1020 HISTORY OF THE COMMITT1 1 ON S< IIXCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Assessment Board with a staff to make studies and appraisals projecting 

 the impact of technology in various fields. Although the committee- 

 reported legislation, strongly backed by Miller, Mosher, Davis, and 

 Svmington, initially included a mixed Board of both congressional, 

 executive agencv, and public appointees, a floor amendment by Repre- 

 sentative Jack Brooks (Democrat of Texas) made the Board an all- 

 Congress affair of five House and five Senate Members. The President 

 signed the OTA legislation on October 13, 1972. The OTA was only 

 the third independent service organization created for Congress in the 

 Nation's history — the first being the Library of Congress in 1800, and 

 the second the General Accounting Office in 1921. 



OTA Board members from the Science Committee included Teague 

 (chairman, 1975-76), Mosher (vice chairman, 1973-74), Winn (vice 

 chairman, 197" -78), Davis, Esch, Brown, and Wydler. The Subcom- 

 mittee on Science, Research and Technology exercised fairly extensive 

 oversight over OTA, and in 1977 and 1978 held hearings on its opera- 

 tion, noting some of its ongoing problems yet encouraging the continu- 

 ance of its role in making technological evaluations and assessments 

 for Congress. 



Among other legislation enacted on the initiative of the Science, 

 Research and Technology Subcommittee were the following laws: 



Fnc Research and Safety Act of 1968, adding new responsibilities to the 

 National Bureau of Standards, including special training and demonstration 

 programs in fire prevention, expanded by 1971 act to establish Fire Research 

 and Safety Center. This was further supplemented by the 1974 legislation 

 which set up a National Fire Prevention and Control Administration within 

 the Department of Commerce, and authorized a U.S. Fire Academy. The 

 legislation was further strengthened in 1976, and again in 1978. 



— Updating and strengthening the Standard Reference Data Legislation, orig- 

 inally passed in 1968, in legislation passed in 1972. This statute helped develop 

 world-wide scientific and engineering standards for such elementary items as 

 how much heat is given off when a substance is burned, how fast methane 

 will react with air, or how soluble mercury is in water. 



— Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977, coordinating Federal research, 

 prediction, and warning systems. Drown was the chief sponsor of this 

 legislation. 



Native Latex Commercialization and Economic Development Act of 1978. 

 Popularly known as the "guayule bill," this legislation was also the result of 

 Brown handiwork, authorizing the Agriculture and Commerce Departments, 

 along with the NSF and Bureau of Indian Affairs to carry out research and 

 development of the guayule plant as a possible source o natural rubber for 

 commercial use. 



Working with the National Bureau of Standards, the committee 

 assisted in the development of voluntary industrial standards, helped 

 draw up and write into law a new organic act for the National Bureau 

 of Standards, and laid the groundwork for several searching studies of 



