Building Careers and Shaping Public Policy

04 November 2005

The Honorable Ted Stevens
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Stevens:

I am writing on behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-United States of America (IEEE-USA) to urge your support for additional funding in the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill for defense basic research included by the Senate with the Kennedy-Collins Amendment.  The amendment provided $30 million in additional funding for competitively awarded basic research and an additional $10 million to strengthen the new National Defense Education Program.  We urge House and Senate conferees to carry this support for defense basic research and the SMART/NDEP program forward through the conference process.

The DoD's S&T program supports research in the nation's universities that is the bridge between fundamental science discoveries and future military applications.  These activities make essential contributions to national defense by fueling innovation in militarily critical technologies and by training the scientists and engineers of tomorrow.  The S&T program also funds research in the DoD laboratories and private sector industries that focus on technologies to support future DoD systems.  This focus on the long-term revolutionary changes in military technology will keep US forces ahead of future adversaries and enable a quick response to emerging threats such as chemical and biological agents.  We strongly feel that continuing support for long-term research is critically important to ensuring the nation's future security.

The Kennedy-Collins Amendment increased funding for several important areas within the defense Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) budgets:  (1)  the University Research Initiatives (URIs) within each of the services; (2) the SMART National Defense Education Program; and (3) the University Research Program in Computer Science and Cybersecurity within the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).  We wholeheartedly support these goals, and we encourage the Conferees to retain this important amendment.

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE, created in 1973 to advance the public good and promote the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 235,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society. For more information, go to www.ieeeusa.org.  If you have any questions, please contact Bill Williams at IEEE-USA, (202) 785-0017.

Sincerely,

Gerard A. Alphonse
President, IEEE-USA

[Similar letter went to all members of the Senate and House
Conference Committee on FY 2006 DoD Appropriations]