100 



CONCLUSIONS 



The Federal labs have reached a critical point in their history. Keeping them open 

 will require a significant investment in buildings and equipment. Instead of automati- 

 cally assuming that they should be kept open, we have the opportunity to rethink their 

 status. Some of their missions will still be required for national defense. Those mis- 

 sions should be consolidated, or where transfer of a mission is not possible because of 

 unique local conditions or the existence of specialized equipment which does not yet 

 require replacement, the labs should be downsized to retain only those unique capa- 

 bilities. Those labs no longer needed for their original missions should simply be 

 closed. They emphatically should not be given a totally new mission, in a misguided 

 attempt to somehow "save" their capabilities. At best that would lead to an unwar- 

 ranted subsidy for industries which can afford the research themselves. More likely, it 

 would lead to expensive mediocrity. We cannot afford to waste precious R&D dollars 

 on subsidies to industry or on second-rate laboratories. 



