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ment to focus on such issues as technical licensing requirements, 

 validating scientific models, evaluating and testing waste han- 

 dling systems, and establishing repository operating capability. 



February 22, 1983: S. 540, the Health Research Extension Act of 

 1983 was introduced. The legislation would have created a new 

 National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Dis- 

 eases and a new National Institute of Nursing. The legislation 

 also would have required the Secretary of Health and Human 

 Services to review NIH research programs. 



March 10, 1983: President Ronald Reagan established the U.S. Ex- 

 clusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for the oceans that asserted juris- 

 diction over marine resources in an area of about 3.9 billion 

 acres, an area extending seaward 200 nautical miles for the base- 

 line from which the U.S. territorial sea is measured. Within the 

 zone, the United States claimed "sovereign rights for the purpose 

 of exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing natural re- 

 sources, both living and nonliving, of the seabed and subsoil and 

 the superadjacent waters, and for protection of the marine envi- 

 ronment." The EEZ Proclamation followed in the wake of the 

 President's decision that the United States would not sign the 

 Third United Nations Treaty on the Law of the Sea. 



March 23, 1983: In a nationally televised address, President Ronald 

 Reagan called on the scientific community to develop the means 

 to render nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete" by perform- 

 ing R&D on a new ballistic missile defense system. Since some of 

 the components for the system might be based in space, the 

 media dubbed this the "Stars Wars" speech. In March 1984, a 

 new office was created in the Office of the Secretary of Defense 

 to administer the program, which is officially called the Strategic 

 Defense Initiative (SDI), with the SDI director reporting to the 

 Secretary. 



April 15, 1983: Dr. Edward A. Knapp was confirmed by the Senate 

 as the Director of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Knapp 

 was the former division leader at the Accelerator Technology Di- 

 vision at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. 



April 19, 1983: The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Regis- 

 try was established within the Public Health Service by the Sec- 

 retary of Health and Human Services as required by section 

 104(i) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensa- 

 tion, and Liability Act of 1980 (Public Law 98-80), better known 

 as the Superfund. The mission of the Agency is to lead and direct 

 programs and activities for the protection of the health and 

 safety of workers and the public from the adverse effects caused 

 by exposure to hazardous substance in storage sites or released 

 by fires, explosions, or transportation accidents. 



May 11, 1983: H.R. 2969 which authorized appropriations for the 

 Department of Defense for fiscal year 1984 was introduced. 

 House Report 98-107 which accompanied H.R. 2969 requested 

 DOD to conduct a comprehensive study to analyze the need to 

 modernize university laboratories in which the Department of 

 Defense research programs are conducted. 



September 30, 1983: H.R. 4043, the Research and Development 

 Joint Venture Act of 1983 was introduced to modify the oper- 

 ation of the antitrust laws to encourage the formation of re- 



