specific undertakings. Whether NBS' authority would extend to all new programs it initiates to advance the Nation's scientific and technological capabilities will depend on whether the nature and definition of those specific programs fall within the scope of NBS' broad legislative authority. Still, the mandating by the Congress over the last two decades of various specific NBS undertakings has created problems for the Bureau. As pointed out in our February 1980 report 1/ to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and its Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space, although we could find no inconsistency, conflict, or substantial duplication among the various statutes that authorize NBS to perform research, questions have been raised both within and outside the Congress about the problems these mandated activities have caused within NBS. NBS' MANY RESPONSIBILITIES NBS has had problems performing all its required activities due partly to its multifaceted mission and decreasing staff ceiling. Also, statutes have provided little if any guidance concerning the resources that NBS should devote to its multiple functions, and NBS has not established specific criteria for balancing its resources among its functions. To perform its many functions, NBS has sometimes had to reprogram (terminate) ongoing research. The reprogramings may have created problems concerning planning, research continuity, and scientific competence. (See pp. 18 to 20.) The Office of Technology Assessment in a March 1978 report 2/ stated that "NBS' mission is divided and has been expanded beyond the organic act." It pointed out that "Our analysis reveals that the most crucial factor affecting NBS performance is internal and external confusion regarding its role and mission." The report stated that the organic act provides two roles for NBS and mentioned subsequent legislation which (1) specifically directs NBS to perform certain technical activities and (2) directs the Secretary 1/"National Bureau of Standards--Answers to Congressional Concerns" (CED-80-49, Feb. 2, 1980). 2/"Selected Papers on the National Bureau of Standards: A Case Study Within the National Laboratories Assessment" to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. of Commerce to perform certain technical activities which are assigned to NBS. In addition, the report stated that the kinds of activities allowed at NBS were determined by budgetary decisions made by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) or the Department of Commerce. Concerning the NBS technical support functions to other agencies, the report stated that (1) although many believe these functions should derive only from the NBS standards and measurements role, the organic act allows much broader interpretation and (2) subsequent legislation not only utilized this to expand NBS activities beyond standards and measurements but also authorized NBS assistance to the private sector in such areas as flammability research. a result of this "variety of definitions" of its mission, NBS, according to the report, --has had difficulty addressing all the activities --has no clear sense of priority as to which activ- As --is unable to continue to serve as the Nation's LEGISLATIVE MANDATES AND WORK Legislative mandates other than the organic act and the work that NBS does for Federal agencies (other-agency work), about 48 percent of which was also mandated in 1980, have detracted somewhat from NBS' ability to meet its more traditional responsibilities. While NBS' staff ceiling for work funded by all sources has decreased slightly since 1965 from 3,163 to 3,131, its responsibilities and spending for legislative mandates through other agencies have increased sharply. We were asked to answer the following questions concerning NBS' legislative mandates and work that it performs for other agencies. "The Bureau, over the years, has developed into a laboratory guided by its organic act missions and other legislative authorities to perform work for outside agencies. "1. "2. To what extent has manpower and other To what extent have outside non-statutory Legislative mandates As previously mentioned, the Congress in recent years has passed a number of laws giving NBS specific responsibilities for standards and technical functions in addition to the functions authorized under the organic act. These mandated functions have not been carried out without some NBS sacrifice. Because the Congress has not always provided funds to perform these functions, NBS has had to reprogram some of its ongoing base research (about $27 million since 1974) to enable it to meet its legislative responsibilities. This reprograming may have had a negative effect on NBS research capabilities because NES has not been able to develop necessary competencies. (See p. 55.) In addition, long-term basic research has been reduced to some extent to accommodate the shorter term mandated research. Like the NBS multiple mission problem, the problems created by lack of funding for NBS-mandated functions have also been recognized. The 1971 CRS and 1978 OTA reports, as well as the May 1980 House Committee on Science and Technology report authorizing NBS' appropriations for fiscal year 1981, mentioned the mandated activities and some of the resulting problems. For example, the CRS report questions whether the Congress was "being penny-wise in adding to the work of the Bureau In another instance, the report mentions that in recent years a major portion of the NBS appropriated funding increases had been used to fund functions assigned by the various acts and that according to testimony at appropriation hearings, this had adversely affected NBS' capability to meet its traditional statutory responsibilities. The report asks, "Is there a danger that the Bureau's activities will become too thinly spread, leading to management difficulties, and neglect of its basic functions of measurements and standards?" We also noted that NBS in recent years used a major portion of its appropriated funds to carry out functions assigned under various acts. Since 1971, 1/ NBS' and other Federal agency resources provided to NBS and applied to legislative mandates have increased, in constant dollars, 2/ from $1.6 million to $14.7 million (819 percent). Also, staff years spent on this work increased from 50 to 488 (876 percent). However, NBS' direct appropriations, in constant dollars, increased only from $27.8 million to about $31.4 million (13 percent) since 1971. (See app. IV.) The OTA report points out that the addition of the many new mandated programs and the growth of work performed for other agencies without a proportionate increase in staff, resulted in a decline in basic research at NBS. Also, the report stated that (1) many of the mandated programs were reassigned to NBS by Commerce or required that NBS perform work under the direction of a "lead agency" 3/ and (2) NBS had responded to these new assignments by reprograming staff and funds to meet legislative deadlines. The House Committee on Science and Technology's report points out that in those cases where the Congress mandated tasks but did not provide the funds to carry them out, NBS has had to approach the related lead agency for the needed funding if it did not reprogram existing research resources. 1/According to NBS records, very limited spending for mandated work took place before 1971--16 of the 20 mandates affecting NBS were enacted after 1971. 2/Derived from statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. Implicit Price Deflator for Federal Employee Compensation based on 1965 dollars. (See app. IV.) 3/An OMB-designated agency that is charged with a specific mission and is the primary source of funds to support all activities concerning that mission, whether carried out by the agency or by others. Our February 1980 report outlined the problems NBS has experienced with the OMB lead agency policy--that NBS' ability to do its job had been hampered because the lead agency did not always provide funds to NBS. We recommended that, if the Congress decided to amend or revise the NBS organic act, the language make clear the areas in which NBS was to have lead agency responsibility. When the House Committee on Science and Technology authorized NBS' fiscal year 1981 appropriations, it recognized the problems caused by the lead agency policy and the legislatively mandated tasks required of NBS. The committee, for example, reported that the mandated activities have merit in general but not at the expense of ongoing programs. The report further states that specific funding for such mandated activities should be provided either by the lead agency or through congressional authorization and appropriation of such funds to NBS. Similar views on the mandated activities are contained in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation's report on NBS' authorizations for fiscal years 1981 and 1982. NBS work for other Federal agencies Other-agency assignments may have detracted somewhat from NBS' capability to meet its more traditional responsibilities. As previously mentioned, NBS' staff ceiling since 1965 has decreased from 3,163 to 3,131 while NBS has been given more responsibility. Also, NBS' planning, continuity of work, and competence are adversely affected by the emphasis on short-term, other-agency work, of which about 48 percent ($28 million) can be attributed to specific legislative mandates. Funds from other agencies since 1965 have increased in constant dollars from $15.0 million to $21.1 million (41 percent) while NBS' direct appropriations in constant dollars have increased only about 18 percent--from $26.5 million to $31.4 million. (See app. IV.) NBS estimated that during fiscal year 1980, work funded by other organizations, primarily Federal agencies, accounted for about 44 percent (about $72.4 million) of all its work. The percent of other-agency work was reported to be about 45 percent in fiscal year 1979. In NBS' two major laboratories, the National Measurement Laboratory and National Engineering Laboratory, other-agency work in fiscal year 1980 accounted for 29.6 and 54.1 percent, respectively, of |