From: jim@netlink.cts.com (Jim Bowery)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: A Serious Proposal
Date: 6 Apr 92 21:08:34 GMT
Organization: NetLink Online Communications, San Diego CA

I want to thank Mr. Drunken Irishman for providing me with an
opportunity to repost the legislative proposal which he was
parodying:
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TITLE IX -- ESTABLISHMENT OF A SPACE SCIENCE TRUST.
 
SEC. 901. SHORT TITLE
        This Title may be referred to as the "Space Science Trust
Act".
 
SEC. 902. ESTABLISHMENT OF A SPACE SCIENCE TRUST.
        (a) ESTABLISHMENT. -- A Space Science Trust which shall
purchase specified data for a stated price from Eligible Parties
- primarily United States Commercial Providers - is hereby
established.
                (1) The Space Science Trust shall be administered
by the National Science Foundation, which shall designate
appropriate recipients to receive data to be submitted to the
trust.
                (2) The National Academy of Sciences, the
National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine
shall identify general areas of scientific interest where the
type and quality of research results are quantifiable.
                (3) After an appropriate period for public
comment, and consideration and response to the comments recieved,
scientific areas in which the Space Science Trust will operate
will be proposed for Congressional approval.
 
SEC. 903. OPERATION OF THE SPACE SCIENCE TRUST.
        (a) ESTABLISHING THE PRICE LIST.
                (1) The aforementioned organizations shall
compile a list of specific, quantifiable areas of measurement
which have been discussed and proposed in previous studies and
overviews of space science needs.
                (2) Appropriate mechanisms for public comment
will be used to solicit proposed data items to be included in the
trust.
                (3) Specific scientific data of public value will
be enumerated.
                (4) Frequency of measurement and time period over
which measurements are available are criteria to be included in
this enumeration.
                (5) An appropriate dollar amount will be
recommended for association with each item of data through
deliberations of the aforementioned organizations, public
commentary, and appropriate consideration by the various agencies
and departments within the administration which support space
related science.
                (6) Data may have various values associated with
it, depending on the accuracy, precision, and frequency of the
measurement, as well as the time period covered.
                (7) Appropriate values for each item of data
shall be established by Congressional authorization.
        (b) MAINTAINING THE PRICE LIST.
                (1) When appropriate data has been provided to
the government, the price list shall be amended to reflect the
possibly reduced value of replicate measurements.
                (2) A mechanism shall be established to suggest
revaluation addition and deletion of items from the list,
including a due period for public comment.  Such revaluations,
additions, and deletions shall be carried out through
Congressional authorization.
                (3) No downward amendment to a price may take
place after the government has been provided a timeline for an
attempted measurement by an eligible provider, said timeline
including the beginning of space operations within two years,
unless it has become clear that this timeline will not be met.
                (4) If the data requested becomes available from
another source, an item on the list may be deactivated if this is
no in conflict with (3) above.
        (c) OPERATION OF THE TRUST.
                (1) Eligible persons may present specified data
requested by the Space Science Trust to a designated recipient at
any time.
                        (A) Within 30 days of receipt, the trust
shall determine the suitability of the data for its use, and the
exact items it corresponds to.
                        (B) Arrangements for payment of the fee
corresponding to these items shall be made within 30 days of this
determination, but in no case more than 60 days after the data is
delivered.
                (2) Appropriate arrangements will be made for the
rapid publication and distribution of the data received by the
Trust.
                        (A) Data should be available in its
original form, or an appropriate substitute, at appropriate
government documents collections and planetary data centers
within 180 days of its submission to the Trust.
                        (B) Appropriate arrangements shall be
made for the subsequent public distribution of processed data
sets generally acknowledged to be of substantial scientific value
derived from original data submitted to the Trust.
                (3) In cases where the data submitted are not at
all acceptable as satisfying the requirements of any item in the
trust, the trust shall not pay the provider any monies at all. 
There shall be no partial payments on individual items in the
trust, although differing levels of payment may occur through
other mechanisms - e. g. that planetary imagery supplied at high
resolution shall also fulfill the requirements of all lower
resolution imaging data requests which have not yeat been paid
out.
                        (A) Appropriate administrative appeals
processes shall be established to review such determinations
within 180 days of data being submitted to the trust.
                        (B) In no case shall the administrative
appeals process, or the regulations written in support thereof,
delay, hinder or deter the right of any submitter to have
recourse to a common law court at any time.
                        (C) In case of a submitter suing the
Trust, the burden of proof shall be on the Trust to show by a
preponderance of the evidence that the data submitted do not
satisfy the clear requirements listed in the trust at the time
the eligible person announced a schedule to collect such data.
                        (D) In the case of successful suit
against the trust, the plaintiff shall be entitled to recover
legal fees and court costs from the government, as well as the
full value of the payment not properly made, and interest thereon
at commercial rates the plantiff would otherwise have been able
to realize.
                        (E) In the case of suit, the
administrator of the trust must certify to the Science, Space and
Technology Committee of the House of Representatives, and the
Senate committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that his
defense of the suit is valid, and describe its particulars,
within 30 days of receiving notification of the suit.  Failure to
do this shall lead to a directed verdict for the plaintiff in the
trial.
        (d) FUNDING OF THE TRUST.
                (1) Every agency and department conducting space
related activities shall be expected to invest 10% of its budget
for such activities in the Space Science Trust.
                (2) From time to time, the Congress shall
authorize and appropriate monies directly to the trust.
                (3) Any and all monies authorized and
appropriated for space related activities which are not expended
during the period of their authorized use shall be transferred to
the Space Science Trust.
                (4) The Space Science Trust shall qualify as a
tax exempt charity for the purposes of accepting private
donations.
                (5) Targeted donations may be accepted from any
entity to create an item in the trust which the donation funds in
full, and the price for such item shall not be decreased without
returning an appropriate portion of such monies to the donor.
                (6) Funds held by the trust shall be invested in
United States Treasury securities.
                (7) Interest on funds held by the trust shall be
used to increse the offered price for data according to the
producer price index, with any excess used to fund new items or
to increase the price offered for items currently believed to be
undervalued.
        (e) INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION
                (1) Any donor as in subsection (e) 5 above may
expand the definition of parties eligible to be compensated for
provoding the data requested under the item they funded in any
manner they wish, but they may not narrow the definition to
exclude any otherwise eligible party.
                (2) All agencies and departments contributing to
the trust shall be permitted to specify expanded international
eligibility for certain items of interest to them which are to be
funded with their contributions, as long as such expanded
eligibility is consistent with their policies and procedures.
                (3) The State Department shall be authorized to
include expanded definitions of eligibility for any or all items
in the SPace Science Trust in appropriate treaty negotiations and
other foreign policy actions to the extent deemed appropriate and
in the best interests of the United States.
                (4) Any country with which the United States has
a full, free, fair and open trade in space goods and services, as
certified by the United States Trade Representative, may request
inclusion of their domestic, private for profit providers as
eligible parties for all items in the Trust, contingent upon the
foreign government in question making a contribution to the trust
of at least 10% of the amount of money it spends on space
activities.
                (5) No law, regulation, or administrative ruling
shall in any way hinder any eligible party from collaborating
with foreign scientific experts, or purchasing and making use of
foreign space goods and services, as long as the principle
financial risks and rewards of the venture fall primarily upon
the eligible provider.
        (f) RESOLUTION OF INCONSISTENCIES AND CONFLICTS.
                (1) An administrative appeals procedure shall be
established to resolve inconsistencies in the Trust and its
operation.
                (2) Such procedure shall have ample provision to
make use of outside experts, and to request and collect public
input and commentary on the questions being considered.
                (3) No law, regulation, or administrative ruling
shall in any way hinder anyone from resolving inconsistencies in
the Trust and its operation through action in the Federal Space
District Court (created in separate proposed legislation).
        (g) SELECTION AND VALUATOIN OF TRUST ITEMS. -- Specific,
quantifiable measurements of substantial scientific importance
shall be proposed to the National science Foundation by the
National Academy of Sciences, NASA, and other appropriate bodies
and individuals.  The administrator of the fund in consultation
with the National Academies of Science and Engineering, and other
appropriate public or private groups, shall determine the
scientific value of such measurements, and of their independent
confirmation and reconfirmation, and shall associate a dollar
amount with each.  Upon the provision of such data to the
administrator by a United States Commercial provider or other
eligible party (to be determined by the administrator as parties
who would typically be eligible for NSF grant or contract
support) this dollar amount shall be paid to the provider. 
Appropriate adjustments to the dollar amounts associated with the
data may be made from time to time, with the exception that once
the administrator of the fund is informed that an attempt to make
appropriate measurements shall begin within two years (typically
be launched from Earth) the dollar amount shall not be decreased
until after a reasonable period of time has passed for the
measurement to be made and reported.
        (h) INITIAL SELECTION OF TRUST ITEMS. -- The initial data
requested by the space science trust shall be determined by a
careful consideration of the Solar System Exploration Committee
report and the science needs identified in the report of the
National Academy of Science's Space Science Board.
 

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