The Precarious Life of Science in the White House

Abstract

As executive officer of the President's Science Advisory Committee and assis tant to all six Presidential Science Advisers, I was involved, for some twenty years, with and technology policy development in the White House and Ex ecutive Office of the President. From this prospective, it is clear that the and technology advisory function must be carried out in close interaction with the Presidential decision-making process. Such interaction has resulted in many impor tant benefits that could not otherwise have been realized. Yet, in the course of successive administrations and changing national concerns, experience has also shown that these benefits are dependent on the environment in which the and technology function is exercised. To assess the implications of recent changes in the White House and technology functions and their future evolution, one must view them in a historical perspective as part of the changing overall environ ment of policy and program formulation at the Presidential level. Early in 1973, President Nixon sent a Reorganization Plan to the Congress to abolish the Office of Science and Technology in the Executive Office of the Presi dent. About the same time, he terminated the White House post of Science Adviser and accepted the pro forma resignations of the members of the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). The civilian functions of the Office of Science and Technology (OST) were transferred to the Director of the National Science Foun dation (NSF), and the security functions to the National Security Council (NSC). Thus, in one fell swoop, the President eliminated the entire White House and technology mechanism that had been painstakingly erected in the years following the Soviet Sputnik in 1957. Unfortunately, the President's action did not reflect a careful assessment of the strengths and weaknesses, past ac complishments and future potential of the and technology mechanism in the White House. Rather, it appeared to be the result of a hasty decision taken on the basis of general considerations. Although the action stimulated little reaction at the time, a tide of questions has arisen in recent months as to the rationale underlying it. There have been hearings by the House Science and Astronautics Committee, and various bills introduced in Congress which would establish special organizations in the White House to deal with and technology?a Science and Technology Resources Council, for ex ample, a Solar Energy Research Council, and a Biom?dical Research Panel in the Office of the President.1 The energy crisis has fueled these second thoughts as to the wisdom of the science on tap but not on top attitude of the Administration. The creation of an 115