Academe defends its role in Test Ban Treaty monitoring

Abstract

Recent jockeying for control of congressional seismic research funds has left the U.S. scientific research community uneasy about future cooperation with the federal government in the development of comprehensive nuclear test ban monitoring systems.Even though the language in a Defense authorization bill for fiscal year 1995, which cleared the Senate June 30, will likely be toned down in the House and Senate conference, the “aggressive” maneuvering that ensued to tentatively dispose the bulk of power over the interagency seismic network to the Defense Department, critics say, raises new questions about how science policy decisions are made in the United States and how committed the Congress and some federal agencies are to “reinventing” government under the Clinton‐Gore plan. And for now, a hefty chunk of funding for academic seismic research is no longer a sure thing.