Clinton Establishes Science and Technology Council; Space Station News

One of the major recommendations of Vice President Gore’s National Performance Review (see FYI #151) was implemented on November 23, when President Clinton announced the formation of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). The cabinet-level Council is intended to integrate the President’s science and technology policy across the federal government, and ensure consideration of such issues in all federal policies and programs. Clinton himself will chair the Council, and the membership will comprise Vice President Gore; Jack Gibbons, the President’s Assistant for Science and Technology; the Cabinet Secretaries and agency heads responsible for significant science and technology programs; and other White House officials.

In addition to the NSTC, the President also announced he would reestablish a President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The President will appoint up to 15 members to the Committee, to be drawn from industry, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and other non-federal sources. Clinton’s version appears similar in form to the PCAST under President Bush, which published several reports including the December 1992 “Renewing the Promise: Research-Intensive Universities and the Nation” (see FYI #7 from this year.) Selected portions of Clinton’s statement are quoted below:

“The principle purposes of the NSTC will be to establish clear national goals for federal science and technology investments and to ensure that science, space, and technology policies and programs are developed and implemented to effectively contribute to those national goals.”

“One of the most critical tasks I expect the NSTC to undertake is an across-the-board review of federal spending on research and development. The Council will prepare coordinated R&D budget recommendations for accomplishing national objectives in areas ranging from information technologies to health research, from improving transportation to strengthening fundamental research and international science and technology programs.”

”... Establishing a single, strengthened science and technology policy council within the White House will significantly improve decision making by consolidating and elevating functions previously carried out by a number of separate interagency councils, including the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology, the National Space Council, and the National Critical Materials Council.

“Private sector involvement with the NSTC will be essential to developing successful science and technology policies that help American businesses achieve sustainable growth and create high quality jobs, as well as to maintaining our academic and research institutions’ world leadership in science, engineering, and mathematics. To ensure that federal science and technology policies are reflective of our nation’s needs, today I am also establishing a private sector President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology.”

”...My Administration has premised many of its plans for national revitalization on the concept of public/private partnerships, and my goal for this Committee is to help encourage those partnerships. I will enlist the members’ service in establishing the links to the private sector necessary to help guide federal investments in science and technology toward national goals.

“During the campaign, the Vice President and I declared that U.S. scientific and technological leadership are national priorities. The actions taken by this Administration, for example the National Information Infrastructure initiative, the Clean Car initiative, the Technology Reinvestment Project, and the continued support of fundamental science research, bear witness to this conviction. I believe the National Science and Technology Council, working in close cooperation with the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, will ensure that we sustain and improve our record in these areas so critical to the Nation’s health, well being, and economic competitiveness.”

While reorganizations and bureaucratic shuffling do not necessarily change the status quo, it is possible that, given President Clinton’s more proactive stance on technology policy, these groups might have greater influence than their predecessors.

RECENT NEWS ON U.S.-RUSSIAN SPACE STATION: FYI #149 described the Clinton Administration’s plans for a joint U.S.-Russian space station. According to recent press accounts, on November 29 Clinton and Gore met with influential Members of Congress and gained support for the cooperative station effort. Members present at the meeting included the chairs of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees responsible for NASA, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) and Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio). Key NASA authorizers, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) and Rep. George Brown (D-California), while not at the meeting, are said to support the plan. Congressional appropriators reportedly have agreed to remove restrictions on 1994 NASA funding relating to cooperation with Russia. The congressional support will enable Gore to sign an agreement on the cooperative plan with the Russians during a mid-December trip to Moscow.