piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) (01/08/86)
Posted: Fri Jan 3, 1986 3:43 PM EST Msg: CGIG-2148-5618
From: RPARK
To: WHATSNEW
CC:
Subj: WHAT'S NEW, 3 January 1986, Washington, D.C.
1. THE KING OF PORK, SENATOR ALFONSE D'AMATO (R-NY), has
again demonstrated the resourcefulness that earned him his
title. As we reported in WN 12 Dec., he succeeded in
earmarking $12 million of the DARPA budget for a computer
facility at Syracuse University that had not had the benefit
of any sort of merit evaluation. The successful DARPA
maneuver was undertaken after he failed in an attempt to
earmark nearly a third of the DoD University Research
Initiative for the Syracuse project. His talent for
improvising has served him once again. Blocked in his
attempt to earmark $11.1 million of a Commerce appropriations
bill for a center for Microelectonics Engineering and Imaging
Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he deftly
inserted the project into the Defense Nuclear Agency budget
as part of the Omnibus Spending Bill signed into law by
President Reagan on 19 Dec. According to D'Amato, the
diversion of Defense funds to the microelectronic center was
necessary to "address a critical national need by providing
the US electronics industry and the Department of Defense
with increased numbers of high tech engineers."
2. THE POSITION OF DEPUTY UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR
RESEARCH AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY has been filled by Professor
Ronald L. Kerber, a professor of mechanical and electrical
engineering at Michigan State University. It is a key
position in the long-running negotiations over freedom of
scientific communication. The position has been filled on an
acting basis by Col. Donald Carter since the resignation of
Edith Martin more than a year ago to become a vice president
at Boeing. Martin, who co-chaired the DoD-University Forum's
Working Group on Export Controls, was a hard-liner with a
background in child psychology. When told at one meeting of
the working group that the major research universities would
not accept the restrictions on scientific communication she
proposed, she replied that, "In that case we may see a change
in which research universities are major." Her acting
replacement, Col. Carter, got along better with the research
community. In accepting his new position at the Pentagon,
Kerber was compelled to resign from The American Physical
Society's study panel on Directed Energy Weapons, which is
now in the report drafting stage.
3. THE DEFICIT CONTROL ACT requires the General Accounting
Office to report the projected FY86 budget deficit on 20 Jan.
The President will issue an automatic deficit reduction order
1 Feb. Spending cuts take effect on 1 Mar. Automatic
spending cuts for FY86 are limited by the Act to $11.7
billion.
Robert L. Park (202) 429-1946
American Physical Society THAT'S ALL 1/3/86