Mr. YATES. What all is being funded by other? Mr. HEYMAN. The birthday party, the traveling exhibition are both funded and the CBS specials are all funded by other than appropriated funds. Mr. YATES. Do we know who is funding them? Mr. HEYMAN. Well our four primary partners, our four corporations, TWA, MCI, Intel, and Discover Card. We are busily trying to sign up a couple more, which will assure that we don't have to go into any kind of reserves. Mr. YATES. Are they covering all the costs? Mr. HEYMAN. Yes. All the costs. Mr. REGULA. They each put up $10 million. Mr. HEYMAN. That's right. Also if need be, we'll have the availability of our share of the coin receipts once the coin is distributed, hopefully in August. I thank you all for all of the work you did. Mr. YATES. What do you mean by the coin receipts? Mr. HEYMAN. These are the commemorative coins, Congressman Yates. Mr. YATES. Oh I see. I thought it was admission charges. Mr. HEYMAN. No, no, no. That's the surcharge that comes to us. So I hope we'll have enough funding to really go through with this. ARTRAIN Mr. REGULA. The Artrain is being sponsored at least in part by the private sector, is it not? Mr. HEYMAN. Oh yes. But you know, the Artrain itself is run by a Michigan foundation. It happens that this year, the content of the Artrain is largely Smithsonian, so they are traveling our pictures. As we know, they will be in Wooster. It's going to be elsewhere in Ohio, too, but I can't remember where. Mr. REGULA. Sydney. Mr. HEYMAN. In Sydney, Ohio. Mr. YATES. Is the Artrain a part of your 150th? Mr. HEYMAN. Well, we're counting everything special. Mr. YATES. But it isn't part of the exhibit itself? Mr. HEYMAN. No. That's right. It's completely separate from the exhibition. Mr. REGULA. Describe it a little bit for Mr. Yates. Mr. YATES. Have you seen the Artrain? Mr. REGULA. No. Mr. HEYMAN. I don't know what's on it, but I'll find out. Mr. YATES. You haven't seen it? Mr. HEYMAN. No. I haven't seen it at all. It's an exhibition SITES put together. I haven't seen it. Mr. YATES. SITES put together from your various exhibits? Mr. YATES. I wondered whether Mr. HEYMAN. The national tour is being sponsored by Chrysler Corporation I see in the press release by the Artrain itself. The Smithsonian Associates are involved with this. They began commissioning art works to commemorate Smithsonian Institution events. The scope of the collection has grown to include events of national significance. Examples of works include Mindy Weisel's Flowers for a Country, which is a 1991 painting commemorating the end of the Persian Gulf War. Lowell Nesbitt's History of Flight, celebrating the opening of the National Air and Space Museum, Luis Cruz Azaceta's Fragile Crossing, marking the quincentennial of Columbus' voyage to America. Other art in the celebration includes Alexander Calder, Elizabeth Catlett, Chihuly, de Looper, Gilliam, Lawrence, Mejia, O'Keeffe, et cetera. Mr. YATES. Don't skip over Nancy Graves, who just died. Mr. YATES. She's a wonderful sculptor. Mr. HEYMAN. Yes. In any event, that gives you a sense of what this is. Mr. YATES. You've got wonderful artists on this. Mr. HEYMAN. Absolutely wonderful. Mr. YATES. Has the American Family Association seen this? Mr. REGULA. I can't answer that. How many cities are you going to go to, 100 is it? Ms. NEWMAN. Thirty communities. Mr. HEYMAN. That's 30 communities it will be at. Mr. REGULA. Thirty? The Artrain? Ms. NEWMAN. It will stay in each town one week. Mr. HEYMAN. It will stay in each place one week. We have a list of all the places. Mr. YATES. How do you do it? Do you go off on a spur track at the places where it's supposed to go? Mr. HEYMAN. It goes off on a spur track. The railroads that are involved in each of the locations are subsidizing the traveling of the show itself, and providing the space for it to be stopped. Mr. YATES. And the public goes through the train? Mr. HEYMAN. That is correct. Mr. YATES. By any chance do you have pictures of the way in which you have done the train? Mr. HEYMAN. You see, we haven't done it. It really is a separate corporation, a non-profit that does it. I don't have pictures with me, but we surely can get them. Mr. YATES. Well I don't mean pictures of the pictures, but I mean how Mr. HEYMAN. No, no. Pictures of how it's done. Mr. YATES. How it's done. Sounds like it is fascinating. Are you getting crowds? Ms. NEWMAN. Yes. It was very full when it was here in Washington. Mr. HEYMAN. Oh that's right. It was here in Washington. I now recall it. It was very well attended here. I think it's a grand success in terms of the numbers of people who come. Mr. YATES. Does that have a catalogue too? Mr. HEYMAN. I'm sure it does. Mr. YATES. Could you provide that? Mr. HEYMAN. I certainly will. Mr. REGULA. I think there are five cars, one for the staff, and three or four of the cars carry the actual exhibit, as I recall. Mr. YATES. Security must be a problem, isn't it? Mr. HEYMAN. I would suppose so. One of the reasons for my hesitancy in answering these questions is really the project itself is or ganized by somebody else. The contents of the project this time are Smithsonian pictures. But we don't travel it. It's not our train. Mr. YATES. Who organized it? Mr. HEYMAN. It is a foundation in Michigan, I believe, a not-forprofit that was founded in 1971 by the Michigan Council for the Arts to provide art exhibitions and cultural programs to communities in Michigan. In 1973, Artrain traveled outside of Michigan for the first time and toured eight states. Artrain was incorporated as its own not-for-profit corporation in 1975. Mr. YATES. Do you know whether it has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts? Mr. HEYMAN. I don't know. But I would be surprised if it hadn't. THE YATES RULE Mr. REGULA. Under the so-called Yates rule, a rule that was established many years ago, agencies coming before the committee should not ask another agency funded by the subcommittee for money. Well I don't know, if it applies as this is an outside corporation. Mr. HEYMAN. I understand that. But this isn't Mr. YATES. As far as I'm concerned, the Yates Rule can be repealed. As of this moment, we'll consider it repealed. Mr. HEYMAN. Please put that on the record, Mr. Yates. [Laughter.] Mr. YATES. I will be glad to. I'm in conversation with Chairman Regula referring to the so-called Yates Rule under which agencies appearing for their appropriations before the Interior Subcommittee were precluded from asking other government agencies funded in the Interior bill for grants. The theory was that if they needed money, they should come to the committee for their money rather than going to other agencies for the needed funds. As of this moment, I think conditions have changed a great deal. I suspect that this is the time to repeal the Yates Rule. Chairman Regula and I have voted in accord to repeal it. David Skaggs, I take it is favorable to it. Mr. SKAGGS. I'd like to think about this. [Laughter.] Mr. YATES. I suspected that. Mr. REGULA. You might be interested to know that the communities that are getting Artrain also put in some money as a prerequisite to help pay the expenses. In our case, Wooster, Ohio and RubberMaid Corporation are supporting that project. I'm sure this is true in the other 30 communities that are going to get the train as well. We have digressed a bit this morning, but this is part of the fabric of the Smithsonian. So, Mr. Secretary, we'll go forward. SMITHSONIAN ELECTRONIC OUTREACH Mr. HEYMAN. Let me just mention a couple more things about outreach that are not absolutely new, but they are at a much greater scale than previously. The whole electronic outreach on the Internet now is a very substantial program. Mr. YATES. Would you explain to the Members of the Committee what Internet is? Mr. REGULA. And also what you are doing, because I think the program that is going to be part of the school system in the 16th District is a good example of the outreach that you are doing. Mr. YATES. Some of us haven't grown up with computers. Mr. HEYMAN. Well, it's really just a series of interconnections, basically. Mr. YATES. On computers? Mr. HEYMAN. On computers that permit us to post a bunch of information, in this case about 35 or 40 hours on something called a Home Page of the Smithsonian, and invite anybody who has the address or can find us through some index to come to and view what we have put on the Internet. So anybody who has a computer and a modem, and thus can get into the system itself, which is possible to do, has the opportunity to see whatever is on the Internet. We have one of the largest sites on the Internet. Now in terms of Mr. YATES. How can we see that? I mean we have three or four computers in our office. Mr. HEYMAN. We would be happy to come over and tune it in for you. Mr. YATES. Do you need a computer of a certain value or strength in order to see this exhibition? Mr. HEYMAN. Well, if you have a more powerful one, you can see graphics much more easily and much more rapidly. But words can be viewed and received through computers of lesser power. Mr. YATES. We don't have the machines to do it in my office. We'll have to go over to the Smithsonian. Mr. HEYMAN. In fact, you could probably visit this in the Speaker's office, because when we went on the Internet Mr. YATES. The Speaker has access to certain things that ordinary members don't. [Laughter.] Mr. HEYMAN. We'll be very pleased to bring one over with a modem and give you a demonstration in your office, if you'd like that. Mr. REGULA. Let me suggest that we'll arrange a demonstration for the Committee, and set it up in here. Mr. HEYMAN. We would just be delighted. Mr. REGULA. I think that, plus what you are doing in the outreach to schools is really significant in terms of sharing the Smithsonian on a very broad scale. I think as part of a demonstration, you could illustrate what you are doing. We had this three State project on interaction with schools. Mr. HEYMAN. Right. We have a project right now called Natural Partners. It's at the Natural History Museum. It's making available lectures, where curators and other scholars, from three places, from Natural History, from the Zoo, and to some extent from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, lecture. They have materials. The first one was on squids. These are received in classrooms now in three states: Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, and soon to open in Ohio. Then it's interactive, because teachers and school children in the classrooms receiving this can ask questions of the lecturer. There will be discussion in real time between the lecturer and those inquiring. So it's the beginning of more and more activity where you can really bring into classrooms activities that are occurring elsewhere. You really can have discussion on real time with regard to whatever the subject matter of the class is about. It gets better and better technically so you have fewer glitches and the quality of the images and the speed with which they can be received increases. It's obviously the wave of the future in terms of communication. Now there are maybe 30 million people ready to receive this. Five to 10 years from now, when there is a coalescence of television and this kind of technology, it will be what television has become. Mr. YATES. No way you can move it up? I don't know that I'll be here in 10 years. Mr. HEYMAN. Well I feel similarly. [Laugher.] Mr. YATES. You're a kid. LOANS OF COLLECTIONS Mr. HEYMAN. Well, those are the kinds of things we're doing. I could mention more and more in the written statement, but I do want you to know that all of the kinds of things I am talking about, trying to get the Smithsonian out and not only in Washington, is very high on the agenda of the Institution. We're going to keep working on this. We're going to work on it in the potentiality of affiliations with museums, thus heightening the potentiality of loans of materials. Actually, we loan an awful lot of material now, most of it small. Most of it is coming from Natural History. Most of it is for research. But we're beginning to loan more artifacts of size, which both gets us out and makes our collections more accessible and helps now in a minor way, but hopefully in a major way in the future in terms of collection storage and care. SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH So those things are going on. But I don't want you to think that we're not continuing with a very vital research program because we are. As we all know in this room, the Smithsonian has been both a research institution, as well as an exhibiting and museum institution. Given my background, I think about it in terms of museums as the education and the research is the research. So it looks a lot like a university setting. Thus, Dennis and I feel very much at home in it. Mr. REGULA. I see in your statement that you had pioneered on the yew tree, which produces taxol, which of course has become an important drug in the fight against cancer. Mr. HEYMAN. That's right, sir. In addition to that, we're doing some very innovative work I gather in the kinds of gases that are used in MRIs. Dennis, you know something about that. Perhaps you could Mr. O'CONNOR. Mr. Chairman, the significance of the yew tree is that not only is the concentration of the taxol-like drug higher, it can be harvested without sacrificing the tree. The other point that the Secretary mentioned, up at the SAO, the Astrophysics Laboratory in Cambridge, we're doing some work with what are called noble gases. They are stable gases such as xenon and helium. We are finding that when they are inhaled or placed in body cavities, |