Clinton budget boosts funding for IT research

Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year 2001

President Bill Clinton proposed $2.3 billion in funding for information technology research and development in his fiscal 2001 budget released today, up 35 percent from the $1.7 billion earmarked for IT research in the fiscal 2000 budget. This includes allocations for long-term, fundamental research and strong backing for the Next Generation Internet and High Performance Computing and Communications projects.

In his budget address, Clinton said the sharp increase in funding will "accelerate development of extremely fast computers to support civilian research, enabling experts to develop life-saving drugs, provide earlier tornado warnings and design more fuel-efficient, safer automobiles."

In the last budget proposal of his eight-year term, Clinton also strongly backed funding for nanotechnology research, almost doubling funding to $495 million from $270 million in the 2000 federal budget. Research into nanotechnology, which Clinton described as "the manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular level," could provide the United States with the "unprecedented ability to create new classes of devices as small or smaller than a human cell," according to the budget documents.

Nanotechnology research also could lead to development of new types and forms of computers, materials for manufacturing, defense and space applications that perform better and require less maintenance, and it could lead to breakthroughs in medical research, according to budget documents.