Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act of 2009
Floor Speech
NETWORKING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2009 -- (House of Representatives - May 12, 2009)
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Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 2020, the Network and Information Technology Research and Development Act of 2009. The NITRD program is the main Federal R&D investment portfolio in unclassified networking, computing, software, cybersecurity, and related information technology.
Networking and information technology, that technology that is vital but obviously sometimes drives us all crazy, sometimes outright batty, but it plays a critical role in our everyday lives, often in ways we do not even realize. Federal R&D investment in NIT has produced such computer breakthroughs as ARPAnet, the forerunner of the modern Internet, communications protocols to transmit data over networks, supercomputing, the Web browser, and the computer mouse, just to name a few. Multidisciplinary innovations include the decoding of the human genome, modeling and simulation of complex physical systems for aircraft, automobiles, power grids and pharmaceuticals, near real-time weather forecasting and climate models, and unmanned aerial vehicles and search and rescue robots.
Cybersecurity is one of the biggest security challenges facing our Nation today. It goes throughout all of our Federal agencies and even onto our private computer systems. This is just one area that the NITRD program helps to coordinate our Federal R&D, but it indicates just how imperative it is that we continue to support critical and collaborative research efforts such as this.
This bipartisan bill, and I again thank the chairman and also the ranking member for this, this bill authorizes one of the few formal interagency R&D activities within the Federal Government and one that has been viewed as a model of interagency cooperation and coordination. It is a culmination of recommendations from the 2007 PCAST Report on the program, feedback from numerous organizations, and hearing witness testimony. Technology has changed since this program was initiated in the early 1990s. This legislation updates the underlying statute to reflect those changes and helps prepare us for future innovative opportunities in NIT.
I want to thank the chairman for working on this important measure in such a bipartisan manner. Madam Speaker, he tends to do that. He is one of those Members that always tries to listen to all members of his committee.
I encourage my colleagues to join me, along with Chairman Gordon, Ranking Member Hall, and other members of the Science and Technology Committee in supporting H.R. 2020.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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