66 



effort was headed by Committee Chairman Olin E. Teague, Demo- 

 crat of Texas. The Committtee held a series of hearings and com- 

 missioned several reports, all with the intention of helping to 

 frame a national science policy and creating an organizational 

 structure to carry it out. 



This was part of a broader effort by Congress to increase its par- 

 ticipation in the formation of national science policy and to in- 

 crease its strength vis-a-vis the growing powers of the Presidency. 

 It did this largely through an expansion of its oversight capacity. 

 Like the mid-1940s, the early 1970s found the Congress concerned 

 with moving the nation from a wartime to a peacetime economy, 

 and Federal support of science was shaped by these considerations. 



In their attempt to restore the White House Office of Science 

 and Technology, neither scientists nor Members of Congress at- 

 tacked Stever personally. He was generally well liked and respect- 

 ed. It was believed, however, that the NSF director should not 

 divide his time between the directorship of NSF and Presidential 

 science advising. Both were full-time jobs, argued the proponents 

 of a renewed White House science and technology office. 



Impact of the Energy Crisis on Science Policy 



The energy crisis was spurred by the oil embargo initiated by the 

 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in October 1973. 36 

 This embargo had a profound economic effect on the United States, 

 and also had a significant effect on the nation's science policy. The 

 resulting economic stagnation was considered by many to be associ- 

 ated, at least in part, with the decline in Federal funding of re- 

 search and development. Efforts were made to correct this situa- 

 tion, and also to replace the science policy machinery lost during 

 the Nixon Administration. Much of this science funding was target- 

 ed at economic recovery. 



Efforts were also made to increase Government-supported re- 

 search in the area of energy development. The build-up in Federal 

 support of energy research took place largely within the Energy 

 Research and Development Administration — an agency that was 

 superseded during the Carter Administration by the Department of 

 Energy. 



The War on Cancer 



Continuing the trend stressed by the Johnson Administration, 

 President Nixon emphasized applied research. In his State of the 

 Union message on 22 January 1971, the President called for an ad- 

 ditional $100 million "to launch an intensive campaign to find a 

 cure for cancer." Alluding to the two large-scale and highly suc- 

 cessful mission-oriented scientific efforts, the Manhattan Project 

 and the Apollo program, Nixon went on to say: 



The time has come in America when the same kind of con- 

 centrated effort that split the atom and took man to the 

 moon should be turned toward conquering this dread dis- 



36 For a discussion of the energy crisis, see Martin V. Melossi, Coping with Abundance: Energy 

 and Environment in Industrial America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1985), pp. 277- 

 294. 



