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SUNDRY NOMINATIONS

THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1969

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
Washington, D.C.

The committee met at 10:15 a.m. in room 5110, New Senate Office Building, the Honorable Warren G. Magnuson (chairman of the committee) presiding.

Present: Senators Magnuson, Hartke, Cannon, Cotton, Pearson, Griffin, and Baker.

Senator MAGNUSON. The committee will come to order. We have three nominations and there will be several other Senators here, but we want to get started.

We will begin with the nomination of Dr. Lewis M. Branscomb, Director of the National Bureau of Standards.

STATEMENT OF DR. LEWIS M. BRANSCOMB, OF COLORADO, TO BE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

Senator MAGNUSON. We are glad to have you here, Doctor.

Dr. Branscomb is from Colorado, and we will put in the record the letter from Senator Dominick, and there is another letter from the University of Washington Department of Physics, and the biographical sketch in full.

(The material follows:)

Hon. WARREN G. MAGNUSON,

Chairman, Senate Committee on Commerce,

Washington, D.C.

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES,
Washington, D.C., July 28, 1969.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you for your letter of July 15, advising me that the Committee on Commerce has received the nomination of Lewis M. Branscomb of Colorado, to be Director of the National Bureau of Standards.

I believe that Mr. Branscomb is qualified for this position and have no objection to the nomination.

Best regards.

Sincerely yours,

PETER H. DOMINICK,

Senator WARREN G. MAGNUSON,

U.S. Senator.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON,
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS,
Seattle, Wash., July 23, 1969.

Old Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

DEAR SENATOR MAGNUSON: I have learned that the Commerce Committee will hold confirmation hearings on the appointment of Dr. Lewis M. Branscomb as Director of the National Bureau of Standards. I am writing to urge that you support this nomination.

I have known Dr. Branscomb for many years and have the highest regard for his scientific capability, the breadth of his outlook on the relationship between science and public affairs and his personal integrity. He is an experienced and successful administrator who has shown the ability to manage complex affairs. Taken altogether I have complete confidence that his appointment is in the best national interest and in fact would be hard put to suggest a more appropriate or promising one. I hope you will vote to confirm Dr. Branscomb's appointment. Yours most sincerely, RONALD GEBALLE, Chairman.

BIOGRAPHY OF DR. LEWIS M. BRANSCOMB

Dr. Lewis M. Branscomb was born in Asheville, North Carolina, on August 17, 1926.

He was educated at Duke (A.B. 1945, summa cum laude) and Harvard Universities (M.S. 1947, Ph.D. 1949). After holding a Public Health Service fellowship, he was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (1949-51). Since then Dr. Branscomb has also taught at University College, London, the University of Maryland, and the University of Colorado, where he is Professor Adjoint of Physics.

Dr. Branscomb was until recently a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee and the only working scientist ever to be selected from the staff of a Federal laboratory to serve on that committee. He has been employed at the Bureau for 18 years after finishing his formal education. For ten years he directed the Bureau's work on atomic physics, and for the last eight he has been chief of the NBS Laboratory Astrophysics Division in Boulder, Colo., a unit of the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) of which he is chairman. Dr. Branscomb has had many awards, including the Career Service Award of the National Civil Service League in 1968; the Rockefeller Public Service Award, 1957-58; a Gold Medal for Exceptional Service, Department of Commerce, 1961 (for contributions to basic knowledge of atomic processes of stellar atmospheres, terrestrial ionosphere and interplanetary space); the Arthur Flemming Award, District of Columbia Junior Chamber of Commerce, 1962; and the Samuel Wesley Stratton Award (named for the first director of the National Bureau of Standards), Department of Commerce 1966.

On an international scale, Dr. Branscomb has participated over the years in the work of three scientific unions: the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and the International Astronomical Union.

Dr. Branscomb serves as a special consultant to the Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on matters of scientific and technical information. He also continues to be chairman of the Panel on Space Science and Technology of the President's Science Advisory Committee.

He is a former Chairman of the Division of Electron and Atomic Physics of the American Physical Society and is now Editor of Review of Modern Physics.

Establishment of the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) in 1962 was accomplished under an agreement between NBS and the University of Colorado, largely brought about through Dr. Branscomb's efforts.

In scores of scientific publications, he has contributed extensively to the literature on upper atmospheric physics, spectroscopy, photo detachment of negative ions, physics of negative ions, astrophysics, and atomic collisions.

Dr. Branscomb is married to the former Anne Wells of Milledgeville, Ga., an attorney. They have two children, Harvie, 16 and Katharine, 13.

Senator MAGNUSON. Dr. Branscomb, as we see from his biography, has a very distinguished scholastic record. He was educated at Duke and also is another Harvard man. You had a Public Health Service fellowship and you have been a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee and you received several awards in your field. Have you actually worked-I have not read all of this carefully. Have you actually worked permanently in the Federal Government? Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir; since 1951.

Senator MAGNUSON. And what has been your position with the Government?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. I was originally a staff scientist at the National Bureau of Standards.

Senator MAGNUSON. In the Bureau of Standards?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir. I have been a staff member of the Bureau of Standards since that time.

Senator MAGNUSON. And you started there in 1951?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir.

Senator MAGNUSON. Now, you should know a little bit about what this job is all about. What is your conception, briefly for the record, as to the function of the Bureau of Standards?

Mr. BRANSCOMв. I believe the principal function, sir, of the Bureau of Standards is to provide a compatible and accurate system of measurement for the Nation, not only in support of science and technology, but in support of the Nation's economic position and its economic development.

Senator MAGNUSON. You have been chief of the Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the Bureau in Boulder, Colo.?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir.

Senator MAGNUSON. And you list your residence as Boulder?
Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir.

Senator MAGNUSON. We will also put in the record the financial statement of the doctor and his wife. There is some joint property involved, a small amount, and it is the custom of the committee-we would not put this in the record, but we will put it in the files of the committee for anyone to look at if they please.

Now, I wanted to ask you one question. We have had a bill in front of the committee for three sessions of Congress relating to that reference data. It has always been submitted at the request of the Department of Commerce, I guess, who, in turn, did it at the request of the Bureau of Standards.

Are you familiar with that bill?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir. I am quite familiar with it.

Senator MAGNUSON. We have had a great difficulty in the committee in justifying with the committee members the amount of money that was asked to be authorized.

Could you explain this to us a little bit?

Mr. BRANSCOMв. I will be pleased to, sir. One of the small operating units of this program is my responsibility in my laboratory in Boulder. I have some personal professional contact with the nature of the program. I believe it is an exceedingly valuable program whose principal focus is to inject some real quality control into part of the national scientific and technical investment so that it can more readily be made useful to people who want to apply this scientific knowledge.

We invest $2 billion a year in public funds in basic science. That is an exceedingly important investment, but I believe we should not leave it to chance that this investment will be made readily applicable to the Nation's good.

The standard reference data program has, I believe, as its most important aspect, the critical evaluation of scientific information and its preparation in a form that engineers and others who wish to apply it will find easy to use. This is a quite sophisticated and difficult intellectual job, and that scientific work I believe should be borne by the Federal Government just as the Federal Government is supporting the research initially.

I do not believe that the service aspect of the program-that is, just the dissemination in formal publication-is its principal thrust and I support the legislation which encourages the Bureau to use private as well as public means of disseminating information.

Senator MAGNUSON. I think the last request was for $6 million.

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir. I believe that if you examine the total Federal investment in the original research that leads to scientific information and ask how can we make that a more cost effective investment, you will find

Senator MAGNUSON. Why should not your service charges for the use of this when you get it together pay for it?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. I think the service charges can pay for much of the actual dissemination of this information but in some sense if the user charges are paying for the information you are, in effect, asking that the taxpayer pay for it twice.

The original research is by and large carried on both in the public and private sector, most of it by the Federal Government, and I believe it is an investment

Senator MAGNUSON. What fees did you expect to charge if the bill was passed?

Mr. BRANSCOMв. That is a question, I am sorry, sir, I cannot answer because I have not been responsible for the fee-setting policy. Senator MAGNUSON. What fees does the Bureau charge now down there on normal routine, day-to-day work?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. In the standard reference data program?
Senator MAGNUSON. Well, in all programs?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. In our calibration services

Senator MAGNUSON. You are going to be head of it and you ought to know what they charge.

Mr. BRANSCOMB. In the calibration service area I believe we charge for the actual cost of the calibration itself but not for the research that gives us the capability of providing that service.

I think there is an analog in the reference data program.

Senator MAGNUSON. Well, say that I want a product that is tested in the Bureau of Standards and you do so and give me a report. Do I pay for the amount of time used on this product or a flat fee? Mr. BRANSCOмв. You pay for

Senator MAGNUSON. I mean, hours used in looking at the data?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir. I think if it is a regular service that we do repeatedly for many people, then you pay a flat fee which is computed on the basis of experience on the actual cost of conducting the test.

Senator MAGNUSON. And those fees vary?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes. Some tests are more time-consuming than others.

Senator MAGNUSON. One run or one test may cost more than another?

Mr. BRANSCOMв. That is right, sir.

Senator MAGNUSON. How much do you take in every year down there?

Mr. BRANSCOмв. I do not know the exact answer to that. I believe it is a few million dollars.

Senator MAGNUSON. You had better find out if you are going to be head of it.

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir, I shall do that.

Senator MAGNUSON. How much is appropriated for the Bureau every year?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Approximately $35 million.

Senator MAGNUSON. You do not take in anywhere near that?
Mr. BRANSCOMB. It is only a few million. No, sir.

Senator MAGNUSON. Will you put that in the record, how much you take in as against what is appropriated, because the same principle is going to have to apply to this standard reference data? What we try to do with all these agencies is to get them closer to paying their own way when the service is for just special groups.

(The material requested follows:)

Summary of total NBS program (1969 estimate)

Operating program:

NBS appropriations:

Research and technical services.......

RTS (special foreign currency program).

Receipts from other agencies and the public:
Calibrations, testing, and advisory services:
Government....

Public..

Amount

$36, 100, 000

900, 000

1, 709, 000

1, 849, 000

Subtotal, calibrations, testing, and advisory services.
Standard reference materials...

3, 558, 000

2, 300, 000

Sale of documents (clearinghouse for Federal scientific
and technical information).

Gifts and bequests---

Research, development, and supporting services for
other agencies___

Total operating program....

Facilities program (NBS appropriations):

Plant and facilities....

Construction of facilities...

Total, facilities program....

Total, NBS program.........

3, 000, 000 43, 000

20, 175, 000

66,076, 000

2, 441, 000

2, 791, 000

5, 234, 000

71, 310, 000

Mr. BRANSCOMB. I think that is an important principle which I would accept. When we provide a reference data service for a particular user that particular user should pay for the service he receives. When the service is provided for the Nation's scientific and technical capability generally, then it is very difficult to assign the charge to a particular individual and it would be perhaps unfair to make one user bear the burden.

Senator MAGNUSON. Tell us briefly what kind of services you perform. Give us a couple examples.

Mr. BRANSCOMB. In this particular area?

Senator MAGNUSON. In the Bureau.

Mr. BRANSCOMв. One particular area which I think is of great importance is the role we play in the Government's response to the flammable fabrics problem. This is an area that I think should be given serious consideration.

Senator MAGNUSON. For what?

Mr. BRANSCOMB. Standards for consumers' protection.

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