Volume 146, No. 15 covering the 2nd Session of the 106th Congress (1999 - 2000) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“NETWORKING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACT” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E166 on Feb. 16, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
NETWORKING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACT
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speech of
HON. TOM BLILEY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, February 15, 2000
The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2086) to authorize funding for networking and information technology research and development for fiscal years 2000 through 2004, and for other purposes:
Mr. BLILEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Morella amendment to authorize networking and information technology research and development funding for the National Institutes of Health.
As Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, the authorizing Committee for biomedical research, it is my great pleasure to join with Mrs. Morella to ensure that NIH receive the authorizing authority it needs to push the frontiers of research with powerful new tools. We were happy to work with the gentlelady from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) and her capable staff in drafting this amendment, and ask that my colleagues join with me in supporting its adoption.
Thanks to the Republican-controlled Congress, funding for biomedical research through NIH has expanded from $11.3 billion in FY 1995 to
$17.8 billion in FY 2000. The Morella-Bliley amendment would authorize future funding for NIH high-performance computing applications to examine issues as diverse as new strategies to provide health care access to underserved people through telemedicine, computer modeling of biological processes to substitute for human embryonic stem cells, and the implications of collaborative biomedical research via the Next Generation Internet.
Again, my thanks to the gentlelady from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) for her assistance in accomplishing this initiative. Mr. Speaker, I also submit for the Record a letter that I received from the National Institutes of Health requesting our assistance with this authorization.
Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
National Institutes of Health,
Bethesda, MD, February 11, 2000.Hon. Tom Bliley,Chairman, Committee on Commerce, House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: I am writing to request your assistance on behalf of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on a matter of importance to our information technology activities. As you may know, H.R. 2086, the Networking and Information Technology and Research and Development Act of 1999, is pending in the House of Representatives. The inclusion of NIH in certain provisions of the legislation would help advance biomedical research.
The primary purpose of the bill is to authorize funding for networking and information technology (IT) research and development for fiscal years 2000 through 2004 for the following agencies: National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The NIH should be authorized to participate in programs outlined in the bill because, like the agencies listed above, we share the commitment to, and investment for, both the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) and Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiatives. In fact, in fiscal year (FY) 1999, NIH funding for information technology and high performance computing and communications activities was
$110,535,000. We estimate that we will spend approximately
$182,782,000 in FY 2000 and $217,127,000 in FY 2001 for related activities.
With regard to H.R. 2086, Section 4 of the legislation authorizes only the agencies mentioned above to participate in the NITRD grant program for long-term basic research on networking and information technology. Priority is given to research that helps address issues related to high end computing and software and network stability, fragility, reliability, security (including privacy), and scalability. It is important to note that the biomedical community is increasingly using the power of computing to manage and analyze data and to model biological processes. Recognizing that biomedical researchers need to make optimal use of IT, NIH supports (1) basic research and development in the application of high performance computing to biomedical research, (2) basic research, education, and human resources in bio-informaries and computational science to address research needs of biomedicine, (3) research in, and application of high-speed networking infrastructures such as the NGI for health care, health and science education, medical research and telemedicine through the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Initiative. Enclosed are the funding levels for NIH in this area.
Section 5 of the legislation reauthorizes funding for agencies in support of the NGI initiative. Though excluded in this reauthorization funding, the NIH has made a serious commitment to furthering telemedicine by sponsoring dozens of projects around the country, in a variety of rural and urban settings. NIH has funded studies about privacy and confidentiality issues, how telemedicine projects should be evaluated, and what medical uses might be made of the NGI. In fact, over the next three years, the NIH is funding test-bed projects to study the use of NGI capabilities by the health community.
In summary, because of the commitment and investment shared by NIH in both the ITRD and NGI initiatives, we deem it appropriate that the legislation allow other agencies, such as NIH, to participate in the NITRD program and to specifically reauthorize NIH for the NGI initiative.
Thank you in advance for any assistance you can give us on the matter. I can be reached on (301) 496-3471, should you or your staff have questions or need additional information.
Sincerely,
Marc Smolonsky,
Associate Director for
Legislative Policy and Analysis.
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