The Chemical World This Week WASHINGTON
SEPTEMBER
23, 1963
CONCENTRATES
• The House will go ahead with a probe of federal spending for research and development.
By a vote of 336 to 0, the House approved a resolution creating a select committee to do the investigating. The nine-man committee, headed by Rep. Carl Elliott (D.-Ala.), is to report its findings by Dec. 1, 1964. In a move designed to stave off criticism from chairmen of standing committees with jurisdiction over R&D, the House directed the probers to make use of information currently available in such committees. According to Rep. Elliott, the committee will pay special attention to total annual R&D spending, the amounts spent on research grants and contracts for work done outside the Government, and mechanisms for coordinating government research programs. ^ A proposed probe of U.S. drug makers' activities in Colombia is still alive. In a secret meeting, members of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee agreed to hold a series of closed-door sessions with drug firms, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, and U.S. Government representatives in the next few months. On the basis of the testimony received, the subcommittee will decide whether to drop the inquiry or hold full-scale public hearings, says Sen. Philip A. Hart (D.-Mich.), successor as subcommittee chairman to the late Sen. Estes Kefauver. The U.S. drug firms are charged with conspiring to prevent the sale of low-cost drugs in Colombia (C&EN, June 10, page 19.) ^ The Customs Bureau suspects that chromic acid from Australia is being dumped on the
U.S. market. Customs has ordered its agents to delay final assessments of duties on chromic acid imports from Australia pending completion of a study on whether the product is being sold here at prices below those prevailing in Australia. ^ States and cities would have authority to veto atomic reactor construction within their boundaries under a bill introduced by Rep. Leonard Farbstein (D.-N.Y.). H.R. 8448 would amend the Atomic Energy Act to read, "Nothing in this act shall be construed to preempt the power of any state or political subdivision thereof to prohibit the construction or maintenance of nuclear devices or facilities within the territorial limits of such state or political subdivision thereof." Rep. Farbstein's bill is aimed at block-
ing construction of an atomic power plant in Queens, a borough of New York City. Many residents oppose the project because they feel it would be dangerous to locate an atomic reactor in such a heavily populated area. Earlier this year, when the New York City Council was considering an ordinance to outlaw the proposed plant, the Atomic Energy Commission ruled that the city had no jurisdiction under the Atomic Energy Act. ^ FDA opposes consolidating laws controlling veterinary drugs and medicated feeds. At
hearings before the House Subcommittee on Health and Safety, George P. Larrick, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said that passage of H.R. 7247 would reduce the public health protection provided by current regulations. H.R. 7247, which proposes to consolidate the safety and effectiveness provisions of the present laws as they relate to veterinary drugs and medicated animal feeds, would actually repeal a number of important health protection provisions of the law, Commissioner Larrick charges. However, representatives of the manufacturers of veterinary drugs argue that the bill would merely make it easier to get approval of new drugs and eliminate apparent conflicts in regulations. It would not increase hazards to health in any way, they say. ^ AID's foreign investment guaranty program continues to expand. An agreement expanding guaranty coverage in Ecuador is the 21st bilateral agreement negotiated between the Agency for International Development and other countries in the past 12 months. Under the guaranty program, AID insures U.S. investors, both individuals and companies, against inability to convert local currency into dollars, against loss due to expropriation, war, insurrection, and revolution, and certain other commercial and political risks. ^ Higher patent fees would be authorized by a
bill introduced by Rep. Melvin R. Laird (R.Wis.). H.R. 8420 would increase substantially the fees now charged by the Patent Office for its regular services. This approach to making the Patent Office more nearly self-supporting is favored by the chemical industry, which frowns on proposals for maintenance fees (C&EN, July 15, page 27). SEPT.
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