Pentagon stalls funds for technology institute

For at least two months, the National Science Foundation has been poised to announce the establishment of what is probably the most anticipated and, many say, overdue technology policy body ever devised by the U.S. government—the Critical Technologies Institute (CTI). Nothing but white noise, however, has emerged from NSF during that time, and, upset, it blames the Pentagon for the inaction. The bureaucratic hassle seems oversized for something that will hire no more than 50 people. But CTI has generated lots of sparks since it was first conceived by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D.-N.M.) in 1989. CTI is expected to be the technological nexus of the U.S. government—the place where the executive branch tracks globally important technologies and devises strategies to ensure U.S. strength in fields such as manufacturing of biotechnology products, electronic optics, and ceramics and composites. Bingaman included $5 million for CTI in the fiscal 1991 defense appropriations bill, essentially forcing ...