Friday, 9 October 1987 Washington, DC
1.
THE GRAMM-RUDMAN-HOLLINGS DEFICIT REDUCTION ACT "FIX,"
signed into law two weeks ago by a reluctant President Reagan as
part of the debt-ceiling extension, could be a monster that will
attack its creators. The "fix" was supposed to force the
President to recognize revenue as a term in the balanced-budget
equation. Under the new law the deficit for FY 88 must be
reduced by $23B, or that amount will be sequestered -- half from
domestic programs and half from defense. It was the defense half
that Reagan was supposed to find so onerous that he would agree
to "enhanced revenues." So far, however, the President shows no
sign of giving in on taxes. According to a staff report of the
Senate Budget Committee, a full $23B sequestration would reduce
Function 250, Science, Space and Technology by $600M, just about
eliminating the proposed increase for NSF, which was revived only
last week (WN 2 Oct 87), and impairing NASA's recovery.
2
. AT HEARINGS ON SUPERCONDUCTIVITY LEGISLATION IN THE HOUSE
on
Wednesday, a parade of administration representatives argued that
three House bills (H.R. 3048, 3217, 3024) aimed at establishing a
national superconductivity program are not needed. According to
someone named Thomas G. Moore, who heads something called the
National Critical Materials Council, the Administration will send
its own legislative proposal to Congress. The Administration
bill will seek to: (1) amend the National Cooperative Ventures
Act to permit some joint production ventures; (2) amend the
patent laws to increase protection for manufacturing processes;
and, (3) amend the Freedom of Information Act to allow government
laboratories to withhold "commercially valuable scientific and
technical information." The Administration has not revealed from
whom it proposes to withhold such
information (WN 14 Aug 87).
Rep. McCurdy (D-OK) commented that the FOIA exemption "is going
to run into a buzz saw." It would be the first attempt to
abridge the FOIA on grounds other than national security.
3. THE FBI DEFENDED ITS "LIBRARY AWARENESS PROGRAM"
in a letter
to the New York Library Association dated 24 Aug 87. FBI agents
contacted university librarians in New York City concerning the
use of their libraries by persons from countries hostile to the
United States. According to the letter, "We have programs
wherein we alert those in certain fields of the possibility of
hostile intelligence powers or their agents attempting to gain
access to information that could be potentially harmful to
national security." None of the libraries in question have
classified holdings. WHAT'S NEW reported a year ago (5 Sep 86)
that the FBI had attempted to obtain a list of books checked out
to a visiting foreign scientist at a university library. This
latest disclosure of counterintelligence among the stacks came
just as the FBI was assuring the public that its surveillance of
prominent writers had been discontinued. During the 60's, it
seems the FBI even maintained informants in public high schools.
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