Bills and resolutions receiving some action 1 SUMMARY OF ACTIONS DURING 90th CONGRESS, 1st SESSION, RELATING TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY House Senate Total House Senate Joint Total House Senate Joint Total Obligations Expenditures Obligations Expendi tures 16 9 25 73 72 20 165 14 13 29 40 108 $17.3 $17.1 $16.9 $16.5 1 If a bill or resolution was the subject of hearings, was reported, or was passed, it is counted in this tally. 2 This represents the number of different hearings held, not days devoted to hearings. 3 Committees with 1st session hearings relating to science and technology. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND ASTRONAUTICS, Hon. GEORGE P. MILLER, Chairman, Committee on Science and Astronautics. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Public policy for fostering and applying science and technology and for dealing with their sometimes undesirable effects, grows and changes on many fronts and in many directions. Much of that policy has been forged within the Congress. Much more of that public policy will be shaped by Congress as it assigns financial priorities to the accomplishing of national goals that involve science and technology, their application and impacts. Almost 2 years ago the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Development requested the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress to report on additions and changes to public policy for science and technology during the 89th Congress. The then recently created Science Policy Research Division responded with the report "Science, Technology, and Public Policy During the Eighty-Ninth Congress." This report was so well received that it had to be reprinted. Its success suggested the value of follow-on reports to help Congress keep its finger on the pulse of policy actionsbills, hearings, laws, reports, directives, plans that affect applications of science and technology. Thus the subcommittee requested that reports be prepared for the first and second sessions of the 90th Congress. This report is the first of the follow-on series and covers the year 1967. The report illuminates the two faces of governing science and technology: Fostering science and technology, their resources and applications; and controlling, regulating those applications which interact so strongly with the public interest that Government action becomes necessary. The discussion of these two faces in one report helps us to realize how widespread is the responsibility of the legislative branch. The scientist can focus his efforts in pursuit of new knowledge. The engineer and technologist can concentrate on applying that knowledge. The legislator, however, must be concerned not only with providing a favorable environment and much of the wherewithal for their efforts, but he must also be concerned with the unintended, unexpected side effects. The sections in this report on pollution provide a prime example. It is our hope that this report, its predecessor, and those which will follow can help to reveal more of the interweaving of science and technology in matters of public policy and thereby add to the quality of public decisions which affect our national welfare and our standing in the growing international competition for the minds of men. Sincerely, EMILIO Q. DADDARIO, Chairman, Subcommittee on Science, LETTER OF SUBMITTAL LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE SERVICE, March 19, 1968. Hon. EMILIO Q. DADDARIO, Chairman, Subcommittee on Science, Research and Development, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Last year, after publication of "Science, Technology, and Public Policy During the 89th Congress" by the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Development, you requested the Legislative Reference Service to prepare follow-on reports for 1967 and 1968, the first and second sessions of the 90th Congress. I am pleased now to forward to you the report for 1967, entitled "Science, Technology, and Public Policy During the 90th Congress, First Session-1967." After last year's report was published, we sent it for comment to Federal departments and agencies with strong interests in science and technology. Thoughtful and constructive replies were received from the Departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and State; and from the Bureau of the Budget, Atomic Energy Commission, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution. We appreciate their comments and suggestions which we hope have improved the present report. The suggestions of Dr. Milner B. Schaefer, Science Adviser to the Secretary of the Interior, that some material be added to show the reactions of the scientific community to policy changes, and of the NASA Office of Policy that the arrangement of materials be keyed to specific national goals were welcome and are receiving consideration for the 1968 report. By devoting the second chapter of the present report to congressional interest and involvement in controlling the undesired effects of applied science and technology, the report emphasizes this aspect of government for science and technology which continues to grow in importance. The report is a product of the Science Policy Research Division of the Legislative Reference Service. Dr. Warren H. Donnelly was principal author and had overall responsibility for the report. Mrs. Dorothy Bates furnished material on the international aspects of science policy and compiled the bibliography of science policy literature during 1967. Mrs. Mauree Ayton's appendix on legislation and laws is in part a spinoff from the computer-supported system now being developed in our American Law Division to store, process, and edit synoptic and identifying data on bills and resolutions which have been introduced in the Congress. Mrs. Ayton was able to retrieve |