97 



August 23, 1958: Federal Aviation Agency created with passage by 

 Congress of the Federal Aviation Act. (Public Law 726; 72 Stat. 

 731) (FA A was transferred to the Department of Transportation 

 by the act of Oct. 15, 1966 which established the Department) 



September 2, 1958: National Defense Education Act of 1958. This 

 was the first general Federal aid-to-education legislation since 

 the Morrill Act of 1862. Major administrative responsibility for 

 the Act was assigned to the Department of Health, Education, 

 and Welfare. Title IX of the Act created a Science Information 

 Service in the National Science Foundation under the direction 

 of a Science Information Council. This latter action was evidence 

 of congressional recognition of the science information problem 

 and an attempt to deal with it. (Public Law 85-864; 71 Stat. 1580) 



September 2, 1958: A joint resolution directing the Secretary of the 

 Interior to contract for the construction of demonstration plants 

 for the production of usable water from saline water. (Public Law 

 85-883; 72 Stat. 1706) 



March 13, 1959: By E.O. 10807, President Eisenhower established 

 the Federal Council for Science and Technology, consisting of his 

 Special Assistant for Science and Technology and representatives 

 of the major science-oriented departments and agencies, to pro- 

 mote interagency cooperation and coordination in the planning 

 and management of Federal scientific and technological pro- 

 grams. 



E.O. 10807 amended E.O. 10521 of March 17, 1954, to limit the 

 National Science Foundation's policy advisory role to basic scien- 

 tific research and education in sciences, rather than "scientific 

 research" in general as the 1954 E.O. had specified. A new sec- 

 tion 10 of E.O. 10807 gave the Foundation a leadership role in 

 the coordination of Federal scientific information activities of the 

 Federal Government. 



E.O. 10807 also abolished the Interdepartmental Committee on 

 Scientific Research and Development. 



September 8, 1959: An amendment to the National Science Founda- 

 tion Act of 1950 clarified the Foundation's authority to support 

 programs to strengthen the nation's scientific research potential. 

 (Public Law 86-232; 73 Stat. 467) 



September 23, 1959: This act defined procedures and criteria 

 whereby the Atomic Energy Commission may "turn over" to in- 

 dividual States certain defined areas of regulatory jurisdiction 

 over atomic materials. 



The act also established a Federal Radiation Council to advise 

 the President on radiation matters. (Public Law 86-373) 



April 1960: The Subcommittee on National Policy Machinery of the 

 Senate Committee on Government Operations held a series of 

 hearings, entitled "Science, Technology, and the Policy Process." 



July 7, 1960: This law sought to encourage and stimulate the pro- 

 duction and conservation of coal in the United States by author- 

 izing the Secretary of the Interior to establish an Office of Coal 

 Research and contract for research to develop better methods of 

 mining, preparing and utilizing coal. (Public Law 86-599) 



September 9, 1960: Authorized the Surgeon General to make 

 project grants to schools of public health and schools of nursing 

 or engineering which provide graduate or specialized training in 



