NASA Ames to host Congressional Hearing on Monday, April 24

Michael Mewhinney

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

Phone: 650/604-3937, 650/604-9000

mmewhinney@mail.arc.nasa.gov

Bonnie Heald

U.S. House of Representatives

Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology

Phone: 703/628-1182

RELEASE: 00-31AR

NOTE TO EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS: News media are invited to cover a
Congressional Hearing at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, on
Monday, April 24, 2000, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. PDT. The hearing will
be held in the Moffett Training and Conference Center, Bldg. 3. To get to
Ames, take the Moffett Field exit off Highway 101. At the Moffett Federal
Airfield main gate, proceed to the Visitor Badging Office to obtain entry
badges and maps to the Moffett Training and Conference Center. Bring press
credentials and photo ID to gain admittance.

“Emerging Technologies: Where is the Federal Government on the High-Tech
Curve?” will be discussed during a public hearing before members of the
U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Government Management,
Information and Technology on Monday, April 24, at NASA Ames Research
Center, Moffett Field, CA.

The hearing will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. PDT in the Main
Ballroom of the Moffett Training and Conference Center, Bldg. 3, at Ames.
The purpose of the hearing is to explore the emerging technologies being
developed in the public — and private — sectors, and how these
technologies could benefit government operations. The subcommittee will
also examine the government’s role in encouraging this scientific
development. The hearing will be open to the public.

Participating in the hearing will be Rep. Steve Horn, R-California,
chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information
and Technology, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-California, and Rep. Doug Ose,
R-California.

Testimony will be provided by Samuel Venneri, Associate Administrator for
NASA’s Office of Aero-Space Technology; Gilman Louie of In-Q-Tel, a
nonprofit venture capital corporation chartered by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency; Glen Anderson, Executive Secretary, Battery Council
International; Dr. Steven Popper, Associate Director of the Science and
Technology Policy Institute, RAND; Dr. Sussane Huttner, Executive Director,
Industry-University Cooperative Research Program, University of California;
Dr. Richard Williams, School of Engineering, California State University at
Long Beach; Ross MacPhee, SGI; Dr. Charles Shank, Director, Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California; Mayor Pat
Vorreiter, City of Sunnyvale; and Susan Hackwood, California Council on
Science and Technology, University of California, Riverside.

The Federal Government sets public policies in key areas, such as
education, research and development, electronic commerce, business
regulation and law, and intellectual property rights that could have
profound effects on the continuing development of emerging technologies.
While innovation has always played a major role in the U.S. economy, its
pace has increased dramatically.

The Congressional Research Service reported in 1999 that “one-half the
store of human knowledge” has been produced during the past 50 years. These
developments are in part the results of firms pursuing profits within an
increasingly competitive environment. The Federal Government is now
re-doubling its efforts to stay on the cutting-edge of emerging
technologies.

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