Friday, 12 June 1987 Washington, DC

1. A UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FACILITIES INITIATIVE IN THE SENATE
could spell relief for the crumbling infrastructure of university science. As we reported in April (WN 17 Apr 87), Rep. Roe (D-NJ) introduced The University Research Facilities Revitalization Act (H.R. 1905) in the House. Roe's bill would establish a ten-year program in the NSF, at $250M per year, to make matching grants to universities for research facilities. Hearings on the bill are scheduled for 25 June. The money would have to come from Function 250, which unfortunately did not fare well in the House (WN 10 Apr 87). A Senate version could offer more hope.

Until recently there was no comparable initiative on the Senate side, but an amendment sponsored by Sen. Dodd (D-CT), bearing the identical title and statement of purpose as the Roe bill, was included in the FY 88 NSF authorization last week by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. The Dodd amendment, however, approaches the problem adiabatically, authorizing only $1M in FY 88 for setting up the machinery at NSF, rising to $47M for FY 89 and $95M for FY 90. The gradual increase reflects the commitment to doubling the NSF budget over the next five years, thus avoiding the need to tax existing research programs to pay for facilities rehabilitation.

Under the terms of the truce between the Senate Labor and Commerce Committees, who squabbled over jurisdiction of the NSF for years (WN 4 Oct 85), the Dodd amendment must now be taken up by Commerce. Its reception there is uncertain. Senators from "have not" states are suspicious of the merit review provisions of the bill, in spite of a 15% set-aside for institutions receiving less than $10M per year in federal research funds. And even Sen. Pete Wilson (R-CA), whose state leads the "haves," continues to find faults in an NSF merit review process that awarded an earthquake research center to Buffalo (WN 3 Oct 86).

2 . A FULL DAY OF HEARINGS ON SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
was held by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on Wednesday. It turned out to be the Congressional equivalent of the "scientific Woodstock" that took place at the APS meeting in New York in March. Security police had to control the crowds trying to get into the hearing room and the hearings went on for 10 hours without a break. The hearings were motivated by rising concern in Washington that Japan is already pulling away from the US in the race to exploit the new materials.

3. A FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY,
to be held in Washington July 28-29, was announced by the President's Science Advisor, William Graham, during his testimony at the hearings. Industry is the targeted audience. Some 5,000 invitations have gone out. One organizer joked that plans to hold it in RFK Stadium fell through.

Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be.