G O V E R N W E N T

Vietnam, Inflation Worry Crimp Spending Plans Congress to adopt cautious fiscal policy and confine itself to holdover problems

President Johnson, readying his legis­lative program for Congress which re­convenes next week, faces the same dilemma as the acrobat who leaps from a 100-foot tower into a damp handkerchief: What to do for an encore. After his spectacular success in winning Congressional approval last year for nearly all of the Great Society programs, there seems little left for the President to do other than to ex­pand his dream of abundance for all.

However, the rapidly spiraling cost of the war in Vietnam may solve the President's problem by putting the quietus on further expansion or pro­liferation of Great Society programs. Instead of devising new features to catch the public fancy, the President will be hard put to it to find enough money to keep old programs running at current levels.

Although the final budget figures for fiscal 1966 are still a closely guarded secret, the budget should reach a whopping $107 to $110 billion. If the Defense Department's slice is $60 billion, as has been forecast, the money available for nondefense pro­grams will just about equal current levels. This means that if Great So­ciety programs are to be fleshed out a bit, other programs will have to be cut.

Expanding. So far, President John­son has been following the philosophy that the expanding economy can pro­vide both guns and butter without generating undue inflationary pres­sure. However, Congress seems likely to take the view that it will be better for the nation to provide more guns and less butter.

Rep. George H. Mahon (D.-Tex.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee (prime mover in all spend­ing proposals), has already served notice that Congress will try to hold down nondefense spending. "I pro­

pose that Congress thoroughly screen all proposals for new funds and take a determined stand against unnecessary or marginal spending. A policy of fiscal caution is important from the standpoint of the war effort and from the standpoint of the threat of infla­tion," he says.

Regardless of the Presidential leg­islative program, which will be re­vealed in the State of the Union mes­sage later this month, Congress has plenty of problems left over from the last session to keep it busy for some time.

Of prime importance to chemists, chemical engineers, and the chemical industry is the upcoming struggle over who should get the patent rights to in­ventions conceived under government research and development contracts. A proposal by Sen. Russell Long (D.-La.) would require the Govern­ment to take title to these patents un­der all circumstances. Other pro­posals, backed by industry, would give the patent rights to the R&D con­tractor with the Government getting a royalty-free license to use the inven­tion.

Sen. Long is already preparing for a battle on the Senate floor over pat­ent policy. His Subcommittee on Monopoly of the Small Business Com­mittee has scheduled a round of hear­ings on this subject. (The committee has no legislative authority and func­tions only in an advisory capacity.) The hearings will undoubtedly be a replay of similar hearings held by the subcommittee three years ago, when a parade of hand-picked witnesses de­nounced industrial "robber barons" who steal inventions paid for by tax­payers' money. The hearings should provide plenty of ammunition to sup­port Sen. Long's position.

The key to action is the Senate Patent Subcommittee, headed by Sen. John L. McClellan (D.-Ark.). Hav­ing held a long series of hearings dur­ing the last session of Congress, the committee should be about ready to report a bill for floor action. Sen. McClellan apparently favors a policy which would generally give industry

Rep. Mahon

Thoroughly screen new proposals

the rights to patents on inventions re­sulting from federal R&D contracts but which would give the Government a controlling interest in patents deal­ing with drugs and public health.

Two problems in the atomic energy industry will be probed by the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. One is the question of defining a finding of "practical value" for atomic reactors. Under the law, if the Atomic Energy Commission finds that a certain reactor type has practical value, this type of reactor is no longer eligible for gov­ernment financial aid.

Competition. AEC has been under pressure from the coal industry to make a finding of practical value in the case of light-water reactors on the grounds that these reactors are com­mercial and government subsidies rep­resent unfair competition. Rep. Chet Holifield (D.-Calif.), chairman of JCAE, says the committee will try to determine if the practical value test is still needed in the Atomic Energy Act. He believes that other procedures are available which will cut off subsidies to commercial reactors without going through the long, legalistic ritual re­quired to make a determination of practical value.

28 C & E N J A N . 3, 1966

Another problem JCAE will look into is how to get more competition into the atomic energy industry. Rep. Holifield is concerned that two giants (General Electric and Westinghouse) dominate the atomic power field. However, he warns, the committee cannot approve any arrangement for government support designed solely to maintain an excessive number of com­panies in the field.

The President will ask Congress to pass a law to permit educational and scientific institutions to import instru­ments duty-free, provided certain criteria are met. Each transaction now must be approved by Congress in a special bill. U.S. instrument mak­ers, fearing a flood of imported instru­ments, want assurance that the new legislation will contain adequate safe­guards. Chances are that any new legislation will adhere to present standards—certification by a govern­ment agency that the instrument or one of similar quality is not available from a U.S. maker.

No significant legislation on water and air pollution control is expected in the wake of the comprehensive con­trol bills approved in last year's ses­sion. Some Congressmen are backing a plan to give industry a tax break for installing pollution control equip­ment. However, the Administration is strongly opposed to this type of incen­tive on the grounds that it is relatively ineffective in encouraging better pol­lution control.

Congress will again consider setting federal standards for tire safety. But

if the new, tougher tire standards an­nounced last month by the Rubber Manufacturers Association impress backers of tire safety bills, the Con­gressional focus may change. New legislation may emphasize a research program as a prerequisite for develop­ing meaningful safety standards rather than immediate issuance of federal standards.

Metric. A proposal to study the feasibility of converting to the metric system, condemned to a legislative limbo for a number of years, may win Congressional approval this year. A bill authorizing the study was ap­proved last year by the Senate and the House Commerce Committee. But the House Rules Committee, in a can­tankerous mood near the end of the session, refused to clear the bill for floor action. If the Rules Committee has a change of heart, as seems likely, the study bill should clear the House easily.

Congress will continue to study pro­posals to revise the copyright laws but seems unlikely to finish this monumen­tal task this year. Even if Congress goes along with the proposed revi­sions, a major problem would still be left unsolved: How much free copy­ing of copyrighted material can be done legitimately by schools, teachers, and libraries?

Other measures still in the Con­gressional mill include development of geothermal steam on public lands, dis­posal of stockpile surpluses, and guidelines for state taxation of inter­state businesses.

Sen. Long

Preparing for patents battle

Sen. McClellan

Control of health patents

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