Nat. Biol. Service

[Elaine Hoagland, ASC]

There is hope that we have managed to save the NBS ... after intense
work by ASC, the Audubon Society, and others, a compromise has been
proposed that would move the NBS to a Science directorate within the DOI
(along with the USGS) and change the name once again, this time to
something like "Bureau of Biological Research". The budget would be cut
for 1996 to $145 Million, down from $167 Million. We can live with this
.. the program infrastructure would remain. Already in its short
existence, NBS has provided funds to several systematics institutions,
including the Ill. Nat. Hist. Survey, North Carolina State Museum,
University of Florida, and Bishop Museum. They are planning a program in
partnership with NSF that could help fund surveys and inventories, and
we are also working on database funding. They are paying for a database
on taxonomic expertise to be established, along with one on museum
resources (collections and databases). We need to tell the House
Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Interior, that we strongly
urge them to adopt the compromise at their meeting next Tuesday, June
20. Call the cmte at (202) 225-3081. Deborah Weatherly is the contact
person at the committee. Ralph Regula is chair of the subcommittee.0

ÿÿ    Nat. Biol. Service                                                      1.