[IP] Sen. Clinton Raises Concerns About DARPA Computer Science
Begin forwarded message:
From: Peter Harsha <harsha@xxxxxxx>
Date: November 2, 2005 8:09:59 PM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Sen. Clinton Raises Concerns About DARPA Computer Science
Hi Dave,
From my post at the Computing Research Policy Blog:
http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000430.html
(The blog post has the full text of Sen. Clinton's remarks, excerpted
below)
-Peter
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) put the President's nominee for Director
of Defense Research and Engineering, John Young, on notice at his
Senate confirmation hearing last week that she expects the new
Director to address her concerns with DARPA (which DDR&E technically
oversees), particularly DARPA support for university-led computer
science research. Those concerns turns out to be ones shared by the
computing research community, including "nonfiscal limitations such
as the classification of work in areas that were previously
unclassified; precluding university submissions as prime contractors
on certain solicitations; [and] reducing the periods of performance
to 18 to 24 months."
"This kind of short-term focus is not conducive to university
programs to address broad fundamental technological and scientific
challenges, especially when we know that research in computer science
will be at the very core of network-centric warfare.
"So I would hope, Mr. Young, that you would look into this and,
assuming you are confirmed, that you would take this as a very
serious charge, because we just had another study by the National
Academy of Sciences that basically said the United States is losing
its technological and scientific leadership, and that's going to have
long-term consequences certainly for defense but also for our
standard of living and our economic prosperity."
Clinton rightly notes that these concerns are shared by not just the
university researchers directly affected by these policies, but many
of the industrial and multi-disciplinary users “downstream” who have
come to depend on advances in information technology for their own
progress. Additionally, the DOD's own Defense Science Board, the
National Academies, the President's Information Technology Advisory
Committee, and several Congressional committees have all raised
concerns about the impact of DARPA's move away from long-term,
university-led research in information technology and its
implications for the country's long-term health and prosperity.
Unfortunately, as we've noted recently, at the same time these
concerns about the state of computer science research at DARPA are
being raised, one of the agency's truly positive activities - its
Cognitive Computing program - is imperiled by a sizeable cut approved
in the Senate version of the FY 2006 Defense Appropriations bill
(H.R. 2863). The Senate bill would cut $55 million from DARPA's $114
million “Learning, Reasoning, and Integrated Cognitive Systems”
account, a move that would hamper advancements in defense-related
information technology in the short- and long-term and would also
slow technological advancement essential to current and future
military operations in Iraq and around the globe. We at CRA hope that
Clinton will help urge her colleagues on the conference committee
negotiating the bill to abandon the cut and provide the President's
requested funding level, the level approved in the House version of
H.R. 2863.
I've included the whole of her statement -- which is very good --
after the jump. The importance of her remarks are multi-fold. One,
she's placed an important marker down for the computing research
community -- the concerns of the community will be on the new DDR&E's
plate as soon as he takes the job. Second, she's raised the profile
of the concerns among the rest of the members on the Senate Armed
Services Committee and staff (though they're already pretty
sympathetic). And finally, it never hurts to have the current
frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008 using
her five minutes at a confirmation hearing to talk about your concerns.
Anyway, read the whole thing after the jump -- and if you get a
chance, especially if you're at a NY institution, drop Senator
Clinton a note of thanks for looking out long-term research....
-Peter Harsha
--
Peter Harsha
Director of Government Affairs
Computing Research Association
1100 17th St. NW, Suite 507
Washington, DC 20036
p: 202.234.2111 ext 106
c: 202.256.8271
CRA's Computing Research Policy Blog: http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog
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