****************************** WASHINGTON FAX ********************************
August 6, 1999
NEAL LANE CALLS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY TO ARMS HOUSE FUNDING BILLS
WOULD DECIMATE CIVILIAN R&D, SAYS OSTP CHIEF
"Proposed R&D funding levels threaten the economic future of this country" and
"the GOP tax cut plan would require cutting roughly 50 percent from all domestic
government programs-including science and technology-jeopardizing the future
well-being of our children and grandchildren," said White House science advisor
Neal Lane.
With its "bloated" tax cut "not only is Congress risking a return to deficit
spending and threatening Social Security and Medicare reform, they are failing to
invest in the innovative capacity that gives the United States its competitive
edge in the global economy, Lane said. Lane, who is director of the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has called a White House meeting
next week where senior OSTP leaders and representatives from the Office of
Management and Budget and the National Economic Council will meet with S&T
leaders and representatives from non-government R&D organizations to discuss
budget cuts and what can be done about House appropriations bills he said are
"decimating" the president's R&D budget request.
In a statement issued today, Lane called for a unified effort by the S&T
community to turn the situation around, saying, "All of us have a duty-to
ourselves, to our children, to future generations-to ensure that Congress does
the right thing by enacting a strong, farsighted science and technology budget."
"Scientists and engineers constitute one of the largest, most valuable, yet least
heard constituencies in America," he said. "I am confident that this situation
can be turned around if America's research community makes its strong voice heard
in the days ahead; otherwise, if such cuts are allowed to stand, we will all be
leading lesser lives in a lesser land," Lane said in a spirit reminiscent of
speeches he gave when he was National Science Foundation director urging various
branches of science not to let their funding anxieties make them "circle the
wagons and shoot inward."
According to an OSTP fact sheet, compared to the president's proposed S&T
investment, congressional spending so far for FY 2000 is down in civilian R&D
($1.8 billion), university research (NSF $275 million and DOE $116 million),
space exploration ($1 billion) and environmental protection, where energy
research programs were cut.
And at a time when information technology is accounting for one-third of U.S.
economic growth, and produces jobs that pay 50 percent more than the private
sector average, says OSTP, the House has cut the administration's long-term IT
initiative by 70 percent: NSF $111 million DoD $40 million NASA $18 million and
DOE down $75 million for high-end computing and Next Generation Internet.
End of Forwarded Message