign on to the Lieberman/Bond and Bingaman/Alexander “Dear Colleague” letters.
A sample letter you can use can be found at CRA’s Advocacy web page — please FAX it to your Senators offices as soon as possible. The deadline for signers is Monday, March 12. Please also fax a copy of your letter to Melissa Norr at 202.667.1066.
Find out who your Senators are at Senators of the 110th Congress.

 
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