SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, 1970-79 597 



represented on the Joint Commission to appoint their members quickly. 

 "I am convinced that the need to begin planning is urgent," Brown 

 stated. He was already looking forward to the end of the Federal 

 involvement in the program, and full support by private industry for 

 the venture: 



I hope you will share my view that while the Federal government will have to 

 play a strong role for some years to come, the sooner we get started with the Federal 

 portion of this program, the sooner we will be able to pull it out. 



Despite Brown's efforts, the administration did not appear to be 

 very eager to get started on a guayule program. Although the Brown 

 bill authorized $5 million for the first year, the President included zero 

 funds in the budget he submitted in 1979. So Brown took his fight to the 

 House floor. On June 19, 1979, he succeeded in adding $500,000 to the 

 agricultural appropriation bill to get the guayule program off the 

 ground. Brown always managed to turn up support in useful places. 

 This time it was Representative Mark Andrews (Republican of North 

 Dakota), the ranking minority member of the agricultural appro- 

 priations subcommittee, who told the House on June 19: 



Some years ago my wife, who was then a high school student, was hoeing the 

 rows of guayule when they were planting them as an experiment at that particular 

 point in time. We would be more than happy to accept the amendment on this side of 

 the aisle because we think it is in order. 



OTHER SUBCOMMITTEE ACTIVITIES 



At the risk of expanding this chapter into a laundry list, it should 

 be noted that there were a number of other areas which the subcom- 

 mittee investigated through hearings or background staff inquiries. 

 Starting in 1968, the subcommittee held extensive hearings and has 

 always been concerned with the most effective utilization of Federal 

 laboratories. In the early 1970's, this issue was focused on a Senate- 

 passed bill which authorized a regional system of national environ- 

 mental laboratories. During his testimony before the Senate 

 Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space in April 

 1978, Brown suggested better coordination among the Federal 

 laboratories: 



This complex montage of organizations should be networked into a rational 

 harmonious system if this Nation is to have the optimum benefit of this excellent 

 pool of scientific, engineering and technical facilities and talent. 



Early in the decade, the subcommittee became concerned with the 

 fact that many terms used in connection with science policy were either 

 loosely defined, or used with varying meanings. Accordingly, the 

 committee asked the Science Policy Research Division to prepare a 

 report which would lead to standardization of terms. The first such 



