piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) (01/25/86)
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 1986 3:50 PM EST Msg: QGIG-2164-1856
From: RPARK
To: WHATSNEW
Subj: What's New, 24 January 1986 Washington, DC
1. THE OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT has been directed by
Congress to conduct another study of the Strategic Defense
Initiative. $700,000 is provided by the Defense
Appropriations Bill for a comprehensive, classified study due
30 Aug 87. The study is intended to "determine the technical
feasibility and implications [of SDI] and the ability to
survive and function despite a preemptive attack by an
aggressor possessing comparable technology. . . ." What
makes the new study surprising is that an earlier study
released in September was not popular with some members of
Congress and the twelve member Congressional board that
oversees OTA decided to release the study by a narrow 7-5
margin (see WN 27 Sep 85). Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska),
who opposed the release of the earlier study, solidly backs
the new OTA assignment. Contributing to the controversy was
the resignation of General Daniel Graham, head of High
Frontier, from the study's advisory board. Graham
represented his resignation as a protest over the stacking of
the study with opponents of SDI, but others insist he was
pressured to resign after he repeatedly leaked details of the
study while it was in progress. The new positive attitude
toward OTA probably reflects the growing perception that the
president's version of SDI is fantasy.
2. BUDGET CUTS FOR SCIENCE IN FISCAL 1987 have already been
by the federal agencies, in keeping with the requirements of
the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings budget-balancing act. So, when
President Reagan's budget is submitted in the week of
February 3, it will reflect the automatic 4.3% reductions
imposed for the current fiscal year by the Office of
Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office,
along with the additional cuts the Administration has made
for FY 87. This is being done to put the responsibility
squarely up to Congress for making any further changes in an
election year. At the White House and OMB the order is out,
from the President himself, to protect basic research. The
Strategic Defense Initiative will not suffer any cuts at all
in the 87 budget, while construction funds for such
scientific projects as completion of Fermilab's Tevatron I
and Cornell's upgrade of CESR will be adjusted so these are
not prolonged interminably. But the word is out in
Washington that the National Institutes of Health and the
Energy Department's fusion program will be hit particularly
hard. NIH will undoubtably find support in Congress to
restore some funds, as it has in the past, but political
backing for fusion is minimal. At NSF, assistant directors
in the physical sciences grimace about the widespread pain
that will be caused by the 87 budget cuts, while officials in
the engineering directorates smile benignly.
Robert L. Park (202) 429-1946
American Physical Society THAT'S ALL 1/24/86