Computing Research Policy Blog

House Science to Mark Up HPC R&D Legislation

The House Science and Technology Committee plans to meet tomorrow to mark up 4 bills, including the High Performance Computing R&D Act (H.R. 1068). The HPC R&D Act is very similar to previous efforts to amend the original High Performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991, the act that established what has become the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program.

This version differs from the most recent attempt (H.R. 28, introduced in the 109th Congress) in that it doesn't attempt to authorize specific agency activities. But otherwise, it contains the two provisions we particularly liked about the previous version. First, it directs the Director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop and maintain a research, development, and deployment roadmap for the provision of federal high-performance computing systems. Second, there's an explicit requirement that the President's advisory committee for IT (now a responsibility of the PCAST) review not only the goals of the NITRD program but the funding levels as well and report the results of that review to Congress every two years.

In previous Congresses, the various HPC acts have failed to become law for a variety of reasons. It seems the situation this year is slightly more hopeful -- but we should have some better sense in a week or so, so stay tuned.

The markup will be webcast here beginning at 10 am ET. Should get quick approval by the committee.

If you're interested in seeing what the bill would actually do to the HPCC, here's an "as amended by" document. Red text is what's added. Strikethrough is what's taken away...

Update: (March 12, 2007) -- The House passed the measure by voice vote. Details here.