Friday, 31 July 1992 Washington, DC
1. ATTEMPT TO KILL THE SPACE STATION IS EASILY DEFEATED IN
HOUSE!
An amendment to scrap the space station, offered by
Bob Traxler (D-MI), failed 237 to 181 Wednesday night. Little
had changed in a year; only a handful of additional votes were
cast against the orbiting budget eater, and the claims of its
proponents were as fanciful as ever. My favorite: one Florida
congressman solemnly explained that the station is the beginning
of human exploration of the galaxies. But back on Earth, the
House found itself a bit short of cash by the end of the evening,
so it levied an across-the-board cut of 1% on VA/HUD/IA
appropriations, except veterans' medical care. NSF--which was
already flat funded--shared in the cut. The cut would have been
worse, but $380M was stripped from the unneeded Advanced Solid
Rocket Motor program, leaving just $100M. It was like sharks
attacking a wounded whale; ASRM is in the district of Rep. Jaime
Whitten (D-MS), the Appropriations Committee chair, but he was
too sick and old to fight them off.
2. SPACE STATION FREEDOM SEEMS CERTAIN TO SURVIVE IN THE
SENATE.
The full appropriations committee will take up the
VA/HUD/IA bill today. Yesterday, the subcommittee called for the
full $2.1B for the space station--$400M more than the House
version. Where will the money come from? The National Aerospace
Plane was zeroed and the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility was
stretched out. NSF would actually get a $162M increase, but most
of that would go to education. Research, which does not seem to
rank near the top of Sen. Mikulski's priority list, would
actually take a $20M cut.
3. SENATE SCHEDULES VOTE ON THE SUPERCOLLIDER MONDAY AT 6:30
PM!
The Energy and Water Appropriations Bill is being
debated on the floor of the Senate even as WHAT'S NEW is being
composed. Dale Bumpers (D-AR) will introduce an amendment to
terminate the SSC, but even he seems to believe the SSC will
survive. If the SSC does make it through the Senate, the House
is expected to recon-sider after the August break. In a visit to
the SSC yesterday, President Bush said, "this place attracts
scientific genius the way the Dream Team attracts autograph
seekers." But basketball is not very popular in Japan.
According to an article in Nature, an overwhelming majority of
Japanese high-energy physicists are strongly opposed to Japan's
participation in the Supercollider.
4. ITER AGREEMENT IS FINALLY SIGNED 18 MONTHS BEHIND
SCHEDULE.
Is this what international cooperation on mega-
science projects is going to be like? This is not what you call
a bold agreement. The US, the European Community, Japan and
Russia agreed only to put off a decision on the really tough
stuff, like where to locate the International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor. Instead they decided to build three
coequal design centers in San Diego, USA; Garching, Germany; and
Naka, Japan. The location of ITER will not be decided for
another four years, and it will not operate before 2005. The cost
is expected to be on the SSC scale.
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