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The Associate Director for Technology, Lionel (Skip) Johns, leads the White House effort to develop and implement federal policies for technology investments that contribute to a growing economy with high-skill, high-wage jobs for American workers; a stronger, more competitive private sector able to maintain U.S. leadership in world markets; and a clearner environment combined with greater efficiency and productivity. The Division's priorities include: fostering partnerships with the private sector to advance civilian technologies and industries; advancing technologies for education and training that inspire life-long learining and produce a first-class work force; redirecting the U.S. space and aeronautics program, including the space station; developing advanced computing and information technologies; and supporting the development of a national information highway.

The Technology Division's organization reflects the major issue areas which it is addressing. Henry Kelly serves as Division Deputy Director and Assistant Director for Technology, responsible for issues in civilian industrial technology, including manufacturing, automotive, electronics, and building and construction; information and communications technology; transportation; education and training technologies; and defense conversion and technology transfer. Richard Dalbello serves as Assistant Director for Space and Aeronautics and is responsible for all issues in these two domains including Space Station, space transportation, and coordination of the NASA and DOD space and aeronautics technology communities.

The Technology Division has responsibilities for coordinating and leading four of the nine Committees of the National Science and technology Council (NSTC). Skip Johns serves as White House Co-Chair for the Committee on Information and Communications, the Committee on Civilian Industrial Technology, and the Committee on Transportation, and Henry Kelly serves as White House Co-Chair for the Committee on Education and Training.

The National Science and Technology Council has identified six major cross-cutting goals for Federal science and technology efforts:

The Technology Division is aggressively supporting all of these major objectives. In particular, the Division's major objectives include:

Work with industry to cooperatively develop technologies that contribute to economic

growth and the creation of high-quality jobs, while protecting environmental quality, in initiatives such as the Partnership for a New Generation Vehicle -- the "clean car" of the 21st century.

Leverage technologies to enhance lifelong education and training for all Americans,

Support the standards, regulatory environment, and technology development needed for the National and Global Information Infrastructures (NII/GII), and develop the applications and tools to enable widespread utilization of the NII/GII in important areas including health care,

Help create a flexible regulatory environment appropriate for the digital Information

The Clinton Administration has placed major emphasis on leveraging technology to accomplish broad national objectives. OSTP's Technology Division has played a key leadership role in executing the Administration's technology agenda. A brief account of the Administration's major technology accomplishments during its first 20 months is presented at Tab A.

Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (Clean Car). A joint R&D program between the Federal government and USCAR (Ford, Chrysler, GM) for the development of commercially-viable vehicle technology that, over the long-term, can preserve personal mobility while further reducing the impact of cars and light trucks on the environment, and reducing dependence on imported petroleum.

Space Station. The Space Station is a high priority for the Administration linking a number of domestic and foreign policy priorities. It is the most significant international science program ever undertaken, and launches under a joint program with Russia are expected to begin in early 1995.

National Space Transportation Policy. The major objective of the initiative is to develop a national space transportation strategy through the issuance of a Presidential decision directive. The strategy will delineate roles and responsibilities for developing the next current expendable launch vehicles.

Interagency program is developing computing, communications, and software technologies, for the 21st century. It is fully supportive of and coordinated with the National Information Infrastructure (NII) Initiative. NII technologies are critically interwoven with and dependent upon HPCC capabilities and the software needed to address "Grand Challenges", e.g. weather forecasting, building safer and more energy efficient aircraft, designing life saving drugs, and understanding how galaxies are formed.

National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative. NSTC Civilian Industrial Technology Committee (CIT) is developing, in partnership with industry, a National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative. The goal is to cooperatively set R&D priorities for process technologies that can make use of the National Information Infrastructure. These technologies are crucial for American economic growth.

Building Construction Initiative. A collaboration between Federal agencies and the U.S. construction industry to strive for a series of 5-year technology goals such as reducing by 50 percent the time necessary to design and construct residential and commercial buildings, operation and maintenance costs (including emissions of greenhouse gasses), and accidents and deaths associated with construction.

Physical Infrastructures for Transportation. Interagency review of technologies and procedures associated with operational efficiency, durability, renewal and maintenance of all categories of transportation infrastructure (roads, railroad tracks, transit systems, airports, rail and ship terminals, tunnels, bridges, and pipelines), including real-time inspection and monitoring of infrastructure condition and performance; improved design and construction concepts and practices, processes, structures, materials, resource use, and disposal of construction-process wastes; and design and construction principles and technologies specifically relevant to modal connection points.

Information Infrastructure for Transportation. Effort aimed at improved information systems for operational control and management of the transportation system including air traffic control, weather information collection and dissemination. highway signaling and traffic monitoring and control, vessel tracking, and railroad signaling and control systems. Specific relevant technologies are communications, traffic management, fleet operational management (including traffic management, fleet operational management (including electronic inspection, toll payments and document exchange; and use of continuous on-board diagnostics for maintenance and management), and internodal operations. Effort will also examine how tele-work, telecommuting, and other uses of the information infrastructure will substitute for or augment the traditional transportation system.

In addition to the above cited issues for which Technology Division is the lead OSTP division, the Technology Division is also supporting the following issue areas:

Federal R&D Priorities. In order to meet the challenges created by the end of the Cold War, sharply increased international competition, and a range of unprecedented new technical opportunities, our S&T programs and policies across the government need to be reordered. One mechanism is the integration of agency R&D budgets to ensure that investments in science and technology serve national goals as well as agency missions. The NSTC serves as the broad policy principles, goals, priorities, and evaluation criteria to guide the development of individual agency budgets.

Interagency Laboratory Review. NSTC is conducting an interagency review of the Federal Government's three largest laboratory systems--DOD, DOE, and NASA. The purpose is to evaluate and develop recommendations for ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal R&D investment in these laboratory systems.

Converged Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellites. Project aims to converge the Commerce Department's Polar-Orbiting-Operational Environmental Satellite system with the Defense Department's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program into a single national program for environmental surveillance. Joint program established by the PDD NSTC-2 dated May 5, 1994.

LANDSAT Remote Sensing Strategy. Interagency effort to assure the continuity of land remote sensed data currently provided by Landsat satellites 4 & 5 is available for the U.S. Directed by PDD NSTC-3, dated May 5, 1994.

Tab B presents a comprehensive list of issues being addressed by Technology Division and the person(s) responsible for coordinating those issues within the Division.