[55] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
unprintable obituary for S.1067
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (BRIAN KAHIN)
Tue Oct 30 15:52:15 1990
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 90 15:35 EST
From: BRIAN KAHIN <KAHIN@HULAW1.HARVARD.EDU>
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>From: MAILER%"mnelson@NSF.GOV" "Michael Nelson" 29-OCT-1990 08:54:58.21
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Subj: Obituary for S. 1067
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>From: Michael Nelson <mnelson@NSF.GOV>
Subject: Obituary for S. 1067
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Message-ID: <9010290753.aa26921@Note.NSF.GOV>
(The following message is from Mike Nelson, a staff member of the U.S. Senate
Commerce Committee, who has worked with Senator Gore on S. 1067, the High-
Performance Computing Act of 1990. Feel free to distribute this note anywhere
on the Internet. However, do not publish any of it in the written press.
Congressional staffers are to be seen, but not heard, and certainly never, ever
quoted. This is fine with me -- I had my ego surgically removed when I was
at MIT.)
At approximately 10:30 p.m., Saturday, October 27, S. 1067, the High-
Performance Computing Act of 1990, died in a House Science Committee hearing
room on Capitol Hill. At the deathbed were Democratic and Republican staff
members of the Senate Commerce Committee, the Senate Energy Committee, and the
House Science Committee. S. 1067 was a victim of Congressional inertia,
protracted turf battles, Administration waffling, and Republican partisan
politics.
Despite overwhelming support and some very effective lobbying by many very
important people, S. 1067 ended up being pulled in too many different directions
by too many people and as a result went nowhere.
Congressman Walker, the ranking Republican member of the House Science
Committee, objected to any bill authorizing creation of a High-Performance
Computing and the National Research and Education Network. He was willing to
support a bill outlining what an HPC Program would look like, if it were
authorized. Unfortunately, he insisted that any version of S. 1067 be attached
to S. 1191, the Hollings technology bill (which authorizes NIST and its
new Advanced Technology Program), and S. 1191 was being blocked in the Senate
by Senator Kasten. Kasten strongly supported S. 1067, but was holding S. 1191
hostage in a fight with Hollings over product liability legislation, a fight
that was never resolved. A classic case of political gridlock.
The Congress adjourned just after 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and will not
reconvene until late January. You can be sure that one of the first bills
introduced will be a new version of S. 1067.
S. 1067 is dead. Long live S. 1067!!!
