150 



you place a greater degree of emphasis upon technology transfer 

 programs which guarantee that once the technology is developed, 

 it becomes rapidly commercialized? 



We have dealt with both of those areas of public policy here in 

 this Committee. I have an interest in both. And I would welcome 

 your comment. 



Dr. Press. You know, no nation does technology transfer better 

 than we do. But that's not a good answer because we could always 

 improve and get a better dividend from our investments in re- 

 search. 



So if there are any good ideas around that are appropriate for 

 the Federal Government to support, that would enhance technology 

 transfer, I think those would be terrific things to do. 



And we just heard a good idea the other day — the relationship 

 between national laboratories and universities. That synergistic re- 

 lationship can help a great deal. 



There are other possibilities as well. And so we certainly should 

 pursue those interests, without question. 



Mr. McHale. In this Committee, in closing, I would just say that 

 Representative Morella, Representative Boehlert, I and others have 

 tried to champion the cause of technology transfer and, at least up 

 to this point, even in a very tight budgetary environment, we've 

 been, I think, unexpectedly successful. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Chairman WALKER. I thank the gentleman. I thank the Commit- 

 tee, although most of them have now left. I think we did a pretty 

 good job of fleshing out the report. There were a lot of good ques- 

 tions, and I appreciate that. 



Let me just try to fill in here with a couple of things as we end 

 up. And thank you for some of the things that I've learned today. 

 For example, I'm delighted to hear that the AAAS may be rethink- 

 ing their report on the one-third cut. 



That figure was developed for some very highly political reasons 

 and it was somewhat disappointing that AAAS used it in the con- 

 text that they did because it had little to do with the facts of the 

 matter as the spending is presently constituted. 



And I think it is worthwhile for them to go back and take a look 

 at what the realities are of some of the figures. 



And in all honesty, I believe that your FS&T budget helps define 

 what some of the real spending priorities ought to be and it pro- 

 vides a criteria for making some judgments about where the invest- 

 ments are taking place and, hopefully, if it were adopted, where 

 they should take place. 



Let me ask this. 



Did you do any looking at whether or not some of the rules and 

 regulations that government federally-funded research in fact have 

 a cost component to it that undermines the ability to get the re- 

 search done, and whether or not there are a variety of some of 

 those rules and regulations that ought to be modified or eliminated 

 in order to get better bang for the buck? 



Dr. Press. The Galvin Commission did a pretty good job on that, 

 and you were involved with that. 



