SENATE PASSES BIGGERT
DOE COMPUTING BILL: Legislation Expected to be Sent
to the President for Signature
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 11, 2004 The U.S.
Senate last night approved legislation, introduced by
Energy Subcommittee Chairman Judy Biggert (R-IL),
that would revitalize the federal governments
high-performance computing efforts and advance U.S.
competitiveness. The House is expected to give final
approval to the bill after the election, sending it
to the President to be signed into law.
H.R. 4516, the Department of Energy High-End Computing
Revitalization Act of 2004, would further U.S. computing
capabilities by establishing a research and development
program within the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop
more advanced computers. The bill would also authorize
DOE to establish supercomputer user facilities that
would be available for use to U.S. researchers on a
competitive, peer-reviewed basis.
We cannot imagine the kinds of problems that
the supercomputers of tomorrow will be able to solve.
But we can imagine the kind of problems we will have
if we fail to provide researchers in the United States
with the best computing resources, said Biggert.
The Senate recognized that this bill will support
continued U.S. leadership in high-performance computing.
Our nations scientific enterprise, and our economy,
will be stronger for it.
Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY)
said, I applaud Chairman Biggert for recognizing
the importance of high-performance computers to our
nations competitiveness and for her leadership
in pushing legislation through Congress that would revitalize
the governments efforts in the realm of supercomputing.
By helping DOE develop some of the worlds fastest
computers, and ensuring U.S. researchers have access
to them, this bill will further strengthen Americas
position as the global leader in computing capabilities.
Biggerts bill was approved by the Science Committee
on June 16 and it passed the House on July 7 as part
of the Republican Conferences Competitiveness
Agenda. The Senate made relatively minor changes to
the bill during negations with the House. The final
Senate-passed version will need to be re-passed in the
House before it can be sent to the President, who fully
supports the legislation. The House is expected to take
up the bill and pass it during a lame duck session in
November.
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