Science Committee Approves Davis/Biggert Supercomputing Bills
Scientific progress directly linked to supercomputing efforts June 16, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis (TN-4), a member of the House Science Committee, today announced the Committee has taken action on two of his bills by approving H.R. 4218, the High-Performance Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 and H.R. 4516, the Department of Energy High End Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 during a full committee mark-up. The legislation, which the Bush Administration endorsed, will help the United States regain its supremacy in the realm of supercomputing by giving Oak Ridge National Laboratory the resources and tools to establish the world's premiere supercomputer.

"The passage of these bills comes at a time of great urgency for our country's supercomputing efforts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory," Davis said. "We are at a crossroads in regards to high-performance computing in this country. We need to have an adequately funded program, goals, and a strong interagency planning process in place so we can maximize our potential and effectiveness."

H.R. 4218 amends the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 by refocusing federal computing efforts to reverse the trend of the diminishing dominance of the U.S. in high-end computing. This will be done by ensuring we have a comprehensive, adequately funded supercomputing effort among the participating federal agencies. It would further require the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy to assure the U.S. research community sustained access to world-class high-performance computing systems for solving scientific and engineering problems.

H.R. 4516 instructs the Secretary of Energy to implement a research and development program to advance high-end computing systems and to develop and deploy them for advanced scientific and engineering applications. It also seeks to develop potential advancements in high-end computing system hardware and software. It also authorizes appropriations of $165 million over three years, with Oak Ridge National Laboratory getting roughly half.

Davis is a member of the Science, Agriculture, Transportation & Infrastructure Committees.

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