Computing Research Policy Blog


Posts categorized under: Policy

NY Times Applauds Improvements to Student Visa Process


Just a quick note to point out an editorial in today’s New York Times commending the State Department for finally “bringing some sanity” to the student visa issue. CRA has been urging this sort of reform since it became clear shortly after 9/11 that it was having a real impact on our member institutions. Thanks […]

IT Spending Does Not Equal IT R&D Funding


Computerworld has a story today that, I think, helps contribute to the common misunderstanding in some policy circles that “IT funding” is the same as “IT R&D funding.” The story combines budget news about the president’s proposed increases in federal IT funding — in this case, funding for IT procurement — with news about some […]

Business Week Makes the Economic Case for Federal R&D Spending


Michael Mandel notes in today’s BusinessWeek Online op-ed that President Bush’s proposed cuts to federal support of R&D in his FY 06 budget request are shortsighted because of the impact they’ll have on the U.S. economy. He focuses on multifactor productivity (MFP). a measure of productivity that, when it goes up, means “output per hour […]

Real ID Act Passes House


USACM’s David Padgham has a good post on House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner’s “Real ID Act,” a bill inteded to disrupt terrorist travel and bolster U.S. border security. Among privacy and civil liberties advocates, the bill has renewed worries about the development of a national identification system. Indeed, critics of the bill assert that […]

Research Under Fire


The Berkeleyan, a publication of UC Berkeley, has a great, in-depth piece on a trend we’ve noted and complained about in this space quite often: the increasing use of restrictions on federally supported fundamental research and its impact on university-based research. I’ll just cite a little bit, but I urge you to read the article. […]

Appropriations Reorganization Update: NSF and NASA to Energy and Water?


House Appropriations Chair Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is apparently proposing the most radical restructuring of the Appropriations Committee in decades, according to an article appearing in today’s Congress Daily (sub. req’d). Peter Cohn, writes (sorry, I can’t find it online), that the proposal would pare the 13 appropriations committees down to 10 and would move NASA […]

R&D and Legislative Priorities: Senate Edition


The Senate Majority and Minority leaders announced yesterday their respective parties’ “legislative priorities” for the new session of Congress, highlighting different perspectives on the relative importance of federal support for R&D. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that “expanding high-speed Internet access, targeting terrorists, ending tax incentives for U.S. companies located overseas and increasing […]

EU Says Bureaucracy Hurting IT Research Efforts, Competitiveness


ComputerWeekly.com notes today that an EU commission charged with assessing the state of EU IT research efforts has concluded that the effort is failing because of insufficient funding and heavy-handed bureaucracy. The panel said the research was vital for competitiveness but that it more investment and less bureaucracy are required for success. The panel was […]

PITAC Approves Cyber Security Report Calling For Significant Increases in Basic Cyber R&D


The President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) achieved consensus yesterday on the final draft of its report on the status of the federal cyber security R&D effort, finding that support for civilian-oriented, fundamental cyber security research is seriously inadequate, the pool of researchers is insufficient, and that coordination between funding agencies is lacking. Judging by […]