December 13, 1999
The President The Vice President The White House The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20500 Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President and Mr. Vice President:
I am writing on behalf of the Computing Research Association (CRA) to ask you to make a special effort to ensure that the FY 2001 budget includes strong second-year funding for the Information Technology for the 21st Century initiative (IT2), consistent with the recommendations made by the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC).
The PITAC's findings on the critical importance of the federal investment in long-term IT research and its proposal for a strategic expansion of that investment over a five year period have attained a high level of credibility among policymakers across the political spectrum. We must sustain the momentum in support of the objectives outlined by the PITAC and embodied in IT2, and your continued leadership in this regard is crucial.
In particular the following components of IT2 are central to achieving the PITAC's vision of a prosperous, IT-enriched future: the National Science Foundation's Information Technology Research and Terascale Computing programs; DARPA's Extensible Information Systems program; and a biomedical information science and technology initiative at the National Institutes of Health. Please make every effort to see that requisite funding increments are provided for each of these programs in FY 2001.
CRA and the computing research community have devoted considerable time and energy to building Congressional support for an expanded investment in fundamental IT research. Please be assured we will continue our efforts to see these key budget requests enacted next year.
As the architect of the High Performance Computing and Communications program, you are well aware of the value of vigorous research efforts in these areas. You have articulated its role as an important driver of the economy, as a national security imperative, and a catalyst for progress toward national objectives in many fields, including education, e-commerce, health care, and digital government to name a few. We greatly appreciate all you have done in the past and we hope we might prevail upon you again for support at this crucial time for the PITAC proposal and the IT2 initiative.
Sincerely,
Edward Lazowska
CRA Board Chair
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