Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Mr. Chairman: On behalf of the IEEE-USA, an organization of 240,000 electrical, electronics and computer engineers and allied scientists, I am writing to urge you to support a strong federal research and development program in the fiscal year 2001 appropriations bills currently being considered. The need for a strong and balanced federal R&D portfolio is vitally important in order for the United States to maintain its leadership role and assure that today’s economic prosperity will be sustained for future generations. I commend the support Congress has provided to R&D in past fiscal years, but remain concerned that, without a stable and healthy commitment to the broad range of the federal R&D programs, this critical activity will suffer and lead to very negative impacts to the economy and public well being. Investment in research and development has proven itself to be a revenue generator, not an expense. Economists have credited, in large part, the current economic growth to the explosion in information and technology. The unprecedented economic growth the country has enjoyed during the past decade is a direct outgrowth of research funded by the federal government over the past few decades. It has been estimated that federally funded advances in civilian and defense technology are responsible for over fifty percent of the economic growth of the U.S. over the past fifty years. We are concerned that if these investments are no longer made, or made in a patch work fashion, the outlook for continued growth and prosperity, even in the relative near term, will be jeopardized. This is evidenced by the increasing loss of technical leadership (according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis) to Europe and to Japan in important emerging markets, such as cell phones, and a wide variety of hand held Internet communications appliances. Many proposals to strengthen the federal R&D enterprise have been made by policy makers on both sides of the aisle, from doubling R&D funding over five years to doubling civilian R&D over ten years. We urge you to fund R&D appropriations for FY2001 that will provide a strong and balanced federal R&D program to ensure future generations the prosperity that we enjoy today. Sincerely, Merrill W. Buckley, Jr. (Same Letter Sent to
U.S. Senate Appopriations Committee The Institute of Electrical and Electronics
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