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1970 ALLIED 600-PAGE INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS CATALOG 600 pages, over 60,000 items—by far the largest, most comprehensive electronics catalog in the world. Circle reader service card for your free copy, or send postcard to: ALLIED ELECTRONICS Dept. 676 100 N. Western Ave., Chicago, III. 60680
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P&B RELAYS
Allied stocks Potter & Brumfield relays in depth: general purpose, special purpose, power, high performance, mercury wetted contact, reed, time delay and telephone types.
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C & E N SEPT. 1, 1969
FEDERAL AFFAIRS
By Louis A. Agnello, Assistant Managing Editor
Pollution: The "Mr. Clean" contest Whatever its other accomplishments, the 91st Congress will probably be best remembered for having provided the nation with its first clearly defined policy on environmental quality and the mechanism to ensure that it will be carried out. It will be, that is, if some of its members start to show more concern about getting the needed legislation on the books, and less about who gets credit for it. The art of politics being what it is, any subject with as much voter appeal as has environmental quality is bound to attract a sizable following of professional glory seekers. But when even acknowledged Congressional leaders in the fight against pollution are willing to engage in the kind of wheeling and dealing, infighting, and the like that has been going on behind the scenes for the title of "Mr. Clean 1969," one cannot help but question the sincerity of the entire effort. Consider, for example, the feud in the Senate between the forces of Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D.-Me.), chairman of the public works pollution subcommittee, and those of interior committee chairman Sen. Henry Jackson (D.-Wash.). The Muskie camp is up in arms over the alleged "grandstand play" of Sen. Jackson in hustling his "National Environmental Policy Act of 1969" (S. 1075) through the Senate this year. The bill would set forth a statement of national policy on environmental quality. It also would establish an independent Board of Environmental Quality Advisors to advise and assist the President on all environmental matters. But to hear them tell it, Sen. Muskie's people regard the environment as their exclusive domain. They regard the Jackson crowd as upstart opportunists who are trying to horn in on the glory. To head off the Jackson threat, they threw together a bill of their own calling for the creation of an Office of Environmental Quality in the executive branch to do essentially the same job as Sen. Jackson's proposed advisory board. Sen. Jackson proved to be an opportunist, indeed, when he managed to get his bill passed on the consent calendar (thus bypassing floor debate) with only a handful of his colleagues on the floor at the time. At this point, the Muskie forces withdrew their now-defunct bill and tacked it onto the Water Quality Act (S. 7 ) . Meanwhile, the political maneuvering and string-pulling has been equally intricate in the House. Items: Rep. John D. Dingle (D.Mich.), who last year introduced a bill to create an independent Council on Environmental Quality, which was referred to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, rewrote the bill this year as an amendment to the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act so it would be sent to his own Merchant Marine & Fisheries Subcommittee. And Rep. Henry Reuss (D.-Wis.) dealt himself into the environmental quality game by borrowing liberally from the bills of others and taking advantage of his position as chairman of the new Government Operations Subcommittee on Conservation & Natural Resources to stage a oneday, one-witness hearing on the resulting mishmash. When Congress broke for its summer vacation, the Jackson bill still had not been referred to a House committee. The Muskie and Jackson forces were barely speaking. The Dingle bill was out of committee only to be lodged in the Rules Committee where, reportedly, the White House was bringing pressure to bear to stall the measure. Congress is almost certain to agree on some sort of policy statement on environmental quality. The chances are good, too, that it will override the wishes of the White House and create an independent advisory body on environmental quality. The only uncertainty seems to be whether some members and their staffs can subordinate their political egos long enough to do so.
