PEORIA — U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood’s first piece of legislation is headed to the floor of the House after a unanimous, bipartisan vote in committee.
The Peoria Republican’s initial bill-writing effort aims to modernize and streamline federal information technology and research and development efforts — a goal that is considered key for area industries like Caterpillar Inc. and state universities including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, home of the Blue Waters supercomputer.
“I think it will help with making our government computer systems more effective, more efficient, more accountable to taxpayers,” LaHood said Wednesday afternoon from the Capitol.
The objective is to “prevent duplicative and overlapping research and development efforts” while bolstering cybersecurity and improving communication in that arena between the private and public sectors.
The measure, H.R. 5312, makes revisions to the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program, referred to as NITRD.
“This is a field that changes literally every single day,” LaHood said. “In some ways, it’s hard for the government to keep up on some of those things. … If passed, I think it helps speed up the efficiency” of operations.
Caterpillar utilizes the U of I supercomputer in the course of some of the company’s research and development processes, which are based at Caterpillar’s Mossville campus.
“Enhanced technology and connectivity is essential to our engineers and their efforts to perform rapid simulation and advance product design while stretching their imaginations towards better solutions. These upgrades will be the foundation of future innovation,” the company said in a statement.
LaHood said he has also worked on the issue across the aisle, alongside fellow Illinois Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Western Springs.
The legislation cleared the Science, Space and Technology Committee and is now eligible for consideration by the full House. It still must pass the Senate and be signed by President Barack Obama before being enacted into law.
Chris Kaergard is the Juornal Star political reporter. He can be reached at 686-3255 and ckaergard@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisKaergard.
