WHAT'S NEW, Friday, 11 August 1989 Washington, DC

1. ALLAN BROMLEY WAS OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED AS THE DIRECTOR
of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in a late night session just one day before the Senate recessed. The pro forma vote came without discussion. Bromley was already serving as Assistant to the President, which does not require Senate confirmation, but he was keeping a very discrete profile. As if he didn't have enough to do, a GAO report examining last year's computer virus episode, released just two weeks ago, recommends that the responsibility for computer network security be given to OSTP. Despite the high expectations, however, Bromley must first rebuild an office that was moribund in the last years of the Reagan Administration.

2 . CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON THE PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT,
which is up for reauthorization, provided a forum for the critics of the Office of Management and Budget. The PRA gives OMB control over the collection and dissemination of government information. OMB has used that authority to make less government information available to fewer people. OMB has been particularly inventive in avoiding dissemination of electronic information; in January agencies were told not to disseminate "value-added" electronic information. Translation: search and retrieval software required to access a CD-ROM database cannot be included on the disc. That is equivalent to insisting that reports be issued without titles, page numbers, or table of contents. Congress must act by 30 Sep.

3. PICKLE PANEL PREPARES PLAN for Unrelated Business Income Tax!
Tax exempt organizations, including churches, universities and scientific societies, do not currently pay taxes on secondary income, such as advertisements in scientific journals. There have been attempts to tap this $5B keg before, but raids on schools and churches are politically risky. Alas, since new taxes are taboo, revisions of the tax code, including UBIT, are the only game left. Last week, Rep. Pickle (D-TX), Chairman of the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, instructed members to prepare UBIT proposals. One effect could be to devastate magazines, such as Science and Physics Today, published by exempt organizations.

4. AN $18M PORK-BARREL PROJECT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WEST VIRGINIA
was apparently scuttled when West Virginia's own Senator, Robert Byrd, withdrew his support. The powerful Appropriations Committee Chairman reacted angrily to the discovery that the University had hired Cassidy Associates, the lobbying firm that invented post industrial pork, to promote the project in Congress. Byrd thought he was elected to do that. Pork-barrel projects at several other universities represented by Cassidy were also sunk by the wave Byrd generated. Byrd also introduced a bill to curb the influence of pork-barrel lobbyists, which was quickly passed by the Senate. It was a major setback for the high-flying Cassidy firm, whose university clients include the University of Utah, which has not given up on a request to Congress for a $25M cold fusion center.



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.