64 



As Daddario explained to Committee Chairman George P. Miller, 

 Democrat of California, the Subcommittee undertook this study 

 "not only because no congressional committee has ever looked at 

 the matter in its entirety, but because it was clear that the Nation 

 has no formalized science policy to guide it." In recommending that 

 the Administration appoint a blue ribbon task force with the re- 

 sponsibility of drafting and submitting to Congress a "basic nation- 

 al science policy," Daddario asserted: "It is my conviction that 

 unless such a combined legislative-executive effort is made and a 

 feasible science policy worked out — the Nation will continue to 

 flounder in its efforts to solve many of the great issues confronting 

 it for want of adequate knowledge and understanding of the issues 

 themselves." 26 



The Subcommittee's recommendation that "a National Science 

 Policy be stated and maintained as a public law" 27 followed the 

 model provided earlier in the year with the enactment of the Na- 

 tional Environmental Policy Act. 28 In justifying the urgency for es- 

 tablishing such a policy by law, the Subcommittee highlighted the 

 declining growth rates in the Federal support of science, the grow- 

 ing emphasis by the Government on mission-oriented research, the 

 growing public criticism of science and technology, and the low 

 morale of the scientific community in general. It went on to ex- 

 plain that: 



What makes the status of science so acute, however, is 

 that it is a tool which, once dulled, is not easily or readily 

 resharpened. Scientists and technicians are neither moti- 

 vated nor trained quickly; and their facilities, if permitted 

 to grow obsolete, can be made useful again only with great 

 cost and the lapse of much time. 29 



The Subcommittee further recommended that the National Science 

 Policy should "be incorporated into the operations of every depart- 

 ment or agency of the U.S. Government which utilizes science and 

 technology in its mission," and that "such a policy be flexible and 

 subjected to continual review and reevaluation in light of changing 

 national goals and priorities." 30 



Science Policy Under President Nixon 



The Nixon Administration did not abide by the Daddario Sub- 

 committee's recommendation that it submit to Congress a formal 

 proposal to establish a comprehensive science policy. But the Presi- 



26 Emilio Q. Daddario to George P. Miller, 15 October 1970, quoted in Toward a Science Policy 

 for the United States, p. iii. See also, Emilio Q. Daddario, "Needs for a National Policy," Physics 

 Today, 22 (October 1969), 33-38; Emilio Q. Daddario, "On National R&D Policy," Astronautics 

 and Aeronautics, 8 (October 1970), 56-63; and Emilio Q. Daddario, "Many Today Tend to Use 

 Science as a Whipping Boy," Christian Science Monitor, 12 September 1970. 



27 Toward a Science Policy for the United States, p. 10. 



28 The National Environmental Policy Act was signed into law by President Nixon on 1 Janu- 

 ary 1970 (Public Law 91-190). For the Congressional debates over the establishment of an over- 

 all policy for the environment, see Terence T. Finn, "Conflict and Compromise: Congress Makes 

 a Law, the Passage of the National Environmental Policy Act," Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown 

 University, 1972. 



29 Toward a Science Policy for the United States, p. 8. 



30 Ibid., p. 10, Compare this with the Daddario Subcommittee's report of the previous year: 

 U.S. Congress, House Committee on Science and Astronautics, Subcommittee on Science, Re- 

 search and Development, Centralization of Federal Science Activities (91st Congress, 1st session. 

 Washington: GPO, 1969). 



