House Passes Four Science Bills

Last week, the House passed a set of bills designed to spur U.S. innovation by strengthening research and development on supercomputers, energy efficiency, and algal blooms. The four bills approved by voice vote were the High-Performance Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 (H.R. 4218), the Department of Energy High-End Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 (H.R. 4516), the Harmful Algal Bloom & Hypoxia Research Amendments Act of 2003 (H.R. 1856), and a bill reauthorizing the Steel & Aluminum Energy Conservation & Technology Competitiveness Act of 1998 (H.R. 3890). "I am pleased that the Science Committee has produced a bipartisan set of bills that will go a long way to improving U.S. competitiveness," Science Committee Chairman Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.) said. "These bills will help the U.S. maintain its status as the world leader in supercomputing, help the domestic metals industry remain competitive by increasing its energy efficiency, and address the tens of millions of dollars in damage caused each year by harmful algal blooms."