Final Report to the IEEE-USA
Government Fellowship Committee

David A. Conner, Ph.D., P.E.

December 2003

I ended my mid-year report with the following paragraph. "While my assignments have been interesting and challenging, I consider my most important contribution to date to be the development of amendments for H.R. 238, H.R. 766, and H.R. 1085 that have the potential to increase the number of U.S. Citizens pursing graduate degrees in engineering and science and assuming positions of leadership within agencies of the U.S. Government."

Efforts on developing a government-wide, graduate scholarship program continued to be one of my major initiatives during the last part of 2003. But, in the words of the oft repeated sports cliché, "you win some, you lose some, and some are called on account of rain". Here is a summary of the results of this effort.

• The graduate scholarship section of H.R. 238 was included in H.R. 6, the Energy Conservation and Research and Development bill, that was recommend by the Senate/House Conference Committee. While the House passed the compromise bill, the bill could not survive a threatened filibuster in the Senate and was not brought up for a vote. So, this effort to gain a scholarship program within the Department of Energy (DoE) was "called on account of rain" - hopefully to be replayed during 2004.
• The graduate scholarship program in H.R. 766, the Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003, was not accepted by the Senate and was totally blocked by several senators during Senate/House Conference Committee consideration. So, while a nanotechnology bill passed both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush, the effort to gain a graduate scholarship program through this bill for the DoE, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) was "lost".
• The scholarship program included in H.R. 1085, the NASA Flexibility Act of 2003, is different from the program introduced into H.R. 238 (H.R. 6) and H.R. 766. This program provides scholarships for juniors and seniors in addition to graduate students and was developed to meet NASA unique, near-tern requirements. While this bill is on the House calendar awaiting House approval, we were able to include the same scholarship program in H.R. 2115, the Flight 100 - Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act, for both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA. Fortunately, H.R. 2115 received quick approval by both the House and Senate and was signed into law by President Bush. So, one "win" can be recorded. [The program for FAA can be found in Section 702 of H.R. 2115, and the program for NASA can be found in Section 703 of H.R. 2115.] During 2004, Dr. Steve E. Watkins, IEEE Congressional Fellow, who will be filling my position in the office of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, will be taking a leadership role in expanding the scholarship program to other agencies.

As I conclude my year as a Congressional Fellow, I want to express my appreciation to IEEE-USA for its sponsorship of the Congressional Fellowship Program and for allowing me to serve as a Congressional Fellow. In addition, Chris Brantley deserves special recognition for the support which he provides to the Fellow Program. I am also grateful to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher for allowing me to work in his office. Congressman Rohrabacher believes in the Congressional Fellowship Program and prefers staffing his Science and Technology Aide position with engineering Congressional Fellows. The Congressman's 2004 Congressional Fellow, Dr. Steve E. Watkins, will be the seventh engineering Congressional Fellow to work in the office. I strongly recommend this office to future IEEE-USA Congressional Fellows having a conservative political philosophy. The office is a great environment in which to work.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers - United States of America