Two bills aimed at reauthorizing portions of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program, the interagency initiative that encompasses all of the Federal IT R&D effort, will reach the House floor on Wednesday and likely pass. We’ve detailed both bills — H.R. 4218 – the High Performance Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 and H.R. 4516 – the Department of Energy High-end Computing Revitalization Act — in this space previously.
Both bills will be considered “under suspension” — a status usually reserved for bills considered non-controversial and likely to pass. The two bills are being considered as part of the House Leadership’s “Research, Development and Innovation Week” in Congress, a week of devoted to legislation impacting research and development activities of the federal gov’t, or designed to spur innovation. So it’s appropriate that Congress should consider two bills aimed at demonstrating the importance of continued federal support for IT R&D, given IT R&D’s key role in driving innovation in the United States — a point PITAC Co-Chair and former CRA Gov’t Affairs Committee Chair Ed Lazowska will make in his testimony before a Government Reform Subcommittee hearing tomorrow.
Update (July 7, 2004): Both bills passed by voice vote. We’ll have details shortly, as well as CRA’s press release commending the House on it’s support for IT R&D.