Friday, 17 April 1987 Washington, DC
1.
"THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS,"
the much-delayed APS report dealing with the feasibility of a
ballistic missile defense based on directed energy technologies
(WN 10 Apr 87), has
at last been cleared for release in amended
form by the SDI Organization. Pending a favorable recommendation
by the APS Review Committee and approval by the APS Council, it
is expected that the report will be made public during the APS
Spring Meeting in Crystal City, VA next week. The Executive
Summary and Major Conclusions of the report will appear in the
May issue of Physics Today.
NOTICE! The special session at the Spring Meeting on "The APS
Study of the Science and Technology of Directed Energy Weapons"
has been rescheduled for Wednesday, 22 April 1987, at 19:30, in
Regency Ballrooms A and B. The special session, which was
originally planned for Tuesday, had to be switched with a Forum
session because of the dilatory release of the report.
2
. THE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FACILITIES REVITALIZATION ACT OF 1987,
(H.R. 1905) has been introduced by Rep. Robert Roe (D-NJ),
Chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. The
bill is intended "To assist in revitalizing the Nation's academic
research programs by authorizing a program in the National
Science Foundation for the repair, renovation, or replacement of
laboratories and other research facilities at universities and
colleges." The bill, which is desperately needed by the
crumbling infrastructure of university science, is a significant
improvement over legislation with the same title introduced two
years ago by Roe's predecessor, Don Fuqua. The Fuqua version
contained no new money, but instead would have taxed research
budgets to pay for facilities (WN 25 Oct 85). Roe's version
establishes a ten-year program in the NSF, at $250M per year, to
make facilities grants. As with so many programs these days, the
grants would have to be matched with non-federal money. Grants
are to be awarded on the basis of "comprehensive" merit review,
which is Washington talk for "spread it around a little." Just
in case some congressional districts are still overlooked, there
is a 15% set-aside for institutions that received less than $10M
in federal R&D funds in each of the two preceding years.
3. THE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE OF THE DOD
is in the
President's FY 88 budget request for $92.5M, but the money has
come from squeezing individual investigator grants. No new money
has gone into the program since its first year, when Congress
forced $100M on the reluctant Generals (16 May 86). Exasperated
with the conduct of the program by the separate branches, the
House Armed Services Committee has increased the URI to $200M and
moved it from the Services to a separate line item in the Office
of the Secretary of Defense. Congress itself has not been above
raiding the URI for pork-barrel projects (WN 14 Mar 86).
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