High-Performance Computing Revitalization Act of 2004

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4218) to amend the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4218, as amended, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, when we think of how computers affect our lives, we probably think of the work we do on our office desktop machines or maybe the Internet surfing we do in our spare time. We do not normally think of the enormous contribution that supercomputers, also called high-performance computers, make to the world around us.

These powerful machines are used in the development of pharmaceuticals, in modeling the Earth's climate, and in applications critical to ensuring our national and homeland security. They also help ensure our economic competitiveness. In a recent Subcommittee on Energy hearing, we heard how supercomputers can help companies anticipate how new products will behave in different environments using simulations that are called ``virtual prototyping.'' These approaches help companies increase the speed to market for new products.

High-performance computers also are central to maintaining U.S. leadership in many scientific fields. Computational science complements theory and experimentation in fields such as plasma physics and fusion, astrophysics, nuclear physics, and genomics.

The top computer in the world today, the Earth Simulator, is not in the United States. It is in Japan. Some experts claim that Japan was able to produce the Earth Simulator, a computer far ahead of American machines, because the U.S. had taken an overly cautious and conventional approach to computing R&D.

Beginning in the 1990s, the U.S. focused on a single architecture for high-performance computing and emphasized the use of commercially available components over custom-made components. In hindsight, we see that this approach has meant lost opportunities. Japan's Earth Simulator is an example of a road not taken.

The U.S. is still a leader in supercomputing. In fact, 10 of the top 20 most powerful computers in the world today are in the United States. Even so, the Earth Simulator is nearly three times as fast as the most powerful computer in the United States, the ASCI-Q computer at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The bill we are considering today on the floor, H.R. 4218, will ensure that America remains a leader in the development and use of supercomputers.

To achieve this aim, the bill does four things.

First, it requires that Federal agencies provide the U.S. research community access to the most advanced high-performance computing systems and technical support for their users.

Second, there is more to supercomputing than building big machines. That is why the bill requires Federal agencies to support all aspects of high-performance computing for scientific and engineering applications.

Third, the bill requires the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to direct an interagency planning process to develop and maintain a research, development and deployment roadmap for the provision of high-performance computing resources for the U.S. research community.

The original legislation that the bill amends, the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, gave rise to an interagency planning process that has lost the vitality it once had. This provision will help ensure a robust planning process so that our national high-performance computing effort is not allowed to lag in the future.

Finally, the bill clarifies the missions of each of the Federal agencies that have a role in developing or using high-performance computing.

Mr. Speaker, at a full committee hearing on May 13, Dr. John Marburger of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy communicated the administration's support for this bill. The bill is consistent with a report written by the High End Computing Revitalization Task Force and released by OSTP on the day of the hearing.

Mr. Marburger and the Bush administration recognize that we cannot imagine the kinds of problems that these supercomputers of tomorrow will be able to resolve, but we can imagine the kind of problems we will have if we fail to provide researchers in the United States with the computing resources they need to remain world class.

This bill will guide Federal agencies and provide a needed support to high-performance computing and its user communities. Our Nation's scientific enterprise, and our economy, will be stronger for it. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Science.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Research of the House Committee on Science.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp), who is a member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development of the Committee

on Appropriations, and has been a great help to the scientific community, the Department of Energy, and all its programs, and especially the Office of Science. So we appreciate all his hard work on behalf of them.

(Mr. WAMP asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume and, in closing, I want to recognize the bill's chief lead sponsor along with me, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), and thank the other cosponsors of this important legislation, including the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Science, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert), along with the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Johnson), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers), the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith). I would thank them all for their support. And I would also have to thank the Committee on Science staff, the majority and the minority, for their hard work.

I also would like to thank the chairman, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert) for holding a full Committee on Science hearing this past May to consider this legislation. At this very successful hearing, the committee received very positive feedback on the bill from the experts on high-performance computing. That is also the hearing where Dr. Marburger, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, communicated the administration's support for the bill.

As I said earlier, we must commit to providing sustained support for high-performance computers at our Federal civilian science agencies. Our Nation's scientific enterprise and our economy will be the stronger for that.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4516) to require the Secretary of Energy to carry out a program of research and development to advance high-end computing, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 4516, as amended, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, in light of the bill just considered by this body, I am sure many of our colleagues are wondering why we are considering another high-performance computing bill and what the difference is between this bill and the one just approved. In a nutshell, the bill we are considering right now, H.R. 4516, the Department of Energy High-End Computing Revitalization Act of 2004, authorizes specific research and development activities that the Department of Energy will need to undertake to meet the mandates laid out in H.R. 4218, the bill just considered by the House.

H.R. 4516 strengthens the interagency planning process for high- performance computing R&D. It also makes clear that the Department of Energy, through its Office of Science and the National Science Foundation, are the two lead agencies within the Federal Government responsible for providing U.S. researchers with access to the most advanced computing facilities in the world.

The bill under consideration now complements H.R. 4218 by spelling out in detail the R&D that the Department of Energy should be doing to help ensure that America remains a leader in the development and use of super computers.

More specifically, H.R. 4516 does three things. First, it requires the Secretary of Energy to establish and operate high-end computing facilities involving leadership-class machines that are among the most elite in the world.

Second, the bill directs the Secretary to conduct advanced scientific and engineering R&D using these leadership-class systems and to continue to advance the capabilities of high-end computing hardware and software.

Finally, the bill requires that these computing facilities be made available on a competitive, peer-reviewed basis to researchers from U.S. industry, institutions of higher education, national laboratories, and other Federal agencies.

Mr. Speaker, last fall the Department of Energy's Office of Science released its 20-year facility plan, a prioritized list of the most important facilities needed to advance multiple fields of scientific endeavor over the next 2 decades. The second-highest priority identified on the Department's list was ultra-scale computing. Ultra- scale or high-end computing ranks high on the Department of Energy's priority list, because these computers are essential tools for achieving the next

generation of scientific breakthroughs in a variety of fields central to the Department of Energy's mission.

In many cases, dramatic breakthroughs will require increasing computing power by a factor of a hundred or in some cases by a factor of a thousand. While attaining these increases may seem daunting, the history of computer development has taught us that, with a sustained commitment to research, such gains are within our reach. That is why Secretary Abraham recently announced the selection of a team including Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, IBM, Cray and other partners to develop and build a new high-end computing facility.

When completed, this new user facility will outpace the world's current number one computer, Japan's Earth Stimulator. H.R. 4516 supports this new initiative of the Department of Energy and ensures that the Department can fulfill its responsibility to help lead the Federal Government's supercomputing R&D efforts.

Mr. Speaker, by renewing our commitment to high-end computing research and development at the Department of Energy, the United States can regain its competitive edge in the development and use of supercomputers and recapture the distinction of being home to the world's most powerful computer. Again, our Nation's scientific enterprise and our economy will be the stronger for it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), once more for his work as a lead sponsor of this legislation, and I would also like to thank the minority and the majority staff of the Committee on Science for their time and effort and ideas. With the passage of this legislation, the Department of Energy will continue to revolutionize the use of supercomputers, ensuring the competitiveness of American science and industry. I would urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce H.R. 4516, the Department of Energy High-End Computing Revitalization Act of 2004, which outlines how the Department of Energy will help ensure that America remains a leader in the development and use of supercomputers.

On April 27, I introduced H.R. 4218, the High-Performance Computing Revitalization Act of 2004. H.R. 4218 addresses the need for an on- going, coordinated interagency process to guide federal decision-making in high-performance computing investments. That bill strengthens the interagency process by requiring the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House to ``develop and maintain a research, development, and deployment roadmap for the provision of high-performance computing systems for use by the research community in the United States.'' By putting OSTP in charge of developing the program's long-term vision, this provision will help ensure a robust planning process so that our national high-performance computing effort is not allowed to lag in the future.

H.R. 4218 lays out the foundation for a planning process involving several Federal agencies. It also makes clear that the Department of Energy, through its Office of Science, and the National Science Foundation, are the two lead agencies within the Federal Government responsible for providing U.S. researchers with access to the most advanced computing facilities in the world.

The legislation I am offering today complements H.R. 4218 by addressing in more detail the high-performance computing activities at the Department of Energy. This new legislation authorizes the implementation of a specific program that the Department will need to meet the mandate laid out in H.R. 4218.

More specifically, the bill I offer today requires the Secretary of Energy to establish and operate high-end computing facilities that are among the most elite machines in the world--truly ``leadership-class'' machines, sometimes referred to as ``ultrascale'' computers. My bill directs the Secretary to conduct advanced scientific and engineering research and development using these leadership class systems, and to continue to advance the capabilities of high-end computing hardware and software. These leadership-class computing facilities will be available on a competitive, merit-reviewed basis to researchers in U.S. industry, institutions of higher education, national laboratories, and other Federal agencies.

Last fall, the Department of Energy's Office of Science released its 20-year facilities plan, a prioritized list of the most important scientific facilities needed to advance multiple fields of scientific endeavor over the next two decades. The second highest priority identified on the Department's list was ``ultrascale computing.''

Ultrascale computing ranks highly on the Department of Energy's priority list because these computers are essential tools for achieving the next suite of scientific breakthroughs in a variety of disciplines. These powerful machines are used in the development of pharmaceuticals, in modeling the Earth's climate, and in applications critical to ensuring our national and homeland security. Computational science complements theory and experimentation in fields such as plasma physics and fusion, astrophysics, nuclear physics, and genomics. In many cases, dramatic breakthroughs will require increasing computing power by a factor of a hundred, or in some cases, by a factor of a thousand. While attaining these increases may seem daunting, the history of computer development has taught us that with a sustained commitment to research, such gains are within our reach.

I am pleased that the legislation I am offering today also complements a new initiative recently advanced by the Department. Last month, Secretary Abraham announced the selection of a team including Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and other partners to develop and build a new, ultrascale computing facility. When completed, this new facility will outpace the world's current ``number one'' computer, Japan's Earth Simulator. By renewing our commitment to high-end computing research and development at the Department of Energy and other

Federal agencies, the United States can regain its distinction as home to the world's most powerful computer.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding this time, and I want to rise in strong support of H.R. 4218. I want to particularly thank the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) for the leadership she has provided and to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis) in being her partner in this enterprise. This is an important measure, and I proudly rise to give my unqualified support for it.

This measure flows from two simple, unarguable premises: The computing industry has become a fundamental building block of our entire economy, and computing has become an indispensable part of conducting research and development here at home.

That means that it is incumbent on the Federal Government to ensure that it is doing everything possible to strengthen the long-term competitiveness of the computing industry and to ensure that our Nation's researchers have access to the best computers in the world.

The bill is designed to accomplish those two goals by strengthening our existing interagency programs on high-performance computing. Frankly, in recent years, we have taken our eye off the ball a little bit; and as a result, the Japanese now have the fastest computer in the world. Not to worry, we are being challenged. They are breathing down our neck, but we are preparing to respond; and we have to reverse that trend. They have one machine; we have many machines. We are clearly number one in the world, and we are determined to maintain that position.

The administration knows that, and led by Dr. Jack Marburger at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the administration is increasing its focus on this area and issued a new report laying out how it plans to do so.

This legislation will give additional impetus to those efforts. The bill should ensure that Federal agencies coordinate their efforts both to fund R&D on computing hardware and software and to fund access to the best computers.

I will never forget the testimony I heard some 20 years ago as a junior member of the Committee on Science, that is, before the government began its supercomputing initiative. That testimony came from Nobel Laureate Ken Wilson, who was then at Cornell. He said to us, and this was in the early 1980s, he said to us that he and his students had to go overseas to get the computing resources they needed. We were determined that that would never happen again, and therein was born the supercomputer initiative in America.

In the 1990s, we all know this, in the 1990s we enjoyed unprecedented growth in our economy, for 10 years, quarter-after-quarter, year-after- year growth in the economy, and more jobs being created. The Information Age was upon us. And because of what the government was doing, what we were investing in in supercomputing technology, that was largely made possible.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this urgently needed, carefully targeted bill that will make sure that the U.S. builds and American scientists can use the best computers in the world. These days, that is a necessary condition for the long-term success of our economy, and we are determined to guarantee the long-term success of our economy.

So to the chairwoman, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert), and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), I commend you both for the outstanding cooperation that was evidenced in developing this measure. I particularly want to thank the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) for the leadership she has provided. Time after time she has proven that she is there with a solution to the problem. We do not have a problem that we cannot tackle and overcome, and she has proven it once again.

So I urge my colleagues to register their strong support for H.R. 4218.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the gentlewoman's leadership. I do come as an appropriator today to say thanks to the authorization committee, and thanks to the chairman of the Committee on Science, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert); the Chair of the subcommittee, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert); the ranking members, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis).

Mr. Speaker, I am proud that Tennesseeans stand together in a bipartisan way today. Of course, I represent the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Oak Ridge is a lead laboratory for high-speed computing. So I come with great excitement today because our Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development of the Committee on Appropriations has actually gone beyond what we were authorized to do or what the administration asked for on supercomputing, because our chairman, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson), believes, as we believe, that this is the seed corn for the future; that we must make these investments if we are to have a robust economy and a very high quality of life and experience the growth that this country deserves and, frankly, we should expect. And it comes with scientific investment.

Basic research, for years, through the physical sciences, led to the breakthroughs that we enjoy today. Space had a lot to do with it. And then the life sciences of the last 15 years, as we tried to get our arms around diabetes and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's; and so we invested heavily in life sciences. But there is a whole new field that is part of the physical science arena called high-speed computing, computer simulation and modeling. We are going to be able to do things with computers that we will not even need a laboratory for, because we can simulate with the use of high-speed computing. It is a whole new field.

I will tell my colleagues that as we invest in it, our economy will grow and the budget will come closer to balance because we are making these investments. We are not going to balance the budget in the world we live in today by cutting spending, because there are too many needs. But if we grow the economy with these kinds of investments, we can balance the budget.

This is critical. The authorizers have stepped up. This is real good for America. It is great for our laboratory systems. And I want to give a lot of credit, while I have the floor, to the DOE Office of Science, because this administration is way out in front on these investments.

This is the right thing to do. This is where the Congress comes together in the very best way to make investments not for next year necessarily, but for the next generation. They will reap a high return.

So congratulations to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert). I thank her for her leadership in all science investment for our country. She is helping us on the Committee on Appropriations expand the fence so we can fund these necessary investments. Without the authorization, without the statutory framework that the gentlewoman is establishing today, and the many other times that she has brought quality legislation to this floor, we cannot fund it. With this, we can fund it and then some.

So I thank all involved very much.