From: rsherme@diamond.nswc.navy.mil (Russel Shermer (R43))
Subject: fyi #123: Senate Approves Station Funding, Status of Other Bills
Organization: NAVSWC DD White Oak Det.
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 14:23:55 GMT

Posted for:
Public Information Division
American Institute of Physics
Contact:  Richard M. Jones
Phone: (202) 332-9661
Email: fyi@aip.org



Senate Approves Station Funding, Status of Other Bills

FYI No. 123, September 9, 1992

Congress returned to Washington this week with the perhaps
unrealistic hope that it can adjourn for the year by October 3.
First and foremost on its agenda are the twelve remaining
"must-pass" appropriations bills to fund the operations of the
federal government after September 30.  There are, however, a
number of important bills which Congress may also complete.  Any
legislation not enacted before adjournment must be reintroduced
next year.  The following is a brief summary of bills of interest
to the physics community:

SPACE STATION; VA, HUD, INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL:
Today the Senate, during consideration of H.R. 5679, funding NSF
and NASA, defeated an amendment to kill the space station.  The
63-34 vote came on an amendment by Senator Dale Bumpers
(D-Arkansas) to delete all but $500 million from the $2.1 billion
contained in the bill for the space station.

SSC; ENERGY AND WATER APPROPRIATIONS BILL:  House and Senate
conferees have been named, clearing the way for the drafting of a
final bill (H.R. 5373) providing money for the Department of Energy
for fiscal year 1993.  Funding for the SSC will be the most
contentious matter in this legislation.

NUCLEAR WASTE:  Negotiations are continuing on reconciling the
differences between House and Senate bills (H.R. 2637, S. 1671)
approving DOE storage of defense-related nuclear waste at the Waste
Isolation Pilot Project.   Differences to be resolved include
environmental restrictions on the project and compensation to the
State of New Mexico and local governments.

NATIONAL ENERGY STRATEGY:  Major differences remain between H.R.
776 and S. 2166 over uranium enrichment, electric utility
restructuring, natural gas production controls, and cars burning
non-gasoline fuels.  An indication of this legislation's
complexity: over 130 conferees are working on a final bill.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT FUNDING:  There is a major conflict in the
Senate over defense spending for fiscal year 1993.  Earlier this
summer the House passed both DOD authorization and appropriations
bills (H.R. 5006, H.R. 5504), providing up to $11 billion less than
the administration requested.  The Senate debated a DOD
authorization bill (S. 3114) cutting $7.8 billion; final action on
this legislation stalled.  If the Senate passes S. 3114 the two
authorization bills will differ by $4 billion.  There is
speculation that Congress will favor a final appropriations bill
which leans towards providing enough money for constituent
interests.

SDI: The House approved $4.3 billion of the administration's $5.4
billion SDI request.  No money was included for space-based
weapons.  The Senate is ready to consider an amendment to cut SDI
funding to $3.3 billion.  SDI supporters have asked President Bush
to veto any defense funding bill (see above paragraph) if SDI
suffers a large cut.

STRATEGIC ARMS REDUCTION TREATY (START): The Senate is considering
a resolution of approval for the START treaty submitted by
President Bush last year.  The administration opposes a provision
inserted in the resolution by Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware)
calling for foreign inspection of nuclear arsenals.

NUCLEAR TESTING: There is considerable jockeying over setting
conditions for limited testing before a moratorium would be
imposed.

SOVIET AID: After much negotiating between House leaders and the
White House, a multi-billion package was passed by both the House
and Senate.  Details in the two bills, H.R. 4547 and S. 2532 are
still to be resolved, with prospects for final passage favorable.


PLEASE NOTE: The FYIs providing historical tables of physics
funding have attracted attention.  In response to an inquiry, we
called the National Science Foundation to obtain clarification
about what is included under "basic" and "applied" research
funding.  NSF does NOT include "R&D Plant" costs (including
acquisition and construction of facilities) in their tables broken
down by discipline.  An aggregate, "bottom line" figure, by
discipline, is not available from NSF.

In FYI #120, data on the number of working physicists was
attributed to a survey done by AIP for the National Research
Council.  The data was compiled by AIP from the results of an NRC
survey.


###############
Public Information Division
American Institute of Physics
Contact:  Richard M. Jones
(202) 332-9661
##END##########
Newsgroups: sci.research