SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, 1970-79 581 



Brave words, indeed, from a Congressman who had emerged from a 

 close 1974 reelection campaign, and was a candidate for the U.S. 

 Senate in a race which he lost in 1976. 



Every two years, the Engineering Foundation in New York, with 

 the assistance of the National Academy of Sciences, the National 

 Bureau of Standards, and other organizations sponsored a Materials 

 Conference in Henniker, N.H. The Henniker Conference was usually 

 attended by one or more staff members of the Science Subcommittee. 

 In 1976, for example, staff members were given the opportunity at the 

 Henniker Conference to present and discuss with materials experts 

 throughout the country the Symington-Mosher bill and its implica- 

 tions for national policy. In 1978, subcommittee Staff Director Yeager 

 and Anthony Scoville of the staff actively participated in the con- 

 ference, the theme of which was "Building a Consensus on Legislation 

 for National Materials Policy." Yeager charged the people interested 

 in the subject to get together and agree on a policy and then lobby 

 hard to get it adopted. Scoville chaired a panel on current legislative 

 proposals on materials policy. 



The subcommittee commissioned the Office of Technology As- 

 sessment to complete two reports late in 1976, entitled "An Assess- 

 ment of Alternative Economic Stockpiling Policies" and "Assessment 

 of Information Systems Capabilities Required to Support U.S. Materials 

 Policy Decisions." Several other OTA studies in the materials policy 

 area were also requested by or made available to the subcommittee to 

 add to its growing competence in the area. The subcommittee actively 

 involved the General Accounting Office in sorting out the issues in- 

 volved in materials policy. 



At the opening of the 95th Congress in 1977, Chairman Thornton 

 decided to tackle the materials policy issue again — laying the educa- 

 tional groundwork in 1977 and going all out in 1978. On the first day 

 of the new Congress, Teague reintroduced the Symington-Mosher bill. 

 Thornton, Hollenbeck, and Brown subsequently sponsored modified 

 versions of bills to establish national materials policy, organization 

 and research. 



"Our energy crisis, which is probably the most consuming matter 

 affecting the American economy today, is largely a materials problem, 

 Thornton remarked at the opening of subcommittee hearings on the 

 subject in June 1977. He added: 



While materials and the technology to utilize them appropriately for energy 

 hold our attention almost exclusively at this time, similar difficulties involving 

 materials used for other purposes are, we know, not far away. 



By 1978, the materials issue had progressed beyond the study 

 stage. The 1977 subcommittee hearings were primarily background 



