Position paper. Cutting the NSF‐OSIS budget: Potential disaster for information science and technology

The Budget of the United States Government for FY 1975 clearly shows that the shapers of public opinion and the makers of public policy do not understand what we are about and what we do. In FY 1975, the National Science Foundation's program and facilities obligations will be close to $600,000,000. Estimated obligations for FY 1974 are $569,000,000. This is an increase of nearly $30,000,000. The accompanying narrative states that this increase “reflects the administration's support for fundamental knowledge necessary for economic growth and long‐range solutions of problems of national concern.” The OSIS estimated obligations for the same period are $8,000,000 in FY 1974 and $5,000,000 in FY 1975. Even the Office of Management and Budget would not have made a 40% cut from the OSIS FY 1974 budget if it had understood the importance of information science, or if it had felt that a cohesive, vocal and strong profession with some congressional friends might be heard from. The following is the statement submitted by Joshua I. Smith on behalf of ASIS to the Subcommittee on Science Research and Development of the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives on the National Science Foundation Authorization Act 1975, H.R. 12816, regarding science information systems, 19 March 1974.