105 



and authorities of the Administrator of the Energy Research and 

 Development Administration, outlined a program Federal assist- 

 ance and demonstrations, defined the patent policy for inven- 

 tions developed under ERDA contracts, and provided for assist- 

 ance in developing energy related inventions. 



January 19, 1975: By Executive Order 11834, of January 15, 1975, 

 President Ford directed the activation of the Energy Research 

 and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory 

 Commission. 



April 30, 1975: S. 1608 was introduced in the Senate. The bill would 

 have amended the Drug Abuse and Treatment Act of 1972 to es- 

 tablish an Office of Drug Abuse Policy in the Executive Office of 

 the President. The new office would replace the Special Action 

 Office for Drug Abuse Prevention which had been established by 

 the 1972 Act. 



December 23, 1975: Metric Conversion Act of 1975 was signed into 

 law (Public Law 94-168). The Act declared that the policy of the 

 U.S. shall be to coordinate and plan the increasing use of the 

 metric system in the United States and to establish a U.S. Metric 

 Board to coordinate the voluntary conversion to the Metric 

 System. 



March 19, 1976: S. 2017, amendment to the Drug Abuse and Treat- 

 ment Act of 1972 was signed into law (Public Law 94-237) by the 

 President. The Director of the new Office of Drug Abuse Policy 

 was instructed to make recommendations to the President with 

 respect to policies for, objectives of, and establishment of prior- 

 ities for, Federal drug abuse functions and to coordinate the per- 

 formance of such functions by Federal departments and agencies. 

 Employment of experts and consultants was authorized. 



May 11, 1976: President Ford signed H.R. 10230 (Public Law 94- 

 282) the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, 

 and Priorities Act of 1976. The new law set forth a national 

 policy for science and technology; established an Office of Science 

 and Technology Policy (OSTP) within the Executive Office of the 

 President; directed the establishment of a temporary President's 

 Committee on Science and Technology to survey the overall Fed- 

 eral science, engineering, and technology effort; replaced the 

 Federal Council for Science and Technology set up in 1959 with a 

 Federal Coordinating Council for Science. Engineering, and Tech- 

 nology to be under the chairmanship of the Director of OSTP; 

 and provided for the establishmet of an Intergovernmental Sci- 

 ence, Engineering and Technology Advisory Panel to advise the 

 OSTP Director on the optimum utilization of Federal research ef- 

 forts to improve the scientific and technological capabilities of 

 the State Governments. 



June 15, 1976: "Guidelines For Research Involving Recombinant 

 DNA" was issued by the National Institutes of Health. The 

 guidelines, which were developed by the Recombinant DNA Ad- 

 visory Committee, imposed restrictions on the types of federally 

 supported experiments that can be performed and specified levels 

 of physical and biological containment for recombinant DNA ex- 

 periments. Industry has voluntarily complied with the new Fed- 

 eral regulations. 



