Bentsen’s record on scientific issues suggests he may be primarily motivated by economic concerns— in particular, growth for Texas. But those interests have coincided with efforts to advance science in three areas—the superconducting supercollider, the R&D tax credit, and continued research on the Stategic Defense Initiative. In fact, Bentsen joined the Senate Com merce, Science and Transportation Committee in 1987, according to a committee staffer, so he could play a larger role in such matters.
Bentsen has been most outspoken on space issues, in large part because of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. In the last two years, he has joined other Democrats in seeking the reinstitution of a National Space Council to set national space policy. That body, which the Reagan administration strongly opposes, was eliminated by President Nixon in 1973. Last year Bentsen won authorization, but no money, for a bill to provide competitive grants to universities ...
