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