CRA Board member, Eugene Spafford, has received the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) President’s Award for “his long and effective leadership on issues of computer security and policy, professional responsibility, and the Internet.” The award, given to only seven previous recipients since 1985, will be presented in June in San Diego. The award is given to those who “have demonstrated their exceptional abilities to advance computing technology and enhance its impact for the benefit of society through generosity, creativity and dedication to their respective missions.”
From the press release:
Professor Spafford, considered one of the most influential leaders in information security, is being cited for his extensive and continuing record of service to the computing community, including major companies and government agencies. He was a member of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 2003-2005. He was also a senior advisor to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Assistant Director of the CISE (Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering) Directorate during the 2003-2004 academic year. In addition, Professor Spafford has been a senior advisor and consultant on security, cybercrime, and policy issues to several agencies, including the U.S. Air Force, the National Security Agency, the Government Accountability Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Energy.
Spafford is a joint professor in Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, where he has received three teaching awards, and the founder and Executive Director of the Purdue CERIAS, the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science and Executive Director of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Information Assurance at the University of Texas San Antonio. He is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, and AAAS and a Lifetime Member of Sigma Xi and ISSA. He has received many awards from a variety of scientific societies and universities, including IEEE, NIST, and the US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.
Congratulations Spaf!
The House Science and Technology Committee approved H.R. 362, the 10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science and Math Scholarship Act, today and will recommend it to the House for consideration. The bill was passed with five amendments that are meant to improve access for teachers and students from low-income schools and to improve science labs in secondary schools.
The bill is based on the recommendations of the National Academies Rising Above the Gathering Storm Report. A press release on the legislation states that the goal of the legislation is increasing scholarships for students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and who are committed to pursuing teaching; establishing a teacher education program at the National Science Foundation to encourage education faculty to work with STEM faculty on ways to improve education for math and science teachers; providing in-service training to math and science teachers to improve content knowledge and teaching skills; and authorizing the development of masters degree programs for in-service math and science teachers.
This is just one of several innovation and competitiveness bills based on the Gathering Storm recommendations that the Committee has or plans to address this year, along with the reauthorization of NSF and the No Child Left Behind Act.
A webcast of the hearing is available.
Forgive the ad, but since we’ve got such a well-connected, Web 2.0-ish sort of readership here, I thought I’d use the space to announce that we’re looking for someone to help update CRA’s digital presence and support our office IT needs.
We’re currently looking for a full-time IT Manager/Webmaster for our world headquarters here in Washington, DC. This person will be responsible for working with our staff and membership to design, develop, deploy and maintain CRA’s web presence and other digital assets, in addition to helping support the office network (a mix of Mac and Windows machines). The ideal candidate is one with an eye for clear, concise design who is excited about the possibility of using innovative technologies to help communicate with our tech-savvy constituency.
Experience in designing and deploying fully-interactive websites is required. The ideal candidate also likely has four to five years experience in web-based graphic design, and a BA or BS in graphic design, art or related fields, or equivalent academic or work experience. Needed skills include the ability to work with database technologies like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Access; scripting languages like PHP and Javascript; and fluency in HTML and CSS. This position will also require supporting the CRA office network and CRA staff IT needs (including a Director of Gov’t Affairs who likes to try all the latest stuff…). Being conversant in Unix is a big plus….
If interested, please send a current resume along with salary expectations and links to examples of your previous work to the CRA employment mailbox.
CRA is an equal opportunity employer and a fantastic place to work. This position features a competitive salary and benefits, great environment, and the ability to interact with one of the most interesting and cutting-edge communities around.
The Chairman of the House Budget Committee today released the “chairman’smark” (both pdf) of his committee’s FY 2008 Congressional Budget Resolution that includes funding caps large enough to accommodate the continuation of funding increases at key federal science agencies called for in both the American Competitiveness Initiative and the Democratic Innovation Agenda. The resolution contains healthy increases in a number of budget accounts designed to allow congressional appropriators the budget “room” to include increases for ACI agencies — National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Department of Energy Office of Science — as well as the National Institutes of Health and additional federal education spending at a variety of agencies.
The overall budget levels are similar to those found in the Senate version of the Congressional Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res 21), which was introduced back on March 15th and is being considered on the Senate floor now. The House bill is a bit more generous for the science accounts, but because of the convoluted way the budget process works, it’s hard to translate either set of numbers to likely actual appropriations. In each case, it’s enough to know that both the House and Senate budgeters appear to have factored in the requested increases (or greater) for key science agencies in their budgets. (Update below) The House also included “sense of the House” language that really calls out their support for science funding increases:
SENSE OF THE HOUSE ON THE INNOVATION AGENDA: A COMMITMENT TO COMPETITIVENESS TO KEEP AMERICA #1. (a) It is the sense of the House to provide sufficient funding that our Nation may continue to be the world leader in education, innovation and economic growth. This resolution provides $___ [this is still to be determined–PH] above the Presidents requested level for 2008, and additional amounts in subsequent years in Function 250 (General Science, Space and Technology) and Function 270 (Energy). Additional increases for scientific research and education are included in Function 500 (Education, Employment, Training, and Social Services), Function 550 (Health), Function 300 (Environment and Natural Resources), Function 350 (Agriculture), Function 400 (Transportation), and Function 370 (Commerce and Housing Credit), all of which receive more funding than the President requested.
(b) Americas greatest resource for innovation resides within classrooms across the country. The increased funding provided in this resolution will support important initiatives to educate 100,000 new scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, and place highly qualified teachers in math and science K12 classrooms.
(c) Independent scientific research provides the foundation for innovation and future technologies. This resolution will put us on the path toward doubling funding for the National Science Foundation, basic research in the physical sciences across all agencies, and collaborative research partnerships; and toward achieving energy independence through the development of clean and sustainable alternative energy technologies.
Both House and Senate budget chairs believe they have the votes to move the respective resolutions in their chambers. We’ll keep you posted as they move.
For those who like numbers, here are the funding levels for each budget function in the House resolution, and here are the Senate numbers (click on Sec. 103, Major Functional Categories) Update: (6:14 pm 3/21/07) — It appears I was a little quick in my analysis of the Senate version of the resolution. While the Senate does include increases for some of the budget functions that cover science agencies, it’s not clear those increases would be used for science funding. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have an amendment to the resolution that will be voted on this evening that would “restore” $1 billion to the resolution for the President’s request and to fund the provisions of the America COMPETES Act. Here’s a press release from Alexander’s office which spells out the detail.
We’ll have more after the vote. Update 2: (8:19 pm 3/21/07) — The amendment passed overwhelmingly.
One of the side effects of these exciting times for science policy in Washington is that we don’t get as much time to blog as we need to. Even as late as two years ago, the drumbeat for competitiveness and innovation — the driving themes behind most of the science policy developments over the last year — was significantly softer than it is now…almost inaudible, in fact. That gave us plenty of time to devote to lengthy coverage of just about every development in the space — every news article, every press conference, every mention by a key (or not so key) policymaker.
Well, over the last two years, the pace of developments has quickened dramatically. Nearly every day there’s some mention of innovation policy, or the importance of IT research, or the need to ramp up the federal commitment to the “physical sciences” somewhere. Our queue of potential topics for blog posts has grown considerably. Unfortunately, because we’re also out in the trenches working these developments, we don’t often get the time we need to really delve into the topics as we usually do with our posts.
Rather than let those topics grow stale in a queue that isn’t moving any faster than it ever has, we’ve decided to go a little “Web 2.0” and start a Computing Research Policy TumbleLog, on which we can post quick links to articles we find noteworthy, or quotes that resonate, or events with think are interesting. There won’t be much (or even any) analysis of the topics on the TumbleLog, just pointers to the original sources. All the meaty stuff — the analysis, the details — will still be here, with a frequency that’s hopefully unchanged.
So, you might want to bookmark the Computing Research Policy TumbleLog if you’re interested in some of the things we’ve found interesting to note, but keep an eye here for our usual content as well.
I’ve also attempted to set up a little widget over there on the left sidebar that shows the most recent topics on the tumblelog, but it doesn’t seem to work very well in Safari on my Mac. So if anyone has a suggestion for a better approach, please let me know! This Web 2.0 stuff is tricky. 🙂 Fixed, I think!
A proclamation from members of U.S. industry and academia (including CRA) calling on Congress to ramp up federal basic research funding, improve student performance in math and science, enable the U.S. to recruit and retain the best talent, and make permanent the R&D tax credit was officially released at a standing room only press event yesterday hosted by House Science and Technology CommitteeChairman Bart Gordon (D-TN), with speakers Norm Augustine, Craig Barrett (Chairman of Intel), Harold McGraw III (CEO of McGraw-Hill), Robert Dynes (Pres of UC Berkeley), Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL), Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI), Rep. Dan Lipinsky (D-IL), and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN). The proclamation is online and has over 270 endorsements from industry, academic, and professional groups. The proclamation was printed on parchment (an electronic version of the parchment scroll is available here) and delivered to every congressional office.
The Committee put out a press release about the event and an audio webcast is also available.
Directly following the press conference, the Committee held a hearing on two of its innovation bills, H.R. 362 and 363, “10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds” Science and Math Scholarship Act and Sowing the Seeds Through Science and Engineering Research Act. Both bills are designed to enact the recommendations of the oft-cited National Academies Rising Above the Gathering Storm report that are under the House S&T Committee’s jurisdiction. The bills are a parallel effort to the Senate’s America COMPETES legislation, which was introduced by the Senate leadership on March 4th and will go straight to the Senate floor.
The written testimony of the witnesses, many of whom spoke at the press conference, and a webcast of the hearing are available online.
Update: (3/12/07, 1:17 pm) — Fixed!
Original Post: Though the blog continues to work, a database issue has rendered the CRA Government Affairs website temporarily unavailable. Apologies to those trying to access the resources we’ve got on those pages, but we hope to have the site restored soon….
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’spress 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.”
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:
Tom Anderson, University of Washington (distributed systems and networking);++
Hari Balakrishnan, MIT (wireless networking);
Joe Berthold, CIENA (optical networking);
Charlie Catlett, Argonne National Laboratory (grid computing)+;
Mike Dahlin, University of Texas (distributed systems);
Stephanie Forrest, University of New Mexico (biological system modeling, security);
Roscoe Giles, Boston University (educational technology);
Ed Lazowska, University of Washington (systems);*+
Peter Lee, Carnegie Mellon University (software);+
Helen Nissenbaum, NYU (social, ethical and political dimensions of IT);
Ellen Zegura, vice chair, Georgia Tech (networking, including wireless)*, +
* 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.
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.
Please use the Category and Archive Filters below, to find older posts. Or you may also use the search bar.
Eugene Spafford Honored with ACM President’s Award
/In: CRA, People /by MelissaNorrCRA Board member, Eugene Spafford, has received the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) President’s Award for “his long and effective leadership on issues of computer security and policy, professional responsibility, and the Internet.” The award, given to only seven previous recipients since 1985, will be presented in June in San Diego. The award is given to those who “have demonstrated their exceptional abilities to advance computing technology and enhance its impact for the benefit of society through generosity, creativity and dedication to their respective missions.”
From the press release:
Spafford is a joint professor in Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, where he has received three teaching awards, and the founder and Executive Director of the Purdue CERIAS, the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science and Executive Director of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Information Assurance at the University of Texas San Antonio. He is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, and AAAS and a Lifetime Member of Sigma Xi and ISSA. He has received many awards from a variety of scientific societies and universities, including IEEE, NIST, and the US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.
Congratulations Spaf!
Innovation Bill Moves Forward
/In: American Competitiveness Initiative, Diversity in Computing, Policy /by MelissaNorrThe House Science and Technology Committee approved H.R. 362, the 10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science and Math Scholarship Act, today and will recommend it to the House for consideration. The bill was passed with five amendments that are meant to improve access for teachers and students from low-income schools and to improve science labs in secondary schools.
The bill is based on the recommendations of the National Academies Rising Above the Gathering Storm Report. A press release on the legislation states that the goal of the legislation is increasing scholarships for students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and who are committed to pursuing teaching; establishing a teacher education program at the National Science Foundation to encourage education faculty to work with STEM faculty on ways to improve education for math and science teachers; providing in-service training to math and science teachers to improve content knowledge and teaching skills; and authorizing the development of masters degree programs for in-service math and science teachers.
This is just one of several innovation and competitiveness bills based on the Gathering Storm recommendations that the Committee has or plans to address this year, along with the reauthorization of NSF and the No Child Left Behind Act.
A webcast of the hearing is available.
CRA’s Hiring
/In: CRA /by Peter HarshaForgive the ad, but since we’ve got such a well-connected, Web 2.0-ish sort of readership here, I thought I’d use the space to announce that we’re looking for someone to help update CRA’s digital presence and support our office IT needs.
We’re currently looking for a full-time IT Manager/Webmaster for our world headquarters here in Washington, DC. This person will be responsible for working with our staff and membership to design, develop, deploy and maintain CRA’s web presence and other digital assets, in addition to helping support the office network (a mix of Mac and Windows machines). The ideal candidate is one with an eye for clear, concise design who is excited about the possibility of using innovative technologies to help communicate with our tech-savvy constituency.
Experience in designing and deploying fully-interactive websites is required. The ideal candidate also likely has four to five years experience in web-based graphic design, and a BA or BS in graphic design, art or related fields, or equivalent academic or work experience. Needed skills include the ability to work with database technologies like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Access; scripting languages like PHP and Javascript; and fluency in HTML and CSS. This position will also require supporting the CRA office network and CRA staff IT needs (including a Director of Gov’t Affairs who likes to try all the latest stuff…). Being conversant in Unix is a big plus….
If interested, please send a current resume along with salary expectations and links to examples of your previous work to the CRA employment mailbox.
CRA is an equal opportunity employer and a fantastic place to work. This position features a competitive salary and benefits, great environment, and the ability to interact with one of the most interesting and cutting-edge communities around.
Innovation Funding Featured in House Budget Resolution
/In: American Competitiveness Initiative, Funding, FY08 Appropriations, Policy /by Peter HarshaThe Chairman of the House Budget Committee today released the “chairman’s mark” (both pdf) of his committee’s FY 2008 Congressional Budget Resolution that includes funding caps large enough to accommodate the continuation of funding increases at key federal science agencies called for in both the American Competitiveness Initiative and the Democratic Innovation Agenda. The resolution contains healthy increases in a number of budget accounts designed to allow congressional appropriators the budget “room” to include increases for ACI agencies — National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Department of Energy Office of Science — as well as the National Institutes of Health and additional federal education spending at a variety of agencies.
The overall budget levels are similar to those found in the Senate version of the Congressional Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res 21), which was introduced back on March 15th and is being considered on the Senate floor now. The House bill is a bit more generous for the science accounts, but because of the convoluted way the budget process works, it’s hard to translate either set of numbers to likely actual appropriations.
In each case, it’s enough to know that both the House and Senate budgeters appear to have factored in the requested increases (or greater) for key science agencies in their budgets.(Update below) The House also included “sense of the House” language that really calls out their support for science funding increases:Both House and Senate budget chairs believe they have the votes to move the respective resolutions in their chambers. We’ll keep you posted as they move.
For those who like numbers, here are the funding levels for each budget function in the House resolution, and here are the Senate numbers (click on Sec. 103, Major Functional Categories)
Update: (6:14 pm 3/21/07) — It appears I was a little quick in my analysis of the Senate version of the resolution. While the Senate does include increases for some of the budget functions that cover science agencies, it’s not clear those increases would be used for science funding. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have an amendment to the resolution that will be voted on this evening that would “restore” $1 billion to the resolution for the President’s request and to fund the provisions of the America COMPETES Act. Here’s a press release from Alexander’s office which spells out the detail.
We’ll have more after the vote.
Update 2: (8:19 pm 3/21/07) — The amendment passed overwhelmingly.
Announcing the Computing Research Policy TumbleLog
/In: CRA /by Peter HarshaOne of the side effects of these exciting times for science policy in Washington is that we don’t get as much time to blog as we need to. Even as late as two years ago, the drumbeat for competitiveness and innovation — the driving themes behind most of the science policy developments over the last year — was significantly softer than it is now…almost inaudible, in fact. That gave us plenty of time to devote to lengthy coverage of just about every development in the space — every news article, every press conference, every mention by a key (or not so key) policymaker.
Well, over the last two years, the pace of developments has quickened dramatically. Nearly every day there’s some mention of innovation policy, or the importance of IT research, or the need to ramp up the federal commitment to the “physical sciences” somewhere. Our queue of potential topics for blog posts has grown considerably. Unfortunately, because we’re also out in the trenches working these developments, we don’t often get the time we need to really delve into the topics as we usually do with our posts.
Rather than let those topics grow stale in a queue that isn’t moving any faster than it ever has, we’ve decided to go a little “Web 2.0” and start a Computing Research Policy TumbleLog, on which we can post quick links to articles we find noteworthy, or quotes that resonate, or events with think are interesting. There won’t be much (or even any) analysis of the topics on the TumbleLog, just pointers to the original sources. All the meaty stuff — the analysis, the details — will still be here, with a frequency that’s hopefully unchanged.
So, you might want to bookmark the Computing Research Policy TumbleLog if you’re interested in some of the things we’ve found interesting to note, but keep an eye here for our usual content as well.
I’ve also attempted to set up a little widget over there on the left sidebar that shows the most recent topics on the tumblelog,
but it doesn’t seem to work very well in Safari on my Mac. So if anyone has a suggestion for a better approach, please let me know! This Web 2.0 stuff is tricky.🙂 Fixed, I think!Innovation Press Conference and Hearing
/In: American Competitiveness Initiative, Policy /by MelissaNorrA proclamation from members of U.S. industry and academia (including CRA) calling on Congress to ramp up federal basic research funding, improve student performance in math and science, enable the U.S. to recruit and retain the best talent, and make permanent the R&D tax credit was officially released at a standing room only press event yesterday hosted by House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN), with speakers Norm Augustine, Craig Barrett (Chairman of Intel), Harold McGraw III (CEO of McGraw-Hill), Robert Dynes (Pres of UC Berkeley), Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL), Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI), Rep. Dan Lipinsky (D-IL), and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN). The proclamation is online and has over 270 endorsements from industry, academic, and professional groups. The proclamation was printed on parchment (an electronic version of the parchment scroll is available here) and delivered to every congressional office.
The Committee put out a press release about the event and an audio webcast is also available.
Directly following the press conference, the Committee held a hearing on two of its innovation bills, H.R. 362 and 363, “10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds” Science and Math Scholarship Act and Sowing the Seeds Through Science and Engineering Research Act. Both bills are designed to enact the recommendations of the oft-cited National Academies Rising Above the Gathering Storm report that are under the House S&T Committee’s jurisdiction. The bills are a parallel effort to the Senate’s America COMPETES legislation, which was introduced by the Senate leadership on March 4th and will go straight to the Senate floor.
The written testimony of the witnesses, many of whom spoke at the press conference, and a webcast of the hearing are available online.
CRA Gov Affairs Site Down…
/In: CRA /by Peter HarshaUpdate: (3/12/07, 1:17 pm) — Fixed!
Original Post:
Though the blog continues to work, a database issue has rendered the CRA Government Affairs website temporarily unavailable. Apologies to those trying to access the resources we’ve got on those pages, but we hope to have the site restored soon….HPC R&D Act Passes House
/In: Policy /by Peter HarshaThe 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:
Previous coverage.
GENI Science Council Named
/In: Computing Community Consortium (CCC), Research /by Peter HarshaThe 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.
Support ACI FY08 Funding
/In: American Competitiveness Initiative, Funding, FY08 Appropriations /by MelissaNorrThe 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.