Friday, 8 March 1991 Washington, DC
1. APPROPRIATIONS CHAIRMAN PREDICTS PROBLEMS FOR FY 92 NSF
BUDGET
request. Walter Massey had been on the job as the
new director of NSF for less than 24 hours before facing the
House VA/HUD/IA Appropriations Subcommittee in two days of
hearings. Bob Traxler (D-MI), subcommittee chair, noted that,
"At 18% the NSF increase is the largest of any agency under
federal jurisdiction." Making it clear that NSF should not
expect all it asked for, Traxler went straight to the question of
priorities: "You always dance around this issue, but if you had
to choose between facilities and individual investigators, where
would you cut?" "Shall I begin to dance now?" Massey asked, and
began doing the we-must-have-balance twist. It became clear what
some committee members wanted to cut; LIGO, the Laser
Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, which was
eliminated last year, came up repeatedly. At the end of the
second day, Rep. Atkins (D-MA) wondered why "no scientists are
supporting LIGO publicly." "Maybe the people behind it think its
value is self-obvious," Massey responded. "Maybe a PhD in
physics would think that," Atkins retorted.
2. OREGON SENATOR SUPPORTS PORK-BARREL PROJECT IN SOUTH
CAROLINA.
Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-OR) has a remarkable record
of earmarking academic pork for his home state. Oregon is only
23rd in Federal research support--but it ranks third behind
populous New York and Massachusetts in earmarked funds for
academic institutions ($80M in the last decade), due largely to
Hatfield's efforts. In 1986, according to news accounts, while
he was chairman of the Appro-priations Committee, Hatfield's
concern for academia extended to the University of South
Carolina. A $16M Engineering Center at the school was carved out
of DOE's budget. The warm feelings were reciprocated; Hatfield
received gifts of glass sculptures valued at $10,000 and his son
received a full scholarship.
3. NASA IS IN DEEP TROUBLE WITH ITS NEW SPACE STATION
PLAN
(WN 1 Mar 91). The plan for
"downscoping" the space station, ordered by Congress in its FY 91
NASA appropriation, was due back in February. The deadline was
extended first to 5 March and now to 8 April. Meanwhile, the
Space Council, headed by Vice-President Quayle, will meet around
the middle of March to discuss the plan. The Council has asked
the Office of Science and Technology Policy to judge the
scientific merits of the plan. Input has been urgently solicited
from the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council,
chaired by Louis Lanzerotti of AT&T Bell Labs. WHAT'S NEW has
learned that the Board will submit a succinct statement next week
criticizing the scientific mission of the space station in MUCH
stronger language than that used by the Augustine panel (WN 14 Dec 90). Staff members
from the Senate and House Committees that authorize NASA today
publicly urged the scientific community to let Congress know
their views on the scientific merits of the space station. One
commented that Congress may be about ready to "pull the plug" on
the station.
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