John Danforth: “if the Chair would notify me when 10 minutes have expired, I would appreciate it. Mr. President, let me attempt to…”

“if the Chair would notify me when 10 minutes have expired, I would appreciate it. Mr. President, let me attempt to answer some of the questions asked by various Senators but especially by the Senator from Connecticut. There is no doubt that research is very good, and there is no doubt that technology is very good; that they do promise great things for the future of this country, and that they are the pride and joy of this country. That really is not the issue. The issue is what is to be the role of Government? To what extent should we in Government get ourselves entangled in the process of research and development decisionmaking which otherwise would take place in the private marketplace? I would like to make about three points with respect to this legislation. The first has to do with overall cost. It is a little bit of apples and oranges, I suppose, in that there are brand new programs which are created in this bill. But in the areas covered, in the general thematic areas covered in this legislation, this bill represents a very dramatic increase in dollars. I do not think there is any doubt about that. This is not just ratcheting up or building on something that has been going on in the past. This really is an increase in dollars. In 1993, $389 million were appropriated for these programs--389. In 1994, the figure has grown to 526--$526 million, and this bill would authorize $1.37 billion for 1995, and $1.478 billion for 1996.…”