Lawmakers Query Bush on Reports of Big Cuts in High-Tech Research
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have written to President Bush asking about industry reports that the Administration plans heavy cuts in research in high technology financed through the Defense Department, a congressional aide said Wednesday night.
A White House spokesman, Steven Hart, said he was not sure the letter had been received and could give no response. “I have nothing for you on that,” he said.
Among the signers of the letter were Reps. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), the House majority leader, Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) and Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose), according to Michael Wessel, an aide to Gephardt.
An aide who spoke on condition that he not be identified said that sources in the semiconductor industry with access to classified documents had been alerting congressional offices to what they described as an Administration plan for sharp cuts.
Among programs that might be affected, he said, were Sematech, the consortium now conducting semiconductor research with the aid of $100 million in federal money every year; a planned program in X-ray lithography that could increase the capacity of computer chips, and high-definition television or HDTV.
Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher lost a bid in September inside the Administration to begin a major drive to capture world leadership in HDTV.
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