44 



impact on science education, the Act quickly became a significant 

 part of the nation's overall science policy. It provided for a student 

 loan program, aid to secondary and elementary school instruction 

 in science, mathematics, and foreign languages, National Defense 

 fellowships for graduate students, and funds for improved counsel- 

 ing in high schools and colleges. 7 



DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PROPOSED 



The Sputnik "threat" also played a role in Congressional initi- 

 ation of much broader reorganization of science within the execu- 

 tive branch. For example, Democratic Senator Hubert H. Hum- 

 phrey of Minnesota proposed establishing a Department of Science 

 and Technology and a corresponding cabinet post of Secretary of 

 Science and Technology. Humphrey, who was Chairman of the Sub- 

 committee on Reorganization and International Organizations of 

 the Committee on Government Operations, submitted this plan as 

 part of the proposed Science and Technology Act of 1958. A 

 number of hearings were held on the issue, and during the follow- 

 ing year Humphrey submitted revised legislation to create a De- 

 partment of Science and Technology. 8 



As proposed by Senator Humphrey, the new Department of Sci- 

 ence and Technology would encompass the entire National Science 

 Foundation, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Aero- 

 nautics and Space Administration, and the National Bureau of 

 Standards, along with the scientific research functions of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. An alternative proposal recommended the 

 creation of a Department of Science and Technology consisting of 

 only the NSF and AEC. 9 In his testimony before Humphrey's Sub- 

 committee, science historian A. Hunter Dupree supported the idea 

 of establishing a "central policy agency," but criticized the struc- 

 ture of the proposed Department. His concern was that a Depart- 

 ment made up of the various agencies would tend to administer the 

 science programs themselves rather than set overall policy for sci- 

 ence. The need for developing a science policy at the highest level 

 of Government was great, he argued, as "the shape of a science 

 policy cannot safely be left to the blind clash of competing agencies 

 both in and out of the Government." 10 



In speaking in favor of the creation of a Department of Science, 

 chemist and American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 president Wallace R. Brode addressed the problems confronting the 

 development of a sound national science policy in his 1959 AAAS 

 presidential address: 



7 Public Law 85-864. See also, Arthur S. Flemming, "The Philosophy and Objectives of the 

 National Defense Education Act," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sci- 

 ence, 327 (January 1960), 132-138. 



8 U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Government Operations, Create a Department of Science 

 and Technology, hearings before the Subcommittee on Reorganization and International Organi- 

 zations (86th Congress, 1st session. Washington: GPO, 1959), p. 1. See also, Hubert H. Hum- 

 phrey, "The Need for a Department of Science," Annals of the American Academy of Political 

 and Social Science, 327 (January 1960), 27-35. The history of this idea is presented in Carroll W. 

 Pursell, Jr., "The Search for a Department of Science: An Historical Overview," unpublished 

 paper written for the National Science Foundation, January 1985. 



9 See Senate Committee on Government Operations, Create a Department of Science and Tech- 

 nology, pp. 2-7. 



10 Ibid., p. 87. 



