Rep. David Obey (D-Wisconsin) introduced the amendment to the NSF appropriations bill yesterday to withhold the paychecks of any NSF employee who awards the computer contract to NEC. The bill is expected to reach the full House next week.

The flap began after the NSF decided to lease a $35 million supercomputer from NEC to replace an older technology Cray supercomputer at its National Center for Atmospheric research in Bolder, Colorado.

Cray tried to get the Commerce Department to block the contract by saying the computer was being "dumped" on the US market, or being sold at a below cost price.

Commerce Department officials issued a letter concluding that the NEC award would "materially injure" Cray -- however, that determination must be made by the International Trade Commission, and not the Commerce Department.

NSF General Counsel Lawrence Rudolph said that NSF would not block the contract award based solely on the Commerce Department letter, noting that "that is a ruling that has to be made formally by the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission."

Although Rep. Obey tacked on his amendment to the NSF appropriations bill during yesterday's markup, the mood in Congress appears to be against it.

"It's a bad amendment, very bad," said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Arizona), who plans to offer a motion to strike the amendment from the appropriations bill when it comes up for a vote, slated for next week.

The amendment "violates our own domestic procurement laws, it violates our dumping laws, and it violates our international agreements," Kolbe said during markup.

"If the Japanese or Germans ever tried to do this, we'd go berserk," Kolbe added.

A date has not been scheduled for the appropriations bill vote, but is expected some time next week, said John Deacon, spokesperson for Obey.

(Bill Pietrucha/19960620/Press Contact: John Deacon, Office of Rep. David Obey, 202-225-3365)