Clinton calls for more IT research funding

President Clinton said Friday that he plans to ask for "significant increases'' in the federal budget for computing and communications research and that the Office of Science and Technology Policy is developing the plan.

He did not provide any details but said more research funding is necessary to support technology development, citing the Internet as an example of a federally funded research program that has had a major impact on society and commerce.

"When I became president, the Internet was the province of physicists,'' he said. "There were only 50 sites in the world. Now we are adding pages to the World Wide Web at over 100,000 an hour.''

Clinton made his remarks during a commencement address June 5 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In that address, he also advocated continued spending by the government and the private sector to deliver computers and networks to public schools and to teach students "21st century skills.'' He said he opposes efforts by long-distance telecommunications companies to repeal the law authorizing the E-Rate, which is a plan to subsidize Internet access for local institutions by charging telephone customers.