House Science Subcommittee Reviews HPCC FY95 Budget Request
Officials from NSF, NASA, DOE, ARPA, and the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Coordinating Office appeared before the House subcommittee on science on May 10 to testify about the fiscal year 1995 budget request for HPCC and the program’s funding priorities.
The President’s fiscal 1995 request for the HPCC program is $1.15 billion, spread across nine agencies. This represents an increase of $217 million, or 23 percent, above the current year’s appropriation. According to subcommittee chairman Rick Boucher (D-Virginia), more than one-half of the increase is designated for a new component to the program, Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications (IITA). (The four other major components of HPCC are: development of technologies for high speed data networking and network access for research and education; development of advanced software; development of new high performance computing systems; and supporting basic research and human resources in computer sciences.) The new IITA element is intended to develop and deploy technologies in support of the Administration’s National Information Infrastructure.
Noting that IITA caused a shift in funding priorities of the major program components, Boucher asked whether this represented an appropriate balance of resources. The witnesses agreed that it did, with John Toole, Acting Director of ARPA’s Computing Systems Technology Office, noting that the balance between components had to be dynamic as the program evolved. Donald Lindberg, Director of the HPCC Coordinating Office, announced that the program was “so ahead of schedule...that it is time to move forward into new areas, such as applications.” The witnesses discussed how HPCC has already accelerated technologies and products into the marketplace and influenced corporate strategies, as well as achieving unprecedented interagency cooperation.
Boucher said that members of the private sector had criticized the lack of non-governmental input into the program. He also stated that the Presidentially-appointed outside advisory committee required by the 1991 HPCC Act had not yet been established. Lindberg reported that the White House was “in the final stages” of setting up such a committee. In the interim, he explained, his office has scheduled meetings to solicit private sector advice, but the witnesses unanimously agreed that oversight by a committee of outside advisors was important. David Nelson, DOE Associate Director for Energy Research, pointed out that the current process drew only random input, while an advisory committee would better represent consensus in the field. Toole and Lee Holcomb, Director of NASA’s HPCC Office, added that because of the rapid pace of the technologies, both formal and informal input mechanisms were needed.
Boucher is the sponsor of H.R. 1757, the House bill authorizing the HPCC program, which passed the House last July. His bill will soon be taken up in the conference on S.4, the Senate competitiveness bill which contains authorization for HPCC.
