Budget Official Urges Cost-Sharing

WASHINGTON—Cost-sharing arrangements and user fees may take on new prominence in the scientific community with the appointment of a federal official who has applied that approach successfully to federal water projects. Robert K. Dawson, named last month as associate director for natural resources, energy and science within the Office of Management and Budget, believes the private sector should share the cost of federal programs as one step in curbing the budget deficit. He has spent the past six years with the Army's Corps of Engineers, most recently as assistant secretary for civil works, where he won praise for overseeing passage last fall of the $16 billion Water Resources Act. "His clear understanding of the administration's and the department's goals, and his ability to manage effectively, have led to major accomplishments," reads the distinguished civilian service award he received when he left the Pentagon May 3. "Especially noteworthy was his role in shifting a significant portion of the cost of federal water programs to the beneficiaries." A 41-year-old lawyer from Alabama, Dawson spent nine years with the House Public Works Committee before moving to the Corps of Engineers in the first months of the Reagan administration. In his new job he oversees such programs as the National Science Foundation, NASA and EPA and the departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Energy and Interior. "I'm convinced there's a lot more that government can do in such areas as sharing the cost of programs with the beneficiaries," he explained in an interview from his office next door to the White House. "You'd be surprised how the appetite of local sponsors shrinks when they learn they are going to pay for programs that had been free." The Political View Dawson admits that he knows little about most of the scientific programs his office manages, and that he plans to rely on experts on his staff and among the various agencies for details of specific activities. Asked about the administration's overall goals for science, he responsed by reading from an administration policy statement, entitled "A Quest for Excellence." However, political observers say it's nearly impossible for a top-level manager to really understand what the federal government is doing in so many areas of science. "There isn't a person alive who is familiar with all these programs," noted Tom Skirbunt of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "Bob's talent is his capacity to work with Congress. He's a negotiator, not an economic ideologue. At the same time, anybody who thinks he's not a very conservative fellow doesn't know Bob Dawson." Loyalty to the president has always been an important criterion for this highly political job. "He emerged from a very political position in the Corps with the continued support of the administration and his conservative credentials intact," observed Edward Osann, director of the water resources program at the National Wildlife Federation. "And he actually accomplished something, too. The philosophy of this administration fits him like a glove." Dawson said he's "fascinated by the tension" between government support for such big-ticket science items as SDI, the space station and the Superconducting Supercollider and the need to reduce the federal deficit. And, although he doesn't pretend to have all the answers, he's prepared to offer the science community some advice. "The key to managing the federal budget is the realization that there's no money," he said. "What's impressed me is how beneficiaries can come to Washington and argue that there is no need for limits. "In fact, these people, in universities and elsewhere, are often in the best position to come up with innovative ways to reduce spending. But as long as the money is being shoveled out, they figure it's better not to say anything." He cautioned that the situation was changing. "As a consumer of federal money," he said, "I would make sure I was in the strongest possible position to sustain the budget cuts and belt-tightening that lie ahead." Mervis is on the staff of The Scientist.

Budget Official Urges Cost-Sharing

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