missioner of Patents to present to the Congress advanced programs for the protection of patent holders or for the full utilization of patent information and techniques which would contribute materially to the development of the science activities of the Government. It has been suggested that this section of the bill should eliminate the administration of trademarks so that this service would continue to be under the control of the Secretary of Commerce, since this function is not directly related to science or technology and is concerned primarily with industry and commerce. Consideration should be given to the adoption of such a perfecting amendment.* Office of Technical Services Subsection (b) of section 107 would transfer to the Department of Science and Technology all of the functions of the Secretary of Commerce now being administered through the Office of Technical Services, as well as all other related functions vested in that department under the provisions of the act of September 9, 1950. This subsection also provides that the Office of Technical Services be elevated to the status of a bureau in order that it may be organized properly to assume expanded functions as provided in the bill. Objective The Bureau of Technical Services would be authorized, under the supervision of the Secretary, to establish a complete science information program. Most of the functions prescribed in the bill are already vested in the Secretary of Commerce, but, according to information available to the staff, the authority has not been fully utilized. These authorizations are proposed to be reenacted in S. 3126, in order to place special emphasis on congressional intent and to expand these and related functions on a level necessary to meet current needs.3 This section of the bill also proposes to vest in the Secretary of Science and Technology, and, through him, in the Bureau of Technical Services, additional authority to encourage and arrange for the declassification of scientific information when determined to be in the national interest and consistent with security requirements. Although recognizing the need for setting up proper machinery to accomplish this objective, the general standards and limitations with respect to preserving the security classification of any scientific or technical information coming under the control of the Department, as prescribed under the provisions of the act of September 9, 1950, have been retained. In the view of the staff they are now unnecessarily restrictive, but must be fully evaluated before any specific language is included for amendments to modify them, in the interest of security. It is proposed, therefore, that consideration be given to the establishment of a Board of Evaluation, either within the Department or the Bureau, in order that review and advisory powers on classification of scientific data may be fully vested in the Secretary of the new Department, and information which is of value to other departments of the Government, and to scientists, shall be made available without the continuation of unnecessary classification restrictions. The objective of such a provision would be to encourage the removal of many of the stiffling security restrictions, which may have the effect See proposed amendment No. 5, p. 57. of preventing American scientists, educators, and officials of our own Government from obtaining scientific information and data which is already in the possession of scientists and officials of all potential foreign aggressor nations. In considering this problem, it may be necessary for the committee to recommend appropriate amendments to basic acts authorizing classification or declassification, which would tend to encourage the agencies primarily responsible for the classification of such information-the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense to establish similar boards, or to improve upon the operations of any existing declassification procedure, in order that effective cooperation between these agencies may be insured. Collation and dissemination of scientific information Subsection (b) (4) proposes to give the Bureau added responsibility for the development and utilization of the latest mechanical aids and new devices for collating, translating, abstracting, indexing, storing, and retrieving scientific and technological information under the control of the Federal Government, and to coordinate such data available from other sources. Objective In carrying on these and other functions as now vested in the Department of Commerce, the Office of Technical Services, or the proposed Bureau of Technical Services, provision is made that the Bureau may supplement and support services provided by nonGovernment sources in the field of assimilating and disseminating scientific information. Certain private translating and abstracting agencies and centralized scientific libraries have raised the question as to whether this should be a function of the Federal Government, or whether it would be preferable that this program be carried out under an independent centralized indexing agency established by and with the financial support of private industry and the Government. It is understood that the major abstracting services have agreed to join together in a centralized federation to perform these services, which proposal should be carefully considered by the Congress. This is a matter of policy, which is treated in detail in the section of this memorandum dealing with areas of controversy on proposed transfers from the Department of Commerce.8 At the invitation of the Council on Documentation Research and Western Reserve University, some 120 representatives of organizations interested in documentation and information services in science and technology met in Cleveland, Ohio, on February 3-4, 1958, to consider a plan for the creation of a national center for the coordination of scientific and technological information. As a result of this discussion, it was recommended that the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, be requested to appoint an ad hoc committee to study the problems developed at the conference and to formulate a plan which would meet with the approval of and insure the general support of the Federal Government, the professions involved, and the industries affected. Additional authority would be provided to the Bureau of Technical Services to undertake, through the facilities available to the Secretary, including education and scientific research institutions and private libraries, the establishment of such additional services as may be required to further scientific, engineering, and technological research and to aid in the development of inventions, discoveries, products, processes, and techniques. It is contemplated that an organization would be established within the Bureau with the function of evaluating patent applications, patents, inventions, and various techniques which might, if fully developed and disseminated, contribute to the advancement of science and technology. This proposal was thoroughly evaluated by this committee (then the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments) in the 80th Congress, in connection with its consideration of S. 493, a bill to provide for the coordination and dissemination of technological and scientific information, and for the more efficient and orderly administration of a program to make the discoveries of engineers, inventors, and technicians more readily available to American industry and business. After hearings, which continued for 10 days during May 1947, the committee reported an abbreviated bill which was approved by the Senate but failed of final action in the House of Representatives. In the succeeding Congress, a substitute version of S. 493, as originally introduced, was approved as The Technological and Scientific Act of 1950, on September 9, 1950.10 This act, while not carrying out the original objectives of the bill as reported by this committee, did, nevertheless, authorize the Secretary of Commerce to establish a central clearinghouse for technical information. The act, however, restricted its use primarily for the benefit of American industry and business, with too little emphasis on the necessity for assembling, translating, analyzing, abstracting, and disseminating scientific data from foreign sources. The act also omitted any provisions for the development of patents, new technology, or techniques. The immediate objective of the committee in reporting S. 493 in the 80th Congress was to enable the Secretary of Commerce to set up the necessary machinery to evaluate fully the vast amount of technical data and scientific information assembled earlier by representatives of the United States Government following behind the Army of Occupation in Germany during and immediately after the close of World War II, so that it could be made available to American industry. The bill further provided that, if an examination by competent scientists skilled in the fields to which the seized documents related, found that these documents offered a means of promoting advancements in science and technology, appropriate steps would be taken to have such data translated, abstracted, developed, and disseminated for industrial use. The bill further provided in specific terms for the evaluation of patents, inventions, and various techniques. If it were determined that information obtained abroad or from domestic sources had potential scientific or technological value, the OTS would have been authorized to have it developed for industrial use. This provision would have authorized the use of the facilities of governmental or private research laboratories for the evaluation and utilization of such See p. 167 of pt. II for further details. 10 S. 868, H. Rept. 2356, Public Law 776, 81st Cong. technology as was developed with Federal funds to be made available for this purpose. Subsection 107 (b) would implement this program in general terms and would enable the Secretary of Science and Technology to provide for better protection to holders of patents as well as encourage the development of the full potential and utilization of all patent informa tion. National Bureau of Standards Under subsection (c) (1) of section 107, the National Bureau of Standards would be transferred to the Department, together with all of its functions, which would be administered under the supervision and control of the Secretary. Objective The National Bureau of Standards was originally created in 1901, primarily to establish standards of weights and measures. Its functions were expanded when the Department of Commerce was created on March 4, 1913, in order to enable it to perform additional services for industry and commerce. Since that time it has further expanded its scope of operations to include the development of programs in research in the physical sciences. These programs were initiated primarily at the request of other Federal agencies or under contracts from industry, without any specific guidance or control from the Secretary of Commerce. There has apparently been little or no evaluation of the functions of the NBS in relation to new scientific and technological developments by the Department of Commerce, which is primarily concerned with carrying on its other functions in economics, business, industry, transportation, and services related to commerce generally. As has been indicated in the case of the Patent Office, the NBS has not had a full opportunity to present its own program or needs directly to the Congress, nor has the Director been provided with adequate authority to develop scientific programs or to eliminate from the Bureau activities which have reached an operating status and should no longer be continued under its control. The staff, therefore, after consultation with informed persons concerning the operations of the Bureau, recommended that the Bureau of Standards be taken out of the Department of Commerce, and that certain of its activities which have now reached the operating stage, such as the radio and cryogenic laboratories at Boulder, Colo. (subsec. 107 (c) (2)), should be set up as separate operating components within the proposed new Department. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION Section 108 provides for the transfer of the Atomic Energy Commission to the proposed new Department, where it would continue to exercise its functions subject to the supervision and direction of the Secretary. The bill also provides that the Atomic Energy Commission be changed to the Atomic Energy Administration. The generally accepted nomenclature in the Federal Government normally indicates that a commission is an agency which performs regulatory and quasijudicial functions, whereas an administration is an operating com ponent at a level higher than a bureau or service status. The objective in proposing a change in the nomenclature in the designation of this agency is to bring about better uniformity and to clearly identify the nature of its operating status. Objective Practically all officials and scientists consulted in connection with the drafting of the proposed legislation were of the opinion that, if the Congress approved the creation of a Department of Science and Technology, the present Atomic Energy Commission should be one of its principal components. These authorities took the view that it should continue as a civilian operation outside of the Department of Defense, as already determined by the Congress, which status would remain unchanged if transferred to the proposed new Department, except that it would be administered under the general supervision and direction of the Secretary. TRANSFERS FROM SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Section 109 of the bill provides that all of the operating functions of the Smithsonian Institution, except those relating to the operation of museums, for which it was originally created by private funds, and of the Washington Zoo, should be transferred to the new Department. The functions proposed to be transferred from the Smithsonian Institution to the Department of Science and Technology include: The Division of Astrophysical Research, the Division of Radiation and Organisms, certain functions relating to the Canal Zone biological area, and certain functions relating to the exchange of scientific publications being administered through the International Exchange Service. Any other functions of the Smithsonian Institution determined by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to relate primarily to scientific research would also be transferred by the bill. Objective The objective of this section is to coordinate these activities, either through the creation of appropriate components within the new Department, or through the transfer of such functions to other components of the Department. Authorities consulted regarding this section of the bill generally agreed that if a Department of Science and Technology were to be created, these functions should not be carried on through an agency such as the Smithsonian Institution, originally endowed by private funds for museum purposes, but should be brought under the direct supervision of the Secretary in order that they may be properly coordinated with other science activities of the Department. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS Sections 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, and 115 relate to general authority required in connection with the establishment and operation of a new department. They involve the transfer of personnel; the continuation of existing rules and regulations effective at the time of the transfer until modified, superseded, or repealed; expenditure authorization; reports to Congress; statutory and departmental succession; appropriation authorization; and the effective date of the various sections contained in title I. |