CRA member Google Inc.’s CEO Eric Schmidt gave a speech yesterday in DC regarding government and technology. Schmidt is a member of President-elect Obama’s transition team but he focused more on issues that the technology community (including CRA) has been talking about for years, including research funding. The Washington Times has all the details but here’s a brief quote on research:

Mr. Schmidt said the government has an important role to play in funding research, noting that businesses “by law have to serve their shareholders” and therefore are not going to “fundamentally invest at the level of pure research.”
“It takes government policy. That model works,” he said, citing a pledge by Mr. Obama to double basic spending on scientific research, which declined this year.

Check out the article for more on what Schmidt talked about or listen to the speech at the New America Foundation (mp3 format download).