42 U.S.C. § 7708

(a) Establishment The Director of the National Science Foundation shall establish the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation that will upgrade, link, and integrate a system of geographically distributed experimental facilities for earthquake engineering testing of full-sized structures and their components and partial-scale physical models. The system shall be integrated through networking software so that integrated models and databases can be used to create model-based simulation, and the components of the system shall be interconnected with a computer network and allow for remote access, information sharing, and collaborative research. (b) Authorization of appropriations In addition to amounts appropriated under section 7706(c) of this title , there are authorized to be appropriated to the National Science Foundation for the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation— (1) $28,200,000 for fiscal year 2001; (2) $24,400,000 for fiscal year 2002; (3) $4,500,000 for fiscal year 2003; (4) $17,000,000 for fiscal year 2004; (5) $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2005, all of which shall be available for operations and maintenance; (6) $20,400,000 for fiscal year 2006, all of which shall be available for operations and maintenance; (7) $20,870,000 for fiscal year 2007, all of which shall be available for operations and maintenance; (8) $21,390,000 for fiscal year 2008, all of which shall be available for operations and maintenance; and (9) $21,930,000 for fiscal year 2009, all of which shall be available for operations and maintenance.