IP: some items from What's New for Sep 29, 1995

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

AGREEMENT REACHED ON CONTINUING RESOLUTION! TIGHTEN YOUR BELT.
Yesterday, the House approved legislation to keep the government
operating for six weeks beyond tomorrow's deadline while Congress
tries to agree on the remaining 11 (out of 13) spending bills.
The Senate is expected to approve the measure today.  President
Clinton has indicated he will sign it.  The agreement beats a
shutdown, but it reduces the spending rate across the board by up
to 10% relative to FY 95.  Even agencies expecting an increase,
such as NIH and Defense, will be cut 5% during the extension.
Worse, in rewriting the appropriations bills to avoid a veto,
Congress must put money back into programs it zeroed out.  The
tendency will be to take the money from programs that have so far
been spared major cuts -- and that means science (WN 1 Sep 95).


OTA: THE AGREEMENT WON'T HELP -- IT DIES AT MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
Ironically, the first agency to be terminated by the Republican-
controlled Congress was its own advisory body.  It was sacrificed
to demonstrate that in its downsizing of the federal bureaucracy
Congress has not exempted itself.  But it is also symbolic of the
low priority members of Congress accord to objective scientific
information when making legislative decisions.  Congress did
agree to severance pay for OTA employees through November 29.




PRESIDENT CLINTON PLANS MAJOR ADDRESS ON SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY.
Although no one can recall Mr. Clinton mentioning science in past
speeches (WN 28 Jan 94; 3 Feb 95), he is said to be preparing to
use the awarding of the National Science and Technology Medals in
mid October as an occasion to break his silence.