PCAST Members Ready To Speak; President Seems Ready To Listen

Bush has attended each of the White House panel's meetings, raising hopes that PCAST will have an impact on science policy WASHINGTON -- On the job for barely three months, the members of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology are pleased that President Bush has attended at least a portion of each of their meetings. Powerful figures in their own right, they know that direct access to the Oval Office is one important measure of political clout in this city. But the 12 me

Written byJeffrey Mervis

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Bush has attended each of the White House panel's meetings, raising hopes that PCAST will have an impact on science policy

WASHINGTON -- On the job for barely three months, the members of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology are pleased that President Bush has attended at least a portion of each of their meetings. Powerful figures in their own right, they know that direct access to the Oval Office is one important measure of political clout in this city.

But the 12 members of PCAST say that access is not enough. It's the message that matters, they say. And they add that the jury's still out on whether they will actually make a difference in shaping U.S. science and technology policy in the 1990s.

"I don't think that we'll have any problem being heard," says Harold Shapiro, president of Princeton University. "The challenge is to have ...

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