OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

American Super Computing Leadership Act

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 8, 2014
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Technology and Communication

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the American Super Computing Leadership Act, H.R. 2495. I want to commend Mr. Hultgren, Ms. Bonamici, and our chairman for their support of this great legislation.

As part of my representation of the great people of the Third District of Tennessee, Oak Ridge is right in the heart of my district. This is the city that won the cold war. This is the city which was the birthplace of the Manhattan Project.

These are wonderful people, and in that city sits the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, I believe one of the premier national labs in a great national lab system. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been in the forefront of the leadership on high-speed computing.

I also want to commend our lab director, Dr. Thom Mason, for leading the way in supercomputing. His great successes in upgrading our computing facilities and in working with the other Department of Energy labs has been critical for the greater good of our Nation.

As my colleagues have already articulated, exascale is the next level. Right now, we are at a level called petaflop. Exascale is the next level.

Ladies and gentlemen, a short time ago, the United States was number one. During my tenure in Congress, a couple of years ago, it was number one in the world in supercomputing. I want to maintain that we move forward and become number one again. We cannot let the Chinese or any other nation beat us in this fight. It is critically important.

Why is exascale and supercomputing very important? I have actually seen these roomfuls of computers. It is critically important to our economic security as a Nation.

All Members of this great House want America to be great again, and supercomputing is going to lead the way. This is an economic security issue, as every area of our economy is dependent on this. Banking, manufacturing, health care, commerce, and communication are all critically dependent on supercomputing.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their strong support of H.R. 2495, the American Super Computing Leadership Act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward