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285792307
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Council - Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET) [1991]
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285792307
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Council - Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET) [1991]
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Records pertain to the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
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Records of the White House Office of Science and Technology (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Allan D. Bromley Files
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Originally Processed With FOIA(s): foia Number: 2005-0336-F 2005-0336-F FOIA MARKER This is not a textual record. This is used as an administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential Library Staff. Record Group/Collection: George H.W. Bush Presidential Records Collection/Office of Origin: Science and Technology Policy, Office of (OSTP) Series: Bromley, D. Allan, Files Subseries: Organization Files - FCCSET OA/ID Number: 62073 Folder ID Number: 62073-002 Folder Title: Council - Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET) [1991] Stack: Row: Section: Shelf: Position: 0 0 O O THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON July 25, 1991 Dear Bill: As you know, the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (FCCSET) was established by Congressional action in 1976. The fact that you and other agency heads have agreed to become members of FCCSET has completely revitalized the Council and made it possible for it to function for the first time as originally intended. As I mentioned to you at the NES presentation, Maryanne Bach, who has served as the Assistant Director of OSTP with responsibility for FCCSET--and who has done an outstanding job under difficult circumstances--is returning to the Department of the Interior to take up the Directorship of its Policy Office. As you will recall, the FCCSET legislation mandates that the member agencies provide the staff for FCCSET completely outside of the OSTP budget. Interior provided Ms. Bach and NSF, NOAA and NASA are currently providing other support staff. In considering a replacement for Ms. Bach, my senior associates and I quickly concluded that by far the best qualified person was Dr. Vickie Sutton who, during this past year, has been working with us at OSTP as a liaison with EPA. As you know, I think that she has done an excellent job in that capacity. I am now, formally, requesting that you officially designate her as being detailed to FCCSET from EPA, so that she can take on major leadership responsibilities for the FCCSET operation. This position carries the title of Assistant Director of OSTP with responsibility for FCCSET and will report directly to me. Since the full FCCSET and OMB have approved five parallel crosscutting initiatives for inclusion in the President's FY 1993 budget (global change, mathematics and science education, high performance computing and communication, materials science and engineering and biotechnology), this is a critical period for FCCSET and the five committees charged with developing these crosscuts. Last year's activities on the first three of these were, in my view, very successful and I am optimistic that we can do even better this year in terms of interagency cooperation and program integration. As Assistant Director of OSTP responsible for FCCSET, Dr. Sutton will be one of eight Assistant Directors having responsibilities for life science, physical sciences and engineering, social sciences, national security science and technology, industrial technology, environmental sciences, and PCAST. All seven of these others hold SES 3 or SES 4 appointments and I would request that EPA appoint Dr. Sutton to such a position consistent with her new responsibilities. Both personally, and on behalf of both OSTP and FCCSET, let me thank you for your continuing help and cooperation. With all best wishes, Sincerely yours, Ana D. Allan Bromley Chairman, FCCSET The Honorable William K. Reilly Administrator Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. 20460 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON July 25, 1991 Dear Bill: As you know, the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (FCCSET) was established by Congressional action in 1976. The fact that you and other agency heads have agreed to become members of FCCSET has completely revitalized the Council and made it possible for it to function for the first time as originally intended. As I mentioned to you at the NES presentation, Maryanne Bach, who has served as the Assistant Director of OSTP with responsibility for FCCSET--and who has done an outstanding job under difficult circumstances--is returning to the Department of the Interior to take up the Directorship of its Policy Office. As you will recall, the FCCSET legislation mandates that the member agencies provide the staff for FCCSET completely outside of the OSTP budget. Interior provided Ms. Bach and NSF, NOAA and NASA are currently providing other support staff. In considering a replacement for Ms. Bach, my senior associates and I quickly concluded that by far the best qualified person was Dr. Vickie Sutton who, during this past year, has been working with us at OSTP as a liaison with EPA. As you know, I think that she has done an excellent job in that capacity. I am now, formally, requesting that you officially designate her as being detailed to FCCSET from EPA, so that she can take on major leadership responsibilities for the FCCSET operation. This position carries the title of Assistant Director of OSTP with responsibility for FCCSET and will report directly to me. Since the full FCCSET and OMB have approved five parallel crosscutting initiatives for inclusion in the President's FY 1993 budget (global change, mathematics and science education, high performance computing and communication, materials science and engineering and biotechnology), this is a critical period for FCCSET and the five committees charged with developing these crosscuts. Last year's activities on the first three of these were, in my view, very successful and I am optimistic that we can do even better this year in terms of interagency cooperation and program integration. As Assistant Director of OSTP responsible for FCCSET, Dr. Sutton will be one of eight Assistant Directors having responsibilities for life science, physical sciences and engineering, social sciences, national security science and technology, industrial technology, environmental sciences, and PCAST. All seven of these others hold SES 3 or SES 4 appointments and I would request that EPA appoint Dr. Sutton to such a position consistent with her new responsibilities. Both personally, and on behalf of both OSTP and FCCSET, let me thank you for your continuing help and cooperation. With all best wishes, Sincerely yours, Ana D. Allan Bromley Chairman, FCCSET The Honorable William K. Reilly Administrator Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. 20460 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON March 26, 1991 Dear Harold: Many thanks for your letter of March 13 relating to the FCCSET report on education. The point you raise in your third paragraph is, in my view, an extremely important one and one that has been brought up to me in rather dramatic fashion by the Presidential Award Secondary School teachers whom we brought to Washington as guests of the President last fall. They maintained on many occasions that despite their best efforts, a generation of teaching assistants who were unable to speak English and who gave the impression of not really caring, were turning off the best output of the high schools in science and mathematics and driving them into other fields. This is clearly a question that we need to inject into the deliberations of this FCCSET Committee as it moves on to its phase two activities and to the revised, updated, and expanded study that it will produce to accompany next year's budget. They have already decided that one of the areas of major importance in their next year's activity will be an examination of our production and treatment of technicians. We missed you at the March PCAST meeting and look forward to seeing you at the one in April. With warmest best wishes, Sincerely yours, Ann D. Allan Bromley Assistant to the President for Science and Technology Professor Harold T. Shapiro President Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey 08544-0015 Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey 08544-0015 President's Room RECEIVED Marcha13 1991 41 OFFICE or inc Dr. D. Allan Bromley, Director DIRECTOR Office of Science and Technology Policy Old Executive Office Building Washington, D.C. 20506 Dear Allan: I was sorry to have to miss the March PCAST meeting, but I certainly look forward to our scheduled meeting in April. The purpose of this note is to provide, as requested, some brief observations on the FCCSET Committee report on education and human resources. It is an extremely helpful report and reflects an enormous amount of very productive activity by the FCCSET Committee. The work done to date will provide many dividends for education in the coming years. It was really quite impressive to see such a coherent and understandable description of the current federal funding situation for education as well as proposals for the future. The general thrust of the proposals are supported by convincing rationales and by admirably pragmatic approaches. In short, it is an extraordinarily ambitious and promising undertaking. My greatest overall concern is that we might not be able to meet the implied time schedule at existing levels of funding. There is, however, one general point that I believe is under-appreciated by the Committee and may be worth emphasizing. It is understandable that the report focuses on the pre-college level. That is where we have the greatest problem. The problems at the K-12 level, however, will take many years to resolve and require very large resource commitments by various levels of the public and private sector. There is another avenue open to us that would solve some of our problems a lot quicker and with fewer resources; namely, decreasing the rate of attrition from science programs by students who are already undergraduates. Thus, although there are strong arguments that the greatest need for improvement in science and mathematics education lies at the pre-college level, it is less clear to me that a cost/benefit analysis would argue for the same short-term funding priorities. To put the matter in a different way, one might get more leverage by making some investments focused on undergraduate education with the objective of decreasing attrition from science and engineering programs. My understanding of the FCCSET report indicates that undergraduate education ranks just behind pre- college programs. - 2 - Over the long haul, there is no question that activities at the pre-college level are the most critical. The issue, if any, is whether we might get some short-term leverage by devoting some funds to attacking the problem of undergraduate attrition in science and engineering. Best regards. Sincerely, Hell Harold T. Shapiro HTS/ms THE WHITE HOUSE Sept 15, 1991 Dear Bernadine: Again my warment Thanks frigod super b haspitality on Thusday Hau couning a the Stane threath The data that mentracd from The FICSET warking group m The Stracture! The Support J us Scuma. I gather That while NIH has granup, intramenal much support academic person ch rate. the nuottoducaus. have grown Ma much Arman Sincerely Allon 3 A. Funding by Agency Academic Research Funding by Six Civilian Federal Agencies: FY 1980-FY 1989 (selected years) FY 1989 dollars in billions $10 $10 8 EPA 8 $7.3b NASA II USDA $6.1b 6 6 II DOE $5.4b $5.1b NSF NIH 4 4 2 2 Data stall close hold 0 1980 0 1983 1986 1989 Year 15 A. Amount Academic Research Funding by Purpose for Six Civilian Federal Agencies: FY 1980 - FY 1989 (selected years) FY 1989 dollars in billions 5 5 Thematic Disciplinary 4 4 Support Human Resources 3 3 Instrumentation 2 2 1 1 0 0 1980 1983 1986 1989 Year NOTE: Six agencies included are DOE. NIH. NSF. EPA. USDA. and NASA. Figure 7 6 A. Amount Academic Research Funcing by Mode of Support for Six Civilian Federal Agencies: FY 1980 - FY 1989 (selected years) FY 1989 dollars in billions 5 5 Investigator Individual 4 4 Research Teams Research 3 3 Centers Major Facilities 2 2 1 1 1.11 , 0 0 1980 1983 1986 1989 Year