cessful program has remained (described in Part 

 I). In \95?i. the necessity for high-quality work 

 was well defined for the Secretary of Commerce 

 by an ad hoc committee: "The standards, the 

 measurements, the test procedures must be the 

 very best, the most accurate, the most reliable 

 that can possibly be achieved at any given time, 

 limited only by the state of the art at the 

 time.'"'" 



NBS has excellent modern facilities in Gaithers- 

 burg. Md., and a much smaller laboratory .in Boul- 

 der, Colo., on premises shared with NOAA and Te- 

 lecommunications laboratories. Also in Boulder is 

 the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics 

 (JILA), an imaginative and highly successful opera- 

 • tion run for the last 15 years in compliance with a 

 Memorandum of Understanding between NBS and 

 the University of Colorado. JILA is a small laborato- 

 ry with about 30 to 40 scientists from NBS and from 

 the University. (Its unique mode of governance was 

 discussed in Part U, Chapterl.) This laboratory 

 does research in physics and astrophysics and on 

 new units and fundamental standards. It is funded 

 by NBS and the University, but the high quality of 

 the talent available there has brought funds to the 

 University from ERDA, ARPA, and NSF.'^S 



Economic Development Administration 



EDA was established in 1965 by the Secretary 

 of Commerce to carry out most of the provisions 

 of the Public Works and Economic Development 

 Act of 1965. For 1977, it estimates $1.7 million in 

 obligations for basic research in economics. '^"^ 

 This year EDA initiated a program of bringing in 

 scholars for one-year periods, chiefly under the 

 Intergovernmental Personnel Act, whereby pay- 

 ment of the scholar's salary is shared by his or her 

 home university and EDA. This provides an in- 

 stant small staff of highly qualified economists to 

 study selected problems. '^O 



National Fire Prevention and Control 

 Administration 



This Administration was established by the 

 Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974. 



'^'A report to the Secretary of Commerce by the Ad Hoc Com- 

 mittee for Evaluation of the Present Functions and Operations of 

 the National Bureau of Standards, October 15, 1953. p. 4. 



""Evaluative Panel of the National Research Council. "An 

 Evaluative Report on the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astro- 

 physics," in An Evaluative Report on the Institute for Basic 

 Standards. NBS. Fiscal Year 1976 (NAS: Washington, DC, 

 1977), pp. 55-60. 



'WFeder.1/ Funds. Vol. XXVI. NSF 77-3 17. Tables C-.W and C- 

 46. 



'•♦"Communications from EDA to NSB statT, September 1977. 



It is the lead agency for all fire prevention and 

 control activities, but its own research focuses on 

 inhabited buildings. The 1977 budget is estimated 

 to be $3.1 million in obligations for basic research 

 being performed at NBS. Most of this research 

 appears to be in physical sciences and engineering. 

 The $1.7 million extramural basic research pro- 

 gram is principally administered through grants to 

 universities. Work is apparently done in psychol- 

 ogical sciences, physical sciences, engineering, 

 and education, and it probably includes some inter- 

 disciplinary research (reported as "other sci- 

 ences"). I'll 



Maritime Administration 



The last of the major basic research sponsors in 

 Commerce is MarAd, with estimated obligations 

 of $1.4 million for 1977. The figures reported to 

 NSF indicate that only 2 percent is intramural; the 

 remainder is assigned to industry for research in 

 engineering. '42 The 2 percent intramural must not 

 include administrative costs for contract research 

 because MarAd does some basic operations re- 

 search at its Computer-Aided Operations Re- 

 search Facility (CAORF). The Maritime Transpor- 

 tation Research Board (MTRB) of the NRC has 

 noted that MarAd supported about $150,000 worth 

 of relatively basic research through the Interagen- 

 cy Ship Structure Committee and MarAd has 

 confirmed that this is probably just as basic as 

 that contracted directly to industry. 



Historically its work dates back to the Mer- 

 chant Marine Act of 1936, which established a 

 five-member Maritime Commission in the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce. This Commission sponsored 

 the construction of some relatively modern cargo 

 ships, some of which became naval combat ships 

 during World War II. The Maritime Commission 

 was replaced by the Maritime Administration in 

 1950. The 1936 Act was inadequate for keeping up 

 with advances in technology, and it was supersed- 

 ed by the Merchant Marine Act of 1970. The 

 basic research program reported above was provid- 

 ed for in this act. 



MarAd has one laboratory, the National Mari- 

 time Research Center in Kings Point, N.Y. Most 

 of the work there is evaluation of the equipment 

 and systems developed by the R&D program.'-*^ 



'■*' Federal Funds. Vol . XX VI . NSF 77-3 1 7. Tables C-3n and C- 

 -34; and communication from NFPCA to NSB staff, .September 



1977. 



'■♦-Fecyera/Fonc/.s. Vol. XXVI, NSF77-3I7, Tables C-.30 and C- 



.34. 



'■"U.S. Department of Commerce. "Serving the Nation" 

 (Commerce: Washington, D.C., 1975), amended to reflect subse- 

 quent closing of center at Galveston; informal communications 

 between MarAd and MTRB and the NSB staff, October 1977. 



COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL TRENDS 339 



