18 March 2002 The Honorable Jean Carnahan Dear Senator Carnahan: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-United States of America (IEEE-USA) fully supports your proposal to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad that would increase the Department of Defense Science and Technology (S&T) budget over the next five years to bring it into accordance with the recommendations of the Secretary of Defense. As you state in your letter to Chairman Conrad, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has indicated his support for the recommendations of the 1998 Defense Science Board Task Force and the recently completed Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which encourages the Administration and Congress to provide 3 percent of the total Defense Department budget, or $11 billion, for the DOD basic research (6.1), applied research (6.2) and advanced technology development (6.3) accounts, which make up the S&T program. Historically, the DoD Laboratories, working with universities and industry, have carried to fruition some of the most revolutionary engineering developments of the past fifty years. Sufficient and consistent funding for S&T is in order to assure the critical qualitative edge needed by U.S. armed forces in the years ahead. The United States is the dominant military force in the world, due in large part to DOD's continued support of S&T. There is no denying, DOD S&T investment works. On behalf of IEEE-USA, I commend your efforts to redress the problem of shortfalls in the S&T accounts, and offer our considerable resources to assist you in this endeavor. IEEE-USA, with 240,000 US members, is an organizational unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc, created in 1973 to promote the careers and public policy interests of electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. If you have any questions or we can be of further assistance, please call Bill Williams, legislative representative for our Research and Development Policy Committee, at (202) 785-0017 ext. 8331. Sincerely, LeEarl A. Bryant, P.E. Also provided to
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