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THE WHITE
HOUSE
Office of Science and Technology
Policy
For Immediate Release
Contact: 202/456-6108 |
May 1, 2000 |
Remarks by Neal Lane
Assistant to the President for
Science and Technology
The White House
On the President's Announcement on the Global Positioning
System
I'd like to make some overall points about the Global
Positioning System, or GPS. This is a dual-use, satellite-based system
that provides accurate location and timing data to people worldwide – to
far more civilian users than military users. The system transmits signals
that can be used by GPS receivers to calculate a position, velocity, and time
anywhere on the globe, at any time of day or night, in any kind of weather.
Today, based on a recommendation from the Secretary of Defense in
coordination with the Secretaries of State, Transportation, and Commerce, and
the Director of Central Intelligence Agency, the President is announcing that
the United States can safely stop the intentional degradation of the GPS
signals available to the public. The United States is turning off the
feature known as Selective Availability. This is a significant step
toward furthering the worldwide utility of GPS for peaceful civil, commercial,
and scientific pursuits. However, should an occasion arise in which
it's in our interests to block GPS on a regional basis, we will have the
ability to do so.
This announcement is another step in this Administration's
strategic vision for the evolution of GPS. This vision included a goal of
encouraging the acceptance and integration of GPS for peaceful purposes,
encouraging private sector investment, and promoting safety and efficiencies in
transportation and other fields. This was followed by recommendations by the
Gore Commission for Aviation Safety and Security in 1997 and by a GPS
modernization initiative that Vice President Gore announced in January of last
year.
In plain English, we are unscrambling the GPS signal. It is rare
that someone can press a button and make something you already own more
valuable – but that's exactly what's happening
today. All the people who've bought a GPS receiver for a boat
or a car, or whether they use one in business or for recreation, will find that
they are ten times more accurate as of midnight tonight. Policemen,
firemen, and emergency crews will now be able to respond faster and more
accurately to exactly where help is needed. Before, you could be
somewhat certain where something was with a couple of hundred feet. Now,
you can pinpoint it precisely down to tens of feet.
Finally, let me say a few words about what GPS owes to investments in
basic research. GPS works because of super reliable atomic clocks -- no
mechanical device could come close. These clocks resulted from
Nobel-prize winning physics, and creative engineering that managed to package
devices which once filled large physics laboratories into a compact, reliable,
space-worthy devices. This GPS system grows directly from our past
research investments in basic physics, mathematics, and engineering that was
supported by American taxpayers. It is a prime example of why
America's world-leading science and technology enterprise must continue to
be sustained and nurtured. As with most of our public R&D
portfolio, the taxpayers' investment has paid off handsomely in terms of
new industries, new jobs, and new knowledge that continues to improve the
quality of our lives.
Office of Science
and Technology Policy
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W
Washington, DC 20502
202.395.7347
Information@ostp.eop.gov
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