Material Matters
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Why U.S. Policies Affecting Science are Changing Robert S. Walker The following is an edited transcript of the plenary lecture presented by Congressional Representative Robert S. Walker on November 27, 1995 at the Materials Research Society 1995 Fall Meeting in Boston. Seven-Year Budget
Some years ago, when I was first learning to drive race cars, the instructor told me that it does little good at 160 mph to look at where you are on the track. Your eyes have got to be focused well down the track or you will be in big trouble very fast. That is not only good advice when you are driving a race car, but also when you are practicing politics, because the fact is we are moving at breakneck speed in many, many areas, and particularly in the areas that I happen to deal with as the Chair of the Science Committee. The advent of new technologies, the way in which science is moving in ever-new directions, the new discoveries that are coming along—all of these things are moving at breakneck speed. Sometimes research is going in directions that we can't anticipate, and certainly in directions difficult for us to deal with in the kind of slow pace that government and governance moves. I think you need to have a sense of perspective of where some of that is headed so that you have some understanding of why some of the policies that affect science are going to be changing and are, in fact, in the midst of some change at the present time. The first thing you need to know about the reality of what is happening in Washington today is the fact that we are going to balance the budget for real. For the 20 years that I have been on Capitol Hill we have talked about balancing the budget. There has been a series of gimmicks, and there has always been a series of excuses of why we couldn't get there. I think the American public has rightfully become somewhat cynical about this talk about balancing budgets. As a result there has been an impression that this is simply the latest series of gimmicks, is not for real, and therefore will not affect programs that you are interested in. MRS BULLETIN/FEBRUARY 1996
The first thing I want to say this evening is, this is for real. We are, in fact, going to pass programs this year that will result in the budget being balanced in a seven-year period. We are doing that, in large part, by slowing the spending growth of government. In Washington we figure things a little differently than you do in the laboratory. We don't have to be as precise. In fact, we don't even have to be close at times. In most places if things are going from spending $25.00 this year to $30.00 next year, that is an increase. If it is going from $25.00 to $23.00, that would be a decrease. Not in Washington. In Washington, if you cut something that someone doesn't want cut, that can be an increase, and if you increase something that people want to keep spending more on, that can be a cut. So if people anticipated spending $35.00, and you're only spending $30.00, then that is a $5.00 cut, despite the fact that it is going up by $5.00
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