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Date: Fri, 24 Jul 92 14:50:00 PDT
To: ichihara@rikvax.riken.go.jp
From: "CHRISTINE REES" <VP.APS@STANFORD.BITNET>
Subject: What's New for July 24, 1992

WHAT'S NEW, Friday, 24 July 1992                   Washington, DC

1. PHYSICISTS IN EUROPE, JAPAN AND CANADA OPPOSE SPACE STATION!
In an unprecedented joint statement issued today, the Presidents
of a group of major scientific societies, including The American
Physical Society, fired a blast at Space Station Freedom.  That's
hardly news; they do it every year.  But this time, the statement
was accompanied by the translation of a statement adopted by the
German Physical Society.  Like their American colleagues, German
physicists contend Space Station Freedom cannot be justified on
the basis of economics or science.  And it didn't stop with the
Germans!  The strongly worded German statement was endorsed by
the Executive Committee of the European Physical Society, and by
the Presidents of the Physical Society of Japan, the Canadian
Association of Physicists, and the American Physical Society;
Japan, Europe and Canada are "partners" with the United States in
the space station. Meanwhile, at a Capitol Hill press conference,
Rep. Howard Wolpe (D-MI) released a letter signed by 75 of the
most distinguished American space scientists; their letter
contends the space station cannot be justified on the basis of
its scientific usefulness or its importance to space exploration.

2. BUT PROPONENTS OF THE SPACE STATION HAVE NOT BEEN IDLE EITHER.
On Tuesday, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and NIH Director
Bernadine Healy signed a Memorandum of Understanding Regarding
Biomedical`x}d Behavioral Research.  The matchmakers were none
other than Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Jake Garn (R-UT), the top
space station tub thumpers in the Senate.  The agreement, which
Mikulski hailed as "historic," is little more than a pledge to
cooperate, but it is meant to give credibility to claims that
space research will somehow lead to cures for disease on Earth.
At the Hill press conference, Rep. Durbin (D-IL) commented that,
"Cancer cures are the last refuge of budgetary scoundrels."

3. SENATE COMMITTEE RESTORES $550M TO THE SUPERCOLLIDER IN FY 93!
The Appropriation Committee yesterday left untouched that portion
of a Subcommittee Report dealing with the SSC.  The report calls
for $623M for high-energy physics, $7.5M less than the Adminis-
tration request.  The Fermilab injector upgrade would get $25M,
$5M below the request but $10M above the House number.  In a
surprise move, SSC champion Bennett Johnston (D-LA), folded the
controversial Energy Strategy bill into the appropriations bill.
The effect was to deflect the debate away from the SSC.  Senator
Bumpers (D-AR), who leads the opposition to the SSC, decided to
withhold an amendment to kill the supercollider until the bill
comes up on the floor.  That could happen as early as next week.

4. LAMPF SUPPORT SHIFTED TO ATOMIC ENERGY DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS.
With the venerable Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility facing term-
ination, its $54M, plus $11M, was shifted to a defense account in
a ploy credited to Sen. Domenici (R-NM).  But Budget Director
Richard Darman could rule that the move violates the "fire wall."

Robert L. Park  OPA@AIP.bitnet      The American Physical Society

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