CONDITION OF FEDERAL LABORATORIES 



Thursday, September 23, 1993 



Congress of the United States, 

 Joint Economic Committee, 



Washington, DC. 



The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m., in room SD-628, 

 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Honorable Paul S. Sarbanes (Chairman of 

 the Committee) presiding. 



Present: Senator Sarbanes. 



Also present: William Buechner, Richard Clinch, Lawrence Hunter, Ed 

 Hutchings, professional staff members. 



OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SARBANES, 

 CHAIRMAN 



Senator Sarbanes. The Committee will come to order. 



I would inform the witnesses that the Senate is in session and we may be 

 interrupted with votes from time to time, in which case we will simply have to 

 recess the Committee for purposes of voting and then resume as promptly as 

 we can. 



This morning, the Joint Economic Committee is meeting to examine the 

 deteriorating physical condition of federal scientific laboratories across the 

 country. The hearing will focus and, in a sense, take its impetus from a new 

 General Accounting Office report being released today, entitled, "Federal Re- 

 search: Aging Federal Laboratories Need Repairs and Upgrades." 



The federal labs conduct much of the research and development that helps 

 keep the United States at the cutting edge of science and technology. They 

 account for one quarter of the Federal Government's budget for research and 

 development and one tenth of all research and development done in this 

 country. And a higher percentage has, in a sense, been basic research and 

 development. 



In Maryland, to take an example dear and close to my heart, we have some 

 of the nation's finest and most important research labs; for example, the Na- 

 tional Institutes of Health in Bethesda, the Beltsville Agricultural Research 

 Center, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. But all of 

 them require significant upgrading. 



According to this morning's GAO report, a number of the federal labs are 

 in a distressing state of disrepair. 



For example, at Wright Laboratories at the Wright-Paterson Air Force Base 

 in Ohio, where the Defense Department conducts important defense re- 

 search, the only way scientists could protect equipment from a 10-year leaking 

 roof was to build a second building inside the first with its own roof and sides 

 to enclose the equipment and protect it from the rain. That is illustrated in 

 the pictures from the Wright Lab in Dayton, Ohio. 



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