President Bush is reviving the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), which he let expire in June, by folding it into the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

Bush issued an executive order Sept. 30 announcing that PCAST will absorb PITAC's functions. The latter advised the president on IT research and development (R&D). PCAST advises the president on technology, scientific research priorities, and math and science education.

Some observers, including former PITAC members, think combining the committees could help elevate IT issues as members examine how IT relates to science, technology and education. Others, however, think PCAST members will have their hands too full with their own issues to focus on PITAC concerns.

But E. Floyd Kvamme, PCAST's co-chairman and a partner at the venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, said the first priority is to release a report on the progress of IT R&D at the federal level.

That assessment was a priority for PITAC before the Bush administration disbanded the committee.

Proponents of increased federal funding for IT R&D say the new committee will not succeed unless the Bush administration appoints IT experts with the same prominence as current PCAST members and acts on the committee's recommendations.

Kvamme plans to launch PITAC-related activities during PCAST's December meeting. By then, he anticipates the council will have grown to at least 35 members, about 20 of whom will serve on an IT working group.

The council currently has 23 members, plus the director of the Executive Office of the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy. Last month's executive order allows PCAST to grow to up to 45 members — 20 more than previously mandated.

"The whole multidisciplinary nature of science and technology these days makes this a very good move and raises the [profile] of [IT] to a new level," Kvamme said.

The council would most likely establish an outside technical advisory group to work on IT issues, much like the group of about 50 government and private-sector nanotechnology scientists whom PCAST selected to assess the national nanotechnology research program, Kvamme said.

Computer science researchers say that group would be a good model to follow.

Before the reorganization, many observers had been concerned about the timing of the president's decision to dissolve PITAC, saying that inattention to IT research could harm future innovation, U.S. jobs and the country's global competitiveness.

The influence of PITAC's more recent reports remains unknown.

Former PITAC members released their last report, "Computational Science: Ensuring America's Competitiveness," after the committee's dissolution. It recommends long-term investment in computational science research and a fast-track study on ways that federal spending can advance computational science in academia, industry and government.

A February PITAC report on cybersecurity states that the federal budget for research into civilian cybersecurity is inadequate and recommends that the Bush administration increase the National Science Foundation's budget for cybersecurity research by $90 million annually.