Clinton's Science Adviser Faces Array Of Challenges

During 13 years as director of the Office of Technology Assessment, the job of John H. Gibbons--President Bill Clinton's choice as White House science adviser--was largely a balancing act. He had to provide Congress with independent, authoritative analysis of technical and scientific questions while treading gingerly amid divergent political views, bureaucratic turf battles, and special-interest "stakeholders." Washington observers familiar with OTA's track record give Gibbons high marks for leading the agency through potential minefields--including nuclear power and other environmentally sensitive energy issues, Star Wars missile defense research, genetic engineering, electronic surveillance, and health care policy. In the face of controversy, OTA's role has been not to take sides, but instead to prepare comprehensive, dispassionate assessments of the available data, and then offer a balanced selection of possible policy options. Characteristically, Gibbons's initial public remarks after being appointed by Clinton have also been carefully balanced. "Our security and prosperity depend, as never before, on the sustained support of science and the thoughtful use of technology," Gibbons said at a December 24 news conference in Little Rock, Ark. "I stress both science and technology because they are so interdependent. They sustain each other; neither can advance without the help of the other." In an apparent effort to assuage concerns of United States scientists that the new administration may focus heavily on technology-related issues, instead of fostering basic research, Gibbons declared: "We place very great weight on the intrinsic value of basic science, out of which has flowed extraordinary and often unanticipated benefits to society, including enormous enrichment of the human spirit." Gibbons, 63, himself was trained as a physicist and did research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in nuclear geophysics--including experimental studies on the origins of the solar system's heavy elements--before serving in 1969-73 as director of Oak Ridge's environmental program. In 1973-74 he worked in Washington, D.C., as director of the Office of Energy Conservation at the Federal Energy Administration, predecessor of the Department of Energy. From 1974 until his appointment to head OTA in 1979, Gibbons was a professor of physics and director of the Energy, Environment, and Resources Center at the University of Tennessee. In his new position, Gibbons succeeds Allan Bromley, a Yale physics professor who was recruited by the Bush administration in 1989. As with Bromley, Gibbons will be wearing two hats--as assistant to the president for science and technology as well as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The director's post requires Senate confirmation. Regarding his new boss, Gibbons says that Clinton has "been involved, I believe, more substantively and personally in his choices than any prior president I know about." As for Al Gore, Gibbons says he met with the vice president only briefly, after accepting Clinton's offer. But he notes that from years of dealing with various science and technology issues in Congress, he and Gore have developed "a very good relationship. I have a great respect for his many abilities and his commitments to a variety of issues." Rep. George E. Brown (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, says, in a statement released by his committee office, that Clinton's choice of Gibbons "is an especially welcome move to Congress, which has had the benefit of Jack's good advice on science and technology for over a decade." Brown says in the statement that as a specialist on environmental issues, Gibbons "knows the importance of environmental protection, and the increasingly important role that `green technology' will play in U.S. competitiveness." Also, he says, Gibbons's work at Oak Ridge "gives him a good insight into the future role of the national laboratories in the post-Cold War era." Fred W. Weingarten, who worked under Gibbons at OTA for 10 years as a program manager for communications and information technology, says that "Jack is, in the very good sense of the word, a Washington science bureaucrat.... He knows how to serve the political process. And he's been exposed to--even though he's not an expert in--a wide range of policy areas." Weingarten, who is currently executive director of the Washington-based Computer Research Association, a group representing primarily academic computer scientists, does anticipate some disappointment over the choice of Gibbons: "I would expect that there will be some carping ... that he does not have a reputation as a working, Nobel Prize-winning-type scientist, and is not very well known in the scientific community outside the [Washington] Beltway." Rep. Robert S. Walker, ranking Republican on the House science committee, says of Gibbons, "I think he's very capable." He adds, however, that Gibbons is "pretty heavily oriented in the direction that I'm not particularly in favor of--industrial policy. So I think the Clinton administration will get someone who is familiar with the various policy options and policy debates on industrial policy." Walker and other Republican legislators, as well as several Bush administration officials, have criticized the idea of trying to implement a national "industrial policy"--largely on the grounds that it would involve the government in "picking winners and losers" among U.S. companies and otherwise getting too closely involved in decisions that should be left to executives and managers in the private sector. A number of Washington-based science policy specialists, officials of scientific societies, and representatives of public interest groups dealing with energy and environmental issues have been largely upbeat in reacting to the appointment. Erich Bloch, a former director of the National Science Foundation who is currently a distinguished fellow at the privately funded Council on Competitiveness, notes that he and Gibbons "have worked very closely together. I think it's a very good choice. I think Jack knows the town, knows the government, knows Congress Jeremy J. Stone, president of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), says he believes Clinton made a "superb" appointment in picking Gibbons. Stone observes that in 1990, FAS gave its annual public service award to Gibbons, citing him for serving as "the anchor of OTA in Washington's deep waters." Robert Park, public affairs director for the American Physical Society and a professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, comments that "I think it's a brilliant choice. Gibbons is a very bright guy." Park says the Gibbons appointment marks a "transition" from the situation during previous administrations when frequently "the science adviser was sort of the nation's chief scientist--a distinguished scientist who is widely known for his scientific accomplishments .... "This is clearly a change from that. And I think it was absolutely essential if they're going to make it work with Al Gore being some sort of science and technology czar. My concern from the beginning was: How could that possibly work? And they've got exactly the guy who can make it work. He's a politically savvy facilitator, who won't upstage the vice president." Charles Chambers, executive director of the American Institute of Biological Sciences--a federation of 50 scientific societies, laboratories, and museums involved with biological research--says he views the choice of Gibbons as "in line with the pragmatic approach that Mr. Clinton is taking with a number of his appointments.... It also showed a desire to really be effective on the Hill with science policy" in that Gibbons "is really well respected in terms of policy analysis." Bill Magavern, director of Critical Mass Energy Project, a Washington-based group--part of Public Citizen, a public interest organization founded by Ralph Nader--that has been outspoken on safety, environmental, and other issues associated with nuclear power, calls the Gibbons appointment a "good choice." "Gibbons has done a good job at OTA, and has helped to establish their credibility as an independent source on scientific and technical issues," Magavern says. "We haven't always agreed with them, but for the most part we respect their work." Carol Werner, energy program director for the Environmental & Energy Institute, another public interest group based in Washington, says about Gibbons: "My organization has dealt with him for a number of years, and with his staff at OTA. I think that he's somebody who is very thoughtful, nonideological. And he approaches things with a lot of common sense."

Clinton's Science Adviser Faces Array Of Challenges

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