WASHINGTON—Thirty-Six states would like to be home to the central research facility for a proposed $250 million-a-year program aimed at developing cheaper and better semiconductors. Congress, spurred by concern over declining U.S. competitiveness, is preparing to pour up to $100 million a year into the joint government-industry venture. An industry panel assigned the task of picking a site for the semiconductor technology program—known as Sematech—has been “overwhelme

WASHINGTON—A large black bust of Thomas Edison greets visitors to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) here. Established in 1923 at the famous inventor’s urging, the lab was for more than 20 years the federal govemment’s sole facility for fundamental research in the physical sciences. NRL remains the Pentagon’s flagship research facility, conducting work in such fields as space, new materials, microelectronics and artificial intelligence. Some 700 of its 1,600 scienti

WASHINGTON—A Defense Department program that distributed $124 million last year in contracts to university researchers appears to have been a one-time windfall for academic scientists. Its survival, which is uncertain given the pressure to trim military spending and reduce the federal deficit, could hurt other researchers funded by the Pentagon. The University Research Initiative (URI) was created as a way to provide universities with money for equipment, training and research in areas fel