The faux populist group Americans For Prosperity has been running ads against network neutrality in Mike Doyle’s (D-PA) district in Pittsburgh. Doyle’s response? A letter to FCC Chairman Genachowski telling him to ignore faux populist FUD from AFP, hold firm, and move full speed ahead to protect consumers while Congress takes up the work of updating the Communications Act for a more comprehensive approach.

Rep. Doyle’s colleagues should learn from Doyle’s example of how to respond corporation interests seek to dress up their agendas in populist clothing combined with some decorative cover from Tea Party protesters.

Let me start by quoting at length from Rep. Doyle’s letter:

As you may know, television broadcasters in my district are airing advertisements from a group called “Americans for Prosperity” suggesting that you are about to take over the Internet. As you definitely know, those allegations are untrue. Setting those ads’ fear, uncertainty and doubt aside, I have heard from many constituents and small businesses in my district that are worried of having new and innovative business ideas restricted by a prospective customer’s broadband provider. And at the Federal Communications Commission’s field hearing on July 21, 2008 at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University, several witnesses agreed that the Internet – and other communications networks – were only useful if people had access to them and used them. As the Commission’s National Broadband Plan makes clear, more needs to be done to spur the deployment and promote the accessibility of open broadband networks for all consumers, including rural, low-income, and disabled Americans.

I have heard from stakeholders and constituents, from people on all sides of this debate. I have reviewed the Commission’s recent National Broadband Plan, the relevant statutes, the DC Circuit’s recent decision in Comcast v. FCC and your statements about the decision’s fallout. And I have come to the conclusion that if the Federal Communications Commission is to enact those goals, then we are left with only two options that I believe must happen concurrently.

First, the FCC must reclassify residential broadband services as Title II – Telecommunications Services. Instead of taking us back to 1996-era regulations, you proposed that the FCC forbear from enforcing certain requirements under that law, including wholesaling requirements and price cap regulations. I am sure that you did not come to this decision lightly, and I hope that as the Commission decides which regulations to forbear and which to enforce, that you keep consumers in the front of your mind.

I want to draw attention to what makes this letter so good. In a few sentences, Doyle calls out AFP’s claims for what they are without wasting time or spewing vitriol. He then clearly recounts his personal experience with his constituents. While these inform his decision, Doyle does not claim that “the people” want a particular action. Rather, as the person elected to represent them, he understands his job is to listen to their needs and concerns and figure out the best policy to meet those needs.

Having done that, Doyle leads, not follows. He says ‘this is what my constituents tell me they need, so we’re going to deliver.’ He is here to solve problems, not be liked, and that’s what he wants Genachowski to do.

Doyle’s colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and regulators in Washington as well, need to learn this lesson. They need to learn the lesson Obama learned the hard way in the health insurance reform fight — that if you spend your time listening to a handful of angry protesters who see any effort to protect consumers and enforce accountability as “socialism,” if you worry about every op ed written by industry-funded mouthpieces and weekly variations in approval numbers, you will get nothing done. Instead, as Doyle does here and as Obama and the Democratic leadership finally did to get insurance reform and student loan reform done, you need to decide on what’s right and fight to make it happen.

Business front groups like Americans for Prosperity will wail, whine and shriek about how any effort to protect consumers is socialism in disguise. As Paul Krugman explained in this op ed our leaders in Washington need to recognize these fake populists for what they are; they need to go back to their FDR roots and welcome their hatred. Because, as even generally pro-business Washpo columnist Steven Pearlstein recently wrote, the common thread in recent disasters from the financial meltdown to the BP oil platform was the utter failure of federal regulators to their jobs. That, in turn, came from accepting industry assurances that nothing could possibly go wrong and swallowing malarkey that even a hint of regulation would deter investment, stifle innovation, and kill jobs.

If we want to undo the mistakes of the past and repair the damage that 8 years of idolatry to the Gods of the Marketplace have wrought, we need members of Congress and the folks at the FCC to follow Rep. Mike Doyle’s example. Look at the evidence and take the right action to make sure the internet remains a phenomenal engine of economic growth accessible to everyone, rather than getting frightened off by the same old chorus of industry groups blasting the same old song with all the volume money can buy.

Congressman Mike Doyle guesses he’s made this claim a time or two around his peers from Texas and Oklahoma: Pittsburgh will one day be “America’s Energy Capital.”

“I’m sure I’ve said it in their presence,” said Mr. Doyle, a Democrat from Forest Hills. “They might have chuckled. I’m not saying we’re there yet; I’m saying we have the potential.”

It’s doubtful anyone is sweating in Dallas, Houston or Tulsa, but the notion of an ascendant Pittsburgh in energy production is not unique to Mr. Doyle. Dennis Yablonsky, CEO of the Allegheny Conference, has sung this song for more than a year.

Pittsburgh is one of only three regions that can count itself among the nation’s top 25 employers in seven energy sectors: coal, gas, nuclear, solar, wind, intelligent building technologies and transmission and distribution components (i.e. making the pipes and the lines.)

The other two regions are Chicago and Detroit, but they don’t share Western Pennsylvania’s enormous resources in coal and natural gas.

It has been said that the Marcellus shale deposits beneath Pennsylvania and neighboring states alone could supply the nation’s natural gas needs for up to 15 years. The trick there will be unleashing the billions of dollars in resources for Western Pennsylvania without destroying Western Pennsylvania.

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a $1.9 million investigation of the adverse impacts of “fracking.” That’s the process wherein millions of gallons of pressurized water mixed with chemicals and sand are used to crack the shale and release the gas.

Industry officials and their backers are confident that can be done safely, even a mile or more underground, and create 200,000 jobs over time. Mr. Doyle is with them, and he likewise disputes those who say “coal can never be clean and nuclear can never be safe.”

“Nothing great ever came from being easy,” he said.

The “energy capital” designation may yet be a reach, but it already takes in the Westinghouse Electric Co. headquartered in Cranberry. Mr. Doyle called it the producer of “the nuclear power plant of choice in the world.” The designation also includes the National Energy Technology Laboratory, which employs about 1,400 people, roughly half of them in South Park and the rest in Morgantown, W.Va. Still more research is being done at local universities.

As America moves toward cleaner energy, Mr. Doyle says, “a lot of the minds that are going to figure these things out are residing in Pennsylvania.”

Mr. Doyle helped craft the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives last June but has stalled in the Senate. Backers of the legislation say it will create millions of new energy jobs, enhance America’s energy independence and protect the environment.

Its detractors say it’s a boondoggle that will cost consumers and kill jobs as utilities are compelled to become more energy efficient. Leaving that argument for another day, the breadth of our regional portfolio should make Pittsburgh a major player no matter which direction the nation’s energy dollars go.

Tens of billions of dollars in the bill are dedicated to mind-bending problems like carbon capture and sequestration — keeping the waste products of electricity production out of the air and water.

“Sometimes 90 of 100 ideas don’t pan out, but the 10 that do can change the economy,” Mr. Doyle said.

“Energy is the next big thing to drive the economy,” he said, comparing it to the dot-com boom of the 1990s. He doesn’t believe (as some predict) that pumping billions into alternative energy will create the same kind of bubble that imploded many dot-com companies.

Dot-com investors were “buying sizzle,” he says. That stuff wasn’t real. Bad energy ideas, he said, can be weeded out in basic research before big money is put into commercialization.

We may not know who’s right about that for 10 or 20 years, but one thing’s clear. There won’t be one solution to the nation’s energy issues; there will be many. A region with a diversified energy portfolio stands a good chance of being one that thrives.

Trail construction is under way in the city’s four regional parks as part of a $3 million project managed by the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the Public Works Department.

As work continues, trails are closed in Schenley Park (Lower Panther Hollow, Upper Panther Hollow, Upper Hollow Run); Frick Park (Upper Braddock, Lower North Braddock, Lower South Braddock, Jeep); Highland Park (Butler Street); and Riverview Park (Mairdale, Bob Harvey).

Lower Hollow Run and the Steve Faloon Trail in Schenley Park are completed and open to the public, as is the Falls Ravine Trail in Frick Park.

Crews are installing nearly 100 new signs throughout the four regional parks. In addition to directional signs, new interpretive signs will provide information about park history, wildlife and restoration projects.

Funding was secured by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Mike Doyle, and the Parks Conservancy raised about $700,000 in matching donations from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, local foundations, corporations and others.

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Seeking support for the Federal Research Public Access Act which he recently introduced, Congressman Mike Doyle (D – Penn.) said in a press call today that the law would spur innovation and expand the reach of scientific writings.

Doyle said that the House of Representatives’ version of FRPAA will help scientists, research funders, taxpayers, and publishers, alike.

The open-access legislation, which is the House version of a 2009 Senate bill (S. 1397), will enable funders to “gain more from discoveries,” taxpayers to “obtain economic and social benefit from leveraging their investment in science,” and scientists to get their work out to a broader audience.
FRPAA would apply to all federal agencies that have extramural research funding budgets of over $100 million, and would include the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, The US Department of Agriculture, all of the institutes and centers of the Department of Health and Human Services, and others.

Doyle called the bill a “win-win” for taxpayers as well as for publishers, because the latter will be able to “earn back their investment” in journal articles during the six-month embargo period the law proposes.

As was the case with the open-access policy adopted by the National Institutes of Health in 2008, the journal publishing community does not view the proposal (H.R. 5037) as a victory for its members.
The American Association of Publishers, which represents dozens of journal publishers, has argued that the FRPAA law would cut into journals’ revenues and would infringe on their copyright claims.
“The new government mandate proposed by this legislation would result in the government distribution of copyrighted journal articles without compensation,” AAP said in a 2009 letter responding to the Senate’s FRPAA bill.

“Copyright is essential to protecting these works and to preserving incentives for the private sector to continue to invest in peer review, editing, publishing, and maintaining the electronic record of vetted scientific journal articles,” AAP said in the letter, which was directed to Senators Joe Lieberman (I – Conn.) who introduced (S.1376) and chairs the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and Susan Collins (R – Me.), who is a ranking member on the committee.

Today, Doyle argued that FRPAA will not harm publishers because it only seeks access to the final manuscript, and not the value-added information that publishers provide, such as charts, graphics, and other supplements.

Also participating in the phone briefing today, which was hosted by the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, was University of Vermont Professor Gary Ward, who said that the law would have a positive impact on researchers. Ward is co-director of the Vermont Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases and he runs a lab funded by NIH grants.

“Our colleagues deal with restricted access every single day” and they “have to make do without information that would help our research,” Ward explained. “Every academic institution faces this problem, from the best public institutions down to the small liberal arts colleges and community colleges.”

Ward said that such an open-access law would “encourage new discoveries by enabling new ways to search the literature,” and by democratizing science.

“If we’re lacking information that can help us, or a new method, we won’t do the experiment in the right way,” he said, noting that the sciences today are more interconnected and broadly collaborative than they were in the past. “Because we’re so interdependent and connected as scientists we share the whole scientific enterprise,” he said, pointing out that his own research that starts in basic molecular biology now connects to drug development research that others are doing.

Doyle said today that he wants FRPAA to “move through Congress by the end of the year.” He also said that he wants the policy to develop in the legislative branch alongside similar policy plans that are being developed by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, which recently held a public comment period to gather information about open-access policies.

As part of National Robotics Week, and in conjunction with the annual Spring Carnival, the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute is opening its doors for an open house with demonstrations and lectures later this week.

The institute is inviting the public to hear about research and see robots on April 15 and April 16. On April 15 at 4 p.m. assistant professor of computer science and robotics Adrien Treuille will host a talk on “Next- Generation Interactive Simulation” in the Rashid Auditorium, room 4401 of the Gates Hillman center. On April 16 the School of Computer Science is holding the 16th Annual Mobot (or Mobile Robot) Races in front of Wean Hall on CMU campus. The race is a slalom for small, autonomous robots with a $1,000 prize for first place.

Also on April 16, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Robotics Institute ChargeCar electric vehicle will be on display on the lawn between the University Center and the Purnell Center for the Arts. From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. more than a dozen robots will be on display in the Planetary Robotics Center in the Gates Hillman center.

“During National Robotics Week, we are asking people to ‘experience the possibilities’ that come from using robotics technology in everyday life,” said Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pittsburgh, in a written statement. Doyle sponsored the House resolution establishing National Robotics Week and is a member of the Congressional Caucus on Robotics.

“From schools to the workplace to health care, robotics will play a huge role in making life easier for everyone and will be a significant area of job growth and development in the decades ahead,” he said.
The CMU Robotics Institute was started in 1979 and employs roughly 350 full time and part time staff. It has an annual research budget of $55 million.

Congressman Mike Doyle (D-14) endorsed Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato for governor Monday, giving the Democratic front-runner another high-profile supporter five weeks before primary day.

Doyle is a fellow western Pennsylvanian. The announcement of his support seemed timed to coincide with Bob Brady’s endorsement of state Senator Anthony Williams (D-Philadelphia) Bob Brady’s endorsement of state Senator Anthony Williams (D-Philadelphia), who is emerging as one of the most serious threats to Onorato’s long bid to secure the party’s nomination.

“Dan Onorato has been a great asset to Allegheny County, and he is the only candidate for Governor with the leadership experience our state needs,” Doyle said in a statement. “He has worked hard to reform government and transform Allegheny County into a hub for business development and good-paying jobs.”

The fate of health care reform may have turned on a single relationship.

When they needed to find a way to unlock the votes of a group of anti-abortion lawmakers led by Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, Democratic leaders turned to Stupak’s roommate, Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Doyle, to facilitate the critical talks.

Doyle urged Stupak to write his own version of an executive order that would bridge the abortion divide by reinforcing a ban on the use of federal funds for abortion — a plan that was circulating at the highest levels of the West Wing early last week.

“The idea was brought up, and I just said to Bart: ‘You write up an executive order. … Write the one that you’d write,’” Doyle recalled in his thick Pittsburgh accent. “That started the process of the back and forth between Bart and the White House and the leadership. I just kept people meeting.”

In announcing his decision to accept the White House deal, which involved the executive order and a colloquy on the House floor intended to establish legislative intent in the event of a court challenge, Stupak gave a shout-out to his best friend in Washington.

“As things got critical, Mike Doyle was sort of the liaison between the White House and all of us, and Mike Doyle deserves a lot of credit,” Stupak said. “In fact, he was in all of the meetings.”

But lawmakers say Doyle limited his role to host and facilitator, giving anti-abortion Democrats and White House officials a quiet spot to meet in a fourth-foor Cannon House Office Building annex far enough removed from both the White House and the Capitol to elude the notice of the media. Doyle, an old-school legislator who shies away from the spotlight, was tapped by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to act as an emissary to Stupak.

Several lawmakers involved in the talks with the White House said Doyle stayed away from the heart of the discussions, which were brokered by White House counsel Bob Bauer, whose practice of election law at Perkins Coie makes him a familiar and trusted adviser to many House Democrats.

Doyle opposes abortion — and federal funding for it — but acknowledges he isn’t a “100 percenter,” like the members of Stupak’s group.

After a round of negotiations late Saturday night, Democratic leaders began to feel confident that Stupak and his small but crucial set of allies could be swayed to vote for the health care bill.

The next morning, White House aides presented a near-final draft of the executive order to Stupak’s group and a contingent of abortion-rights supporters at the same time in separate rooms in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s suite of offices in the Capitol, according to Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), co-chairwoman of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus.

Both sides claimed victory, with anti-abortion lawmakers satisfied that the stringent ban written into the initial House bill by a Stupak-drafted amendment would be enforced and abortion-rights supporters judging that Stupak’s language would not be the law of the land.

“Our policy folks analyzed the order and concluded it did not codify Stupak,” said an official from an abortion-rights organization that reviewed the text Sunday afternoon. “We were gratified it did not codify Stupak.”

But some outside groups on both sides of the debate took shots at the deal.

“The president’s decision to issue an executive order designed to assuage Rep. Stupak and his cohorts is a betrayal of millions of women across this country and of his campaign promises,” Nancy Northup, president of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement released Sunday evening. “The order lends credibility to an already impossibly flawed policy that punishes and discriminates against poor women by denying them the full range of reproductive health services and their constitutional right.”

Abortion foes weren’t pleased either.

“We believe Mr. Stupak’s choice to succumb to the intense pressure of the last week has resulted in his endorsement of a charade that does not even begin to address the anti-life provisions in this legislation,” Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life Action, said in a statement.

On a broader level, the deal rallied Democrats into position to expand access to health insurance to nearly every American.

And Doyle, who manages House Democrats’ team in the annual congressional baseball game, delivered the crucial ninth-inning hit to keep that rally going.

“Mike was trying to move the bill,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), one of the last holdouts on the abortion issue. “He was trying to keep the dialogue going.”

Doyle’s friends say he is trusted by all parties because he is discreet and works hard.

“So much of what gets done here gets done because of personal relationships,” said Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio), another member of Stupak’s group.

DeGette, who serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee with Doyle, said she’s spoken to her Pennsylvania colleague about the abortion issue on a daily basis for months.

“He won’t lie to anybody,” said Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), who often sits near Doyle in the southeast corner of the House chamber.

Doyle said he kept working with his close friend because he believed Stupak wanted to be a yes vote on the overall bill.

“I always knew that he wanted to pass health care reform,” Doyle said.

He was a bit reluctant to talk about his role in the process, continuing to observe the silence that helped him keep the trust of all players and move the health care overhaul forward.

If he’d blown that trust by talking to the media, Doyle said, “[health care reform] wouldn’t have happened.”

March 22, 2010
By Daniel Malloy, Post-Gazette Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Aided by an 11th-hour compromise on abortion, Democrats in the House of Representatives narrowly passed a landmark health care bill Sunday night, capping a tumultuous debate that will resume this week in the Senate.

The $940 billion measure would expand health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans while imposing significant reforms on the insurance industry. Its passage was a major triumph for President Barack Obama — who postponed a foreign trip to see it through — and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who once again scraped together enough votes to pass a major, controversial piece of legislation.

“We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things, tackling the biggest challenges,” said Mr. Obama, who will sign the Senate bill before the Senate takes up the reconciliation bill of alterations beginning Tuesday.

“We proved that this government — the government of the people, by the people — still works for the people. … This is what change looks like.”

The final tally to approve the Senate health care bill was 219-212, with 34 Democrats — including Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless — joining a united Republican caucus to vote against a measure that was ferociously criticized as a massive entitlement expansion financed by unpopular cuts to Medicare and taxes on high-cost plans. A government mandate that all citizens carry health insurance was attacked as potentially unconstitutional and likely will face a court challenge if signed into law.

Among local lawmakers, Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, and Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Erie, voted for the bill; Reps. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, Bill Shuster, R-Blair, Glenn Thompson, R-Centre, and Mr. Altmire voted against it.

The dual-vote strategy, crafted by Democratic leaders, called for the House to pass the Senate bill as is, along with a series of changes that can get through the Senate in the 51-vote reconciliation process. The House approved the reconciliation bill, 220-211.

The Senate passed its bill Dec. 24, but in the meantime Democrats lost their 60th vote when Republican Scott Brown won his special election in Massachusetts, prompting the parliamentary maneuver.

Its success remains uncertain.

Republicans have vowed to challenge whether the reconciliation bill passed in the House fits the specific, budget-related criteria of the process, and likely will offer numerous amendments to force tough votes and drag out the process.

The final hurdle in the House concerned abortion coverage, with Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and six colleagues, including Ms. Dahlkemper, D-Erie, negotiating a deal with the White House on Sunday in exchange for their support. Mr. Obama promised to issue an executive order strengthening the language in the bill that prohibits federal funding for abortions — including specifically mandating that funding for community health centers not go to abortions, a major concern of the anti-abortion bloc.

The language could not be altered in an amendment similar to the one Mr. Stupak pushed through when the House first passed health care reform in November, because the changes to the Senate health bill can deal only with budgetary matters if they are to pass the upper chamber again through a 51-vote reconciliation.

Major anti-abortion groups — and a couple House members — opposed the deal, saying that only a legislative fix could legally ensure that public money would not fund abortions, but Mr. Stupak and his cohorts said they were satisfied that the executive order stands on firm legal ground.

Ms. Dahlkemper said a slew of lawyers sifted through the implications of the language during the lengthy negotiations.

“I was always optimistic we would get this done,” she said.

A key player in making that happen was Mr. Doyle, who served as liaison between Mr. Stupak and the White House when debate heated up.

“Mike Doyle deserves a lot of credit,” Mr. Stupak said.

Mr. Doyle — who ranked Sunday’s vote with Bill Clinton’s impeachment and 9/11 in terms of historic moments since he arrived in Congress in 1995 — said he was a mere facilitator in the effort because of his good relationships with Mr. Stupak, House leadership and the White House.

“It struck me that Bart and a lot of other people wanted to see this bill passed, so if you share the end goal, a lot of these challenges are worth meeting to get to the end goal,” Mr. Doyle said, adding that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ desired legislative fix was impossible to get through the Senate.

A Republican motion to insert language like the Stupak amendment failed after Mr. Stupak himself gave a speech in opposition.

The late afternoon announcement by Mr. Stupak sealed the bill’s success on the floor, though the vote once again was tight.

The highly sought after Mr. Altmire announced his choice Friday, saying that the bill did not do enough to bring down the cost of health care and his district was solidly opposed to it. He said he did not lobby his colleagues to vote against the bill but claimed partial credit for the Democrats’ abandoning the controversial “deem and pass” strategy, by which they could have passed the Senate bill without directly voting on it.

Mr. Altmire criticized the strategy in television appearances.

“That would be an example of me taking a lead role in changing the debate for the better,” he said. “I spoke out publicly against my party and against that rule.”

Mr. Murphy, a child psychologist and co-chair of the GOP Doctors’ Caucus, had similar though more forceful criticisms — saying the bill would become a burden on taxpayers and the national debt.

Sunday morning Mr. Murphy led a prayer service on the front lawn for a few hundred members of the throngs who descended on the Capitol to protest the health care bill. Mr. Murphy said he did not mention health care, choosing rather to pray for an end to the divisive rancor that has gripped Washington.

“It was about how we’re strong and courageous and have a base of faith, but we also have to think how we heal the divides among us and understand that we’re all working for the better part of our country,” Mr. Murphy said.

The prayers were not answered Sunday.

The picturesque spring day took on an almost circus-like feel. Chants of “Kill the bill” could be heard from just outside the House floor, and some Republicans took to the balcony to rally the protesters further — with one group of lawmakers unfurling a yellow “Don’t tread on me” flag that has become the emblem of the tea party movement.

Inside the chamber, lawmakers sniped at one another during debate time and, at one point, two spectators were tossed out for outbursts urging members to vote against the bill. Republican members cheered the ejected protesters.

]]> http://mikedoyleforcongress.com/?feed=rss2&p=313 http://mikedoyleforcongress.com/?p=282 http://mikedoyleforcongress.com/?p=282#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:35:12 +0000 admin http://mikedoyleforcongress.com/mikedoyleforcongress/blog/?p=282 September 05, 2008
Post Gazette

Carnegie Mellon University’s Collaborative Intervention Center turned into a showroom for U.S. Representatives John Murtha, D-Johnstown, Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, and Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, yesterday as they examined several research projects and demonstrations.

The congressmen perused projects ranging from a battlefield robot that can examine potential explosives to computer chip-laden gloves that can help translate sign language.

The Collaborative Intervention Center has been the recipient of numerous federal grants, and the congressmen praised its work on various projects — many of them for the military.

Government funding for research, the congressmen said, is crucial to getting projects off the ground and spinning them off into private enterprise.

The congressmen also praised the work of the Software Engineering Institute’s CERT program, which provided training and analysis technology that aided the Secret Service in capturing the masterminds of the largest identity theft case in history earlier this year.

The Doyle Center for Manufacturing Technology, which traditionally has helped small- and mid-sized manufactures gain defense-related business, has a new name and expanded focus.

The name change to DSN Innovations “reflects the organization’s evolving mission focus on supplier network coordination, agility and efficiency,” said a statement issued Tuesday by Dennis Thompson, its president and CEO.

DSN stands for “dynamic supplier network” Thompson said.

It represents the next step in fulfilling the organization’s mission of bolstering U.S. manufacturing, he said.

Located at the Pittsburgh Technology Center in South Oakland, the center was established in 2003 with support by U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, a Swissvale Democrat.

The center operates with a staff of eight people with several additional personnel working under contract, Thompson said.

Funding for its $2 million annual budget comes through contracts from various government sources, including the Air Force Research Laboratory and Department of Defense.

It is no longer affiliated with the Pittsburgh Technology Council and two other economic development organizations — Catalyst Connection and the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center — that used to share a common CEO and staff.

The old structure was abandoned after Steve Zylstra, who had served as CEO of all four groups, resigned in April 2007.

“We have developed a variety of solutions that facilitate the rapid assembly and seamless coordination of dynamic supplier networks to accelerate production and reduce costs,” Thompson said. “While the Department of Defense has been a great proving ground for many of these solutions, there is a rapidly growing interest on the part of major manufacturers as well.”