[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 92 (Wednesday, July 7, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H5203-H5207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING REVITALIZATION ACT OF 2004
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 4218) to amend the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991,
as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 4218
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``High-Performance Computing
Revitalization Act of 2004''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
Section 4 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15
U.S.C. 5503) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (2), by inserting ``and multidisciplinary
teams of researchers'' after ``high-performance computing
resources'';
(2) in paragraph (3)--
(A) by striking ``scientific workstations,'';
(B) by striking ``(including vector supercomputers and
large scale parallel systems)'';
(C) by striking ``and applications'' and inserting
``applications''; and
(D) by inserting ``, and the management of large data
sets'' after ``systems software'';
(3) in paragraph (4), by striking ``packet switched''; and
(4) by amending paragraphs (5) and (6) to read as follows:
``(5) `Program' means the High-Performance Computing
Research and Development Program described in section 101;
and
``(6) `Program Component Areas' means the major subject
areas under which are grouped related individual projects and
activities carried out under the Program.''.
SEC. 3. HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM.
Title I of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15
U.S.C. 5511 et seq.) is amended--
(1) in the title heading, by striking ``AND THE NATIONAL
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK'' and inserting ``RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT'';
(2) in section 101--
(A) the section heading, by striking ``NATIONAL HIGH-
PERFORMANCE COMPUTING'' and inserting ``HIGH-PERFORMANCE
COMPUTING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT'';
(B) in subsection (a)--
(i) in the subsection heading, by striking ``National High-
performance Computing'' and inserting ``High-performance
Computing Research and Development'';
(ii) by striking paragraphs (1) and (2) and inserting the
following: ``(1) The President shall implement a High-
Performance Computing Research and Development Program, which
shall--
``(A) provide for long-term basic and applied research on
high-performance computing;
``(B) provide for research and development on, and
demonstration of, technologies to advance the capacity and
capabilities of high-
[[Page H5204]]
performance computing and networking systems;
``(C) provide for sustained access by the research
community in the United States to high-performance computing
systems that are among the most advanced in the world in
terms of performance in solving scientific and engineering
problems, including provision for technical support for users
of such systems;
``(D) provide for efforts to increase software
availability, productivity, capability, security,
portability, and reliability;
``(E) provide for high-performance networks, including
experimental testbed networks, to enable research and
development on, and demonstration of, advanced applications
enabled by such networks;
``(F) provide for computational science and engineering
research on mathematical modeling and algorithms for
applications in all fields of science and engineering;
``(G) provide for the technical support of, and research
and development on, high-performance computing systems and
software required to address Grand Challenges;
``(H) provide for educating and training additional
undergraduate and graduate students in software engineering,
computer science, computer and network security, applied
mathematics, library and information science, and
computational science; and
``(I) provide for improving the security of computing and
networking systems, including Federal systems, including
research required to establish security standards and
practices for these systems.'';
(iii) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and (4) as paragraphs
(2) and (3), respectively;
(iv) in paragraph (2), as so redesignated by clause (iii)
of this subparagraph--
(I) by striking subparagraph (B);
(II) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) and (C) as
subparagraphs (D) and (F), respectively;
(III) by inserting before subparagraph (D), as so
redesignated by subclause (II) of this clause, the following
new subparagraphs:
``(A) establish the goals and priorities for Federal high-
performance computing research, development, networking, and
other activities;
``(B) establish Program Component Areas that implement the
goals established under subparagraph (A), and identify the
Grand Challenges that the Program should address;
``(C) provide for interagency coordination of Federal high-
performance computing research, development, networking, and
other activities undertaken pursuant to the Program;''; and
(IV) by inserting after subparagraph (D), as so
redesignated by subclause (II) of this clause, the following
new subparagraph:
``(E) develop and maintain a research, development, and
deployment roadmap for the provision of high-performance
computing systems under paragraph (1)(C); and''; and
(v) in paragraph (3), as so redesignated by clause (iii) of
this subparagraph--
(I) by striking ``paragraph (3)(A)'' and inserting
``paragraph (2)(D)'';
(II) by amending subparagraph (A) to read as follows:
``(A) provide a detailed description of the Program
Component Areas, including a description of any changes in
the definition of or activities under the Program Component
Areas from the preceding report, and the reasons for such
changes, and a description of Grand Challenges supported
under the Program;'';
(III) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``specific
activities'' and all that follows through ``the Network'' and
inserting ``each Program Component Area'';
(IV) in subparagraph (D), by inserting ``and for each
Program Component Area'' after ``participating in the
Program'';
(V) in subparagraph (D), by striking ``applies;'' and
inserting ``applies; and'';
(VI) by striking subparagraph (E) and redesignating
subparagraph (F) as subparagraph (E); and
(VII) in subparagraph (E), as so redesignated by subclause
(VI) of this clause, by inserting ``and the extent to which
the Program incorporates the recommendations of the advisory
committee established under subsection (b)'' after ``for the
Program'';
(C) in subsection (b)--
(i) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (5) as
subparagraphs (A) through (E), respectively;
(ii) by inserting ``(1)'' after ``Advisory Committee.--'';
(iii) in paragraph (1)(C), as so redesignated by clauses
(i) and (ii) of this subparagraph, by inserting ``, including
funding levels for the Program Component Areas'' after ``of
the Program'';
(iv) in paragraph (1)(D), as so redesignated by clauses (i)
and (ii) of this subparagraph, by striking ``computing'' and
inserting ``high-performance computing and networking''; and
(v) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(2) In addition to the duties outlined in paragraph (1),
the advisory committee shall conduct periodic evaluations of
the funding, management, coordination, implementation, and
activities of the Program, and shall report not less
frequently than once every two fiscal years to the Committee
on Science of the House of Representatives and the Committee
on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate on its
findings and recommendations. The first report shall be due
within one year after the date of enactment of this
paragraph.''; and
(D) in subsection (c)(1)(A), by striking ``Program or'' and
inserting ``Program Component Areas or''; and
(3) by striking sections 102 and 103.
SEC. 4. AGENCY ACTIVITIES.
Title II of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15
U.S.C. 5521 et seq.) is amended--
(1) by amending subsection (a) of section 201 to read as
follows:
``(a) General Responsibilities.--As part of the Program
described in title I, the National Science Foundation shall--
``(1) support research and development to generate
fundamental scientific and technical knowledge with the
potential of advancing high-performance computing and
networking systems and their applications;
``(2) provide computing and networking infrastructure
support to the research community in the United States,
including the provision of high-performance computing systems
that are among the most advanced in the world in terms of
performance in solving scientific and engineering problems,
and including support for advanced software and applications
development, for all science and engineering disciplines; and
``(3) support basic research and education in all aspects
of high-performance computing and networking.'';
(2) by amending subsection (a) of section 202 to read as
follows:
``(a) General Responsibilities.--As part of the Program
described in title I, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration shall conduct basic and applied research in
high-performance computing and networking, with emphasis on--
``(1) computational fluid dynamics, computational thermal
dynamics, and computational aerodynamics;
``(2) scientific data dissemination and tools to enable
data to be fully analyzed and combined from multiple sources
and sensors;
``(3) remote exploration and experimentation; and
``(4) tools for collaboration in system design, analysis,
and testing.'';
(3) in section 203--
(A) by striking subsections (a) through (d) and inserting
the following:
``(a) General Responsibilities.--As part of the Program
described in title I, the Secretary of Energy shall--
``(1) conduct and support basic and applied research in
high-performance computing and networking to support
fundamental research in science and engineering disciplines
related to energy applications; and
``(2) provide computing and networking infrastructure
support, including the provision of high-performance
computing systems that are among the most advanced in the
world in terms of performance in solving scientific and
engineering problems, and including support for advanced
software and applications development, for science and
engineering disciplines related to energy applications.'';
and
(B) by redesignating subsection (e) as subsection (b);
(4) by amending subsection (a) of section 204 to read as
follows:
``(a) General Responsibilities.--As part of the Program
described in title I--
``(1) the National Institute of Standards and Technology
shall--
``(A) conduct basic and applied metrology research needed
to support high-performance computing and networking systems;
``(B) develop benchmark tests and standards for high-
performance computing and networking systems and software;
``(C) develop and propose voluntary standards and
guidelines, and develop measurement techniques and test
methods, for the interoperability of high-performance
computing systems in networks and for common user interfaces
to high-performance computing and networking systems; and
``(D) work with industry and others to develop, and
facilitate the implementation of, high-performance computing
applications to solve science and engineering problems that
are relevant to industry; and
``(2) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
shall conduct basic and applied research on high-performance
computing applications, with emphasis on--
``(A) improving weather forecasting and climate prediction;
``(B) collection, analysis, and dissemination of
environmental information; and
``(C) development of more accurate models of the ocean-
atmosphere system.''; and
(5) by amending subsection (a) of section 205 to read as
follows:
``(a) General Responsibilities.--As part of the Program
described in title I, the Environmental Protection Agency
shall conduct basic and applied research directed toward
advancement and dissemination of computational techniques and
software tools for high-performance computing systems with an
emphasis on modeling to--
``(1) develop robust decision support tools;
``(2) predict pollutant transport and the effects of
pollutants on humans and on ecosystems; and
``(3) better understand atmospheric dynamics and
chemistry.''.
SEC. 5. SOCIETAL IMPLICATIONS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.
In carrying out its programs on the social, economic,
legal, ethical, and cultural implications of information
technology, the National Science Foundation shall support
research into the implications of computers (including both
hardware and software) that
[[Page H5205]]
would be capable of mimicking human abilities to learn,
reason, and make decisions.
SEC. 6. ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
(a) Amendments.--Section 23 of the National Science
Foundation Authorization Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 1862n-9) is
amended--
(1) by striking ``and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration'' each place it appears in subsections (a) and
(b) and inserting ``, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, and the Department of Energy'';
(2) in subsection (b)(3), by inserting ``the Secretary of
Energy,'' after ``the Administrator of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration,'';
(3) in subsection (c)--
(A) by striking ``5'' in each of paragraphs (1) and (2) and
inserting ``4'';
(B) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (2);
(C) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4), and in
that paragraph by striking ``3'' and inserting ``2''; and
(D) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following new
paragraph:
``(3) 3 members selected by the Secretary of Energy; and'';
and
(4) in subsection (f), by striking ``the advisory bodies of
other Federal agencies, such as the Department of Energy,
which may engage in related research activities'' and
inserting ``other Federal advisory committees that advise
Federal agencies which engage in related research
activities''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a)
shall take effect on March 15, 2005.
SEC. 7. REMOVAL OF SUNSET PROVISION FROM SAVINGS IN
CONSTRUCTION ACT OF 1996.
Section 14(e) of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (15
U.S.C. 205l(e)) is repealed.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert).
General Leave
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4218, as amended, the
bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, when we think of how computers affect our lives, we
probably think of the work we do on our office desktop machines or
maybe the Internet surfing we do in our spare time. We do not normally
think of the enormous contribution that supercomputers, also called
high-performance computers, make to the world around us.
These powerful machines are used in the development of
pharmaceuticals, in modeling the Earth's climate, and in applications
critical to ensuring our national and homeland security. They also help
ensure our economic competitiveness. In a recent Subcommittee on Energy
hearing, we heard how supercomputers can help companies anticipate how
new products will behave in different environments using simulations
that are called ``virtual prototyping.'' These approaches help
companies increase the speed to market for new products.
High-performance computers also are central to maintaining U.S.
leadership in many scientific fields. Computational science complements
theory and experimentation in fields such as plasma physics and fusion,
astrophysics, nuclear physics, and genomics.
The top computer in the world today, the Earth Simulator, is not in
the United States. It is in Japan. Some experts claim that Japan was
able to produce the Earth Simulator, a computer far ahead of American
machines, because the U.S. had taken an overly cautious and
conventional approach to computing R&D.
Beginning in the 1990s, the U.S. focused on a single architecture for
high-performance computing and emphasized the use of commercially
available components over custom-made components. In hindsight, we see
that this approach has meant lost opportunities. Japan's Earth
Simulator is an example of a road not taken.
The U.S. is still a leader in supercomputing. In fact, 10 of the top
20 most powerful computers in the world today are in the United States.
Even so, the Earth Simulator is nearly three times as fast as the most
powerful computer in the United States, the ASCI-Q computer at Los
Alamos National Laboratory.
The bill we are considering today on the floor, H.R. 4218, will
ensure that America remains a leader in the development and use of
supercomputers.
To achieve this aim, the bill does four things.
First, it requires that Federal agencies provide the U.S. research
community access to the most advanced high-performance computing
systems and technical support for their users.
Second, there is more to supercomputing than building big machines.
That is why the bill requires Federal agencies to support all aspects
of high-performance computing for scientific and engineering
applications.
Third, the bill requires the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy to direct an interagency planning process to develop
and maintain a research, development and deployment roadmap for the
provision of high-performance computing resources for the U.S. research
community.
The original legislation that the bill amends, the High-Performance
Computing Act of 1991, gave rise to an interagency planning process
that has lost the vitality it once had. This provision will help ensure
a robust planning process so that our national high-performance
computing effort is not allowed to lag in the future.
Finally, the bill clarifies the missions of each of the Federal
agencies that have a role in developing or using high-performance
computing.
Mr. Speaker, at a full committee hearing on May 13, Dr. John
Marburger of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
communicated the administration's support for this bill. The bill is
consistent with a report written by the High End Computing
Revitalization Task Force and released by OSTP on the day of the
hearing.
Mr. Marburger and the Bush administration recognize that we cannot
imagine the kinds of problems that these supercomputers of tomorrow
will be able to resolve, but we can imagine the kind of problems we
will have if we fail to provide researchers in the United States with
the computing resources they need to remain world class.
This bill will guide Federal agencies and provide a needed support to
high-performance computing and its user communities. Our Nation's
scientific enterprise, and our economy, will be stronger for it. I urge
my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
I would like to encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R.
4218, the High-Performance Computing Revitalization Act of 2004, which
the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) and I have introduced. I
also want to thank the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) for her
work in developing this legislation.
H.R. 4218 amends the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, which
established a major Federal research and development program in
computing and networking that now involves seven agencies and is funded
at about $2 billion per year. This bill seeks to reverse a gradual
weakening of the planning mechanisms for the research and development
program established by the 1991 act.
High-performance computing and communications technology is key to
the Nation's economic competitiveness and security, and it is important
to prioritize and effectively coordinate activities among the
performing agencies. This bill requires formal biennial reviews of the
interagency program by the President's Information Technology Advisory
Committee in order to provide outside advice for sharpening program
priorities and improving program implementation.
H.R. 4218 also attempts to focus more effort by the interagency
program on high-end computing. The key requirement is for the Office of
Science and Technology Policy to develop and maintain a roadmap for
developing and deploying high-end systems necessary to ensure that the
U.S. research community has sustained access to the most capable
computing systems. In addition, NSF is explicitly required to provide
for access by researchers to such computing systems. These requirements
are designed to ensure the research community has access to the
[[Page H5206]]
most powerful computing systems in the world.
Mr. Speaker, the interagency research program launched in 1991, as I
have said, has largely been a great success. It has helped provide the
computing and networking infrastructure required to support leading-
edge research and to drive technology information forward for the
benefit of all of us and society at large.
H.R. 4218 will serve to strengthen the research program and deserves
swift, favorable passage. Again, I ask my colleagues for their support
of this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert), the distinguished chairman of
the Committee on Science.
Mr. BOEHLERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding this
time, and I want to rise in strong support of H.R. 4218. I want to
particularly thank the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) for the
leadership she has provided and to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr.
Davis) in being her partner in this enterprise. This is an important
measure, and I proudly rise to give my unqualified support for it.
This measure flows from two simple, unarguable premises: The
computing industry has become a fundamental building block of our
entire economy, and computing has become an indispensable part of
conducting research and development here at home.
That means that it is incumbent on the Federal Government to ensure
that it is doing everything possible to strengthen the long-term
competitiveness of the computing industry and to ensure that our
Nation's researchers have access to the best computers in the world.
The bill is designed to accomplish those two goals by strengthening
our existing interagency programs on high-performance computing.
Frankly, in recent years, we have taken our eye off the ball a little
bit; and as a result, the Japanese now have the fastest computer in the
world. Not to worry, we are being challenged. They are breathing down
our neck, but we are preparing to respond; and we have to reverse that
trend. They have one machine; we have many machines. We are clearly
number one in the world, and we are determined to maintain that
position.
The administration knows that, and led by Dr. Jack Marburger at the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the administration
is increasing its focus on this area and issued a new report laying out
how it plans to do so.
{time} 1045
This legislation will give additional impetus to those efforts. The
bill should ensure that Federal agencies coordinate their efforts both
to fund R&D on computing hardware and software and to fund access to
the best computers.
I will never forget the testimony I heard some 20 years ago as a
junior member of the Committee on Science, that is, before the
government began its supercomputing initiative. That testimony came
from Nobel Laureate Ken Wilson, who was then at Cornell. He said to us,
and this was in the early 1980s, he said to us that he and his students
had to go overseas to get the computing resources they needed. We were
determined that that would never happen again, and therein was born the
supercomputer initiative in America.
In the 1990s, we all know this, in the 1990s we enjoyed unprecedented
growth in our economy, for 10 years, quarter-after-quarter, year-after-
year growth in the economy, and more jobs being created. The
Information Age was upon us. And because of what the government was
doing, what we were investing in in supercomputing technology, that was
largely made possible.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this urgently needed,
carefully targeted bill that will make sure that the U.S. builds and
American scientists can use the best computers in the world. These
days, that is a necessary condition for the long-term success of our
economy, and we are determined to guarantee the long-term success of
our economy.
So to the chairwoman, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert),
and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), I commend you both for
the outstanding cooperation that was evidenced in developing this
measure. I particularly want to thank the gentlewoman from Illinois
(Mrs. Biggert) for the leadership she has provided. Time after time she
has proven that she is there with a solution to the problem. We do not
have a problem that we cannot tackle and overcome, and she has proven
it once again.
So I urge my colleagues to register their strong support for H.R.
4218.
Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the
balance of my time.
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Smith), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Research of
the House Committee on Science.
Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, it should concern everyone who
has followed technological developments, especially in recent years, to
see the United States is falling behind. It has been said a couple of
times that Japan's Earth Simulator Computer is now faster and more
efficient than anything in the United States.
I congratulate the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) for her
initiative in sponsoring and moving this legislation through the
legislative process. Let it be said that everyone agrees that over the
last 30 years invention and innovation have been among the greatest
driving forces behind the tremendous technological advances that we
have had and the ability of the United States to develop high-quality
products and the way to produce those products that can be competitive
in a world market.
I think at the forefront of our innovation has been the development
of these supercomputers. They have allowed us to make new discoveries,
design new technologies, and develop new products more quickly and at
much lower cost than we would have thought imaginable even 10 years
ago.
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Research for the last several
years, I have been proud to support our Nation's efforts in these and
other important scientific endeavors, and I have been especially
interested and strongly supportive of continuous investment, financial
and otherwise, of all stages of our tech advancement, from the initial
investigation of new concepts down to technology demonstrations and
products.
What has also been made clear in recent years is that government
alone cannot and probably should not be the sole contributor to
America's scientific endeavors. Continuous investment is needed in all
contributing sectors of society, certainly from universities to
national laboratories to private sector corporations to vendors. That
falls back on a goal that we must also have in this country, and that
is capable scientists that are going to make invention and innovation
happen.
I would just like to bring to my colleagues' attention what a high-
tech supercomputer is. According to an April 2003 report, IBM is now
looking to develop, in conjunction with Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory and the Argonne National Laboratory, a system that will
perform at twice the level of the Earth Simulator, hopefully by 2005.
In addition, the Department of Energy has contracted with IBM to
develop two systems, the ASCI Purple and Blue Gene program that
together, listen to this, will be able to perform 460 trillion
calculations per second. The Earth Simulator's peak capacity is 40
trillion operations per second. So we are moving ahead, and this
legislation is going to help assure that we move ahead, that the United
States stay in control.
This is important legislation that will not only help our Nation
remain competitive with countries such as Japan, but will help the
United States to maintain its leadership in tech advancement. So,
again, I thank our Committee on Science chairman and ranking member,
and I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert).
Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the
balance of my time.
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Tennessee (Mr. Wamp), who is a member of the Subcommittee on Energy and
Water Development of the Committee
[[Page H5207]]
on Appropriations, and has been a great help to the scientific
community, the Department of Energy, and all its programs, and
especially the Office of Science. So we appreciate all his hard work on
behalf of them.
(Mr. WAMP asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the gentlewoman's
leadership. I do come as an appropriator today to say thanks to the
authorization committee, and thanks to the chairman of the Committee on
Science, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert); the Chair of the
subcommittee, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert); the ranking
members, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon) and the gentleman
from Tennessee (Mr. Davis).
Mr. Speaker, I am proud that Tennesseeans stand together in a
bipartisan way today. Of course, I represent the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Oak Ridge is a lead laboratory
for high-speed computing. So I come with great excitement today because
our Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development of the Committee on
Appropriations has actually gone beyond what we were authorized to do
or what the administration asked for on supercomputing, because our
chairman, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson), believes, as we
believe, that this is the seed corn for the future; that we must make
these investments if we are to have a robust economy and a very high
quality of life and experience the growth that this country deserves
and, frankly, we should expect. And it comes with scientific
investment.
Basic research, for years, through the physical sciences, led to the
breakthroughs that we enjoy today. Space had a lot to do with it. And
then the life sciences of the last 15 years, as we tried to get our
arms around diabetes and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's; and so we
invested heavily in life sciences. But there is a whole new field that
is part of the physical science arena called high-speed computing,
computer simulation and modeling. We are going to be able to do things
with computers that we will not even need a laboratory for, because we
can simulate with the use of high-speed computing. It is a whole new
field.
I will tell my colleagues that as we invest in it, our economy will
grow and the budget will come closer to balance because we are making
these investments. We are not going to balance the budget in the world
we live in today by cutting spending, because there are too many needs.
But if we grow the economy with these kinds of investments, we can
balance the budget.
This is critical. The authorizers have stepped up. This is real good
for America. It is great for our laboratory systems. And I want to give
a lot of credit, while I have the floor, to the DOE Office of Science,
because this administration is way out in front on these investments.
This is the right thing to do. This is where the Congress comes
together in the very best way to make investments not for next year
necessarily, but for the next generation. They will reap a high return.
So congratulations to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert). I
thank her for her leadership in all science investment for our country.
She is helping us on the Committee on Appropriations expand the fence
so we can fund these necessary investments. Without the authorization,
without the statutory framework that the gentlewoman is establishing
today, and the many other times that she has brought quality
legislation to this floor, we cannot fund it. With this, we can fund it
and then some.
So I thank all involved very much.
Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume to applaud the efforts of the chairman, the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Boehlert); the subcommittee chairman, the gentlewoman
from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert); certainly the gentleman from Tennessee
(Mr. Gordon), the ranking member on the Committee on Science, for their
work and effort in being sure this legislation came to the committee
and then was presented today.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back
the balance of my time.
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume
and, in closing, I want to recognize the bill's chief lead sponsor
along with me, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), and thank the
other cosponsors of this important legislation, including the
distinguished chairman of the Committee on Science, the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Boehlert), along with the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr.
Gordon), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Johnson), the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Ehlers), the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey),
and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith). I would thank them all for
their support. And I would also have to thank the Committee on Science
staff, the majority and the minority, for their hard work.
I also would like to thank the chairman, the gentleman from New York
(Mr. Boehlert) for holding a full Committee on Science hearing this
past May to consider this legislation. At this very successful hearing,
the committee received very positive feedback on the bill from the
experts on high-performance computing. That is also the hearing where
Dr. Marburger, Director of the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy, communicated the administration's support for the
bill.
As I said earlier, we must commit to providing sustained support for
high-performance computers at our Federal civilian science agencies.
Our Nation's scientific enterprise and our economy will be the stronger
for that.
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I would like to particularly emphasize the
importance of high-performance computing in the area of fusion energy
science, an area where I have personal experience from my work at the
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Fusion offers the promise of
abundant, safe, environmentally attractive energy for the U.S. and the
world. The advances in computing over the last decade have
revolutionized fusion science at Princeton and elsewhere. Previously
scientists made calculations without computers for simplified
situations; now they can take into account the details of real
experimental conditions.
Previously scientists could only make crude estimates of how for
example turbulence in fusion fuel could cool the plasma lower than the
very high temperatures needed for fusion; now they can calculate this
process in detail. As a result the agreement between experiment and
theory has improved dramatically.
A decade or so ago, theoretical estimates could easily differ from
experimental measurements by factors of 10 to 100, giving rise to
heated scientific debate. How the debate is just as scientific and just
as heated, but the argument is about factors like 1.5 or 2--a dramatic
difference.
Furthermore, this scientific understanding has led to techniques to
quell the turbulent mixing and allow the fusion fuel to get much
hotter, producing more fusion energy High-performance computing
together with advanced experimental techniques, has truly
revolutionized fusion energy science.
Even with these recent advances, there is still much more to be
learned about fusion systems through high-performance computing, and
H.R. 4218 will help to make that possible. Fusion scientists need to
combine all of the individual calculations of physical effects, which
have been combined into an integrated simulation model that handles all
of the different aspects of a fusion system--all at the same time. Such
a model will allow fusion researchers to predict in detail the behavior
of complete fusion systems and will allow them to design the cost-
effective power plans that will be need in the future.
This is truly a grand challenge that requires the level of high
performance computing envisioned in H.R. 4218. It is also a grand
challenge for humanity. Recent events have certainly reminded us that
we need the abundant, safe and clean power that fusion can provide.
Thus I strongly support H.R. 4218 for the advances it will produce in
fusion energy science, as well as elsewhere in American science.
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4218, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________