Clinton seeks $835M for technology

Electronic News, March 25, 1996 by Carol Haber

Washington--President Clinton is asking for $835.5 million to fund the Commerce Department's Technology Administration (TA) in FY97--with the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) appropriation boosted back to pre-1995 cutback levels.

Key new programs to design more efficient automobiles and bolster information technology for health care would be funded under the latest proposal. Many existing efforts of the Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP) and other federal programs would gain additional dollars in such areas as measurement for fiber optics, sensors and semiconductor metrology. One new general competition and several focused competitions for cost-shared funding are also anticipated, with a key goal to stimulate "pre-product development of high-risk, high-payoff enabling technologies."

"The FY97 budget request reinforces the President's enthusiastic support of the TA's programs as critical catalysts for the nation's long-term economic growth," said Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. "This budget represents the level of funding necessary to help regain the hard-won momentum for the economy achieved through expansion of these programs in FY94 and FY95, and slowed by the budget uncertainties of FY96."

Led by the Office of the Under Secretary for Technology, the TA includes the Office of Technology Policy (OTP), the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).

The President's request for TA includes:

* $9.5 million for the Office of the Under Secretary for Technology and the OTP to support oversight for TA's role in three private/public programs (the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, the State-Federal-Cooperative Science and Technology Initiative and the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology External Grant Fund); for the Under Secretary's responsibilities to coordinate and lead several interagency and crosscutting civilian technology efforts; and for OTP's role as the Executive Branch's principal civilian technology policy analyst and advocate.

* $826 million for NIST to operate--with the private sector--four civilian technology support programs focusing on jobs vital to the technology infrastructure.

Among those efforts are: coordination of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, a collaboration between the federal government and the auto industry to "aggressively" explore new technologies that will lead to cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles; a new effort to extend the benefits of existing federal science and technology efforts through closer cooperation and collaboration with state programs; OTP's role as the federal government's primary advocate for innovation and industrial competitiveness, analyst of civilian industrial technology issues and "incubator" of new models of domestic and international technology cooperation; the National Medal of Technology; the Commerce Science and Technology Fellows Program; and the joint effort to strengthen the economies of both the U.S. and Israel via high-technology activities promoted by the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology External Grant Fund.

For NIST, the FY97 budget is divided into three separate appropriations:

* $450 million for technology development and industrial outreach (called the Industrial Technology Services, or ITS, appropriation) that includes cost-shared funding to industry "for pre-product development of high-risk, potentially high-payoff, enabling technologies" through the Advanced Technology Program (ATP); and "more widely distributed services and expanded hands-on technical assistance" to small and medium-sized manufacturers through a nationwide network of centers under the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).

ITS components of the funding include $345 million for the ATP, which will continue to support all current ATP projects to which multiyear funding has already been committed. The request will also allow funding of one general competition and additional focused program competitions in FY97, it was said. (One ATP focused program is geared to an information infrastructure for health care.) The funding request is expected to restore the program to about the level of its post-rescission FY95 appropriation.

A total of $105 million for the MEP, to complete expansion of a national network of locally operated and NIST co-funded extension centers providing hands-on technology assistance to 381,000 smaller manufacturers.

The FY97 request also will roll over to NIST, the funding for 15 centers currently supported under grants from the Technology Reinvestment Project.

* A total of $270.7 million for efforts by the NIST laboratories (called the Scientific and Technical Research and Services, or STRS, appropriation)--planned and conducted with U.S. industry--to develop an extensive line-up of measurement technologies, such as improved measuring methods and reference materials for minimizing transmission errors in fiber-optic connections used in high-speed communications systems; calibration techniques for a new class of "hexapod" machining centers that use an unusual support structure to cut parts faster and more accurately than conventional systems; new solid-state sensors, separation methods, and other capabilities to produce less expensive, more efficient, chemical processing; advanced dosimeters for electron beam therapy used in cancer treatments to increase the safety of the technique and better assess its effectiveness; computer models that predict the effect of cracks on the performance of new high-technology concrete formulations; understanding of the mechanisms and effectiveness of new environmentally friendly silicon/silicone-based retardants for reducing the flammability of plastics; and test methods and tools to improve the ability of various network technologies to provide user-defined levels of service required for voice, video and multimedia data delivery.