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March 26, 1978: By Executive order 12046 President Carter abol- 

 ished the Office of Telecommunications Policy (OTP) in the Exec- 

 utive Office of the President and transferred its functions among 

 several government agencies, including the Department of Com- 

 merce; the Office of Management and Budget, the National Secu- 

 rity Council, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, all 

 in the Executive Office of the President; and the Department of 

 State. The Executive Order also established the Secretary of 

 Commerce as the "President's principal advisor on telecommuni- 

 cations policies pertaining to the Nation's economic and techno- 

 logical advancement and to the regulation of the telecommunica- 

 tions industry." The National Telecommunications and Informa- 

 tion Administration was established in the Department of Com- 

 merce to carry out the functions assigned to the Department. 



June 19, 1978: The President sent Reorganization Plan No. 3 to the 

 Congress, which included a proposal for the establishment of a 

 Federal Emergency Agency. A number of hazard mitigation func- 

 tions, including earthquake hazards reduction were to be consoli- 

 dated in the new Agency which became the Federal Emergency 

 Management Agency on April 1, 1979. 



June 22, 1978: The President transmitted to Congress a plan for a 

 National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. The President 

 earlier had assigned responsibility for planning the Earthquake 

 Hazards Reduction Program to the Office of Science and Technol- 

 ogy Policy in the Executive Office of the President. The plan out- 

 lined Federal initiatives for earthquake hazards reduction includ- 

 ing: development of seismic-resistant design and construction 

 standards for application in Federal construction; assessment of 

 hazards posed by existing Federal facilities; and studies of the fi- 

 nancial aspects of earthquake hazards mitigation. 



September 8, 1978: The First Annual Report on Science and Tech- 

 nology, as required by Public Law 94-282, was sent to the Presi- 

 dent by the National Science Foundation. The report examined 

 the economic foundations for the Government's role in science 

 and technology, including the contribution of R&D and innova- 

 tion to productivity. 



September 17, 1978: The National Climate Program Act was signed 

 into law (Public Law 95-367). The Act directed the President of 

 the United States to establish a national climate program and 

 define the roles in this program for the twelve Federal agencies 

 vested with responsibilities in climate research and services. De- 

 signed to centralize planning and to improve interagency and 

 intergovernmental coordination, the Act emphasized early pro- 

 duction and delivery of climate data, information and services to 

 users, and expanded the research effort aimed at understanding 

 the dynamics of climatic variability and its societal conse- 

 quences. 



October 7, 1978: The President signed Public Law 95-426, the For- 

 eign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1979. Title V of 

 the act addressed science, technology, and American diplomacy 

 and set forth a policy for the United States to maximize the ben- 

 efits and to minimize the adverse consequences of science and 

 technology in the conduct of foreign policy. The Secretary of 

 State was given a primary responsibility for taking the steps nee- 



