TECHIES CALL FOR FUNDING RESEARCH.Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Armed with some of their newest creations, a delegation of California's ``highest techies'' on Wednesday made a concerted pitch to Congress for more federal research and development dollars. ``We have concerns about the funding of basic physics research by the National Science Foundation,'' said Caltech President David Baltimore, who presented his case to a bipartisan group of House members from California. ``It has not kept pace with all of the opportunities that are emerging in the field.'' President George W. Bush's 2002-03 NSF NSF - National Science Foundation budget request is for $5.036 billion, up 5 percent from current levels. Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena; David Dreier, R-Covina; and Sam Farr, D-Salinas, who co-hosted Wednesday's briefing, want that total doubled and are also seeking more research dollars for the Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), . ``It's important that the California delegation support us,'' said Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. . ``Our state is heavily dependent on research and development.'' He brought along working models of the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft and the Sojourner rover, which first scratched the surface of the Red Planet in 1997, and the new Mars Exploration Rover, scheduled for a 2004 NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. mission. Baltimore noted that Caltech and JPL (language) JPL - JAM Programming Language. combined are the largest employer in the San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of southern California. It lies to the east of the city of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and to the west of the Inland Empire. . ``We have to do a lot better job of uniting our delegation and expanding federal investment,'' said Schiff, who said he and his colleagues had not yet set final funding targets for 2002-03. |
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