Adams, M. C., vice president and general manager, Avco Systems Division, Avco Corp., to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated February 7, Barnes, E. B., president, Dow Chemical U.S.A., Midland, Mich., to Hon. Harold T. Johnson, dated February 1, 1972- Bolles, Blair, vice president, Government relations, Colt Industries, to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated February 1, 1972__-. Bush, Philip D., vice president, Kaiser Engineers, division of Kaiser Industries Corp., to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated February 4, Fluor, J. R., chairman, Fluor Corp., Los Angeles, Calif., to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated February 4, 1972_. Gianelli, Bill, director, Department of Water Resources, State of California, to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated February 4, 1972_. Heinz, John W., (for J. W. O'Meara) Office of Saline Water, to Hon. Harold T. Johnson, dated March 23, 1972 (plus table) --. Klopp, R. P., president, Catalytic, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa., to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated February 4, 1972---- Laird, Alan D. K., director, Sea Water Conversion Laboratory, Uni- versity of California, Berkeley, to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated Owen, Langden W., secretary manager, Orange County Water Dis- Roberts, Dr. E. R., president, Envirogenics Co., to Hon. Wayne N. 76 Roe, Kenneth A., chairman and president, Burns and Roe, Inc., 77 Title 3-The President, memorandum of August 23, 1971. Tinsley, W. E., chairman, Texas Water Development Board, to Hon. Additional information: Brownsville prototype financing (supplied by Mr. Strobel). Representative organizations that have objected to OWS's patent (III) FISCAL YEAR 1973 SALINE WATER CONVERSION AUTHORIZATION MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1972 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION, OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:45 a.m., in room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Harold T. Johnson, (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. JOHNSON. The Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation will come to order. The purpose of our meeting this morning is to hear testimony concerning H.R. 12749, to authorize appropriations for the saline water conversion program for fiscal year 1973, and for other purposes. This legislation which was cosponsored by several members of the subcommittee results from a draft bill forwarded to the Speaker by an executive communication dated January 24, 1972, and which was signed by James R. Smith, Assistant Secretary of the Interior. The executive communication has been distributed to all members of the subcommittee and is before each member now. At this time, I will, unless objection is heard, place a copy of H.R. 12749 in the record to be followed immediately by the executive communication which I have just described. The attached material relating to the patent rights program will also be included at this point. Mr. SAYLOR. Reserving the right to object, what comment patent? The first two, of course, are all right. What is the third? Mr. JOHNSON. The third is the present patent policy. Is there further objection? Mr. SAYLOR. No. Mr. JOHNSON. Hearing none, so ordered. (The documents referred to follow :) H.R. 12749 A bill to authorize appropriations for the saline water conversion program for fiscal year 1973 to delete section 6(d) of the Saline Water Conversion Act, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is authorized to be appropriated to carry out the provisions of the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971 (85 Stat. 159) during fiscal year 1973, the sum of $26,871,000 to remain available until expended as follows: (1) Research expense, not more than $5,850,000; (2) Development expense, not more than $12,131,000; (3) Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion test beds and test facilities, not more than $5,085,000; (1) (4) Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion modules, not more than $1,075,000; and (5) Administration and coordination, not more than $2,730,000. Expenditures and obligations under paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4) of this subsection may be increased by not more than 10 per centum and expenditures and obligations under paragraph (5) may be increased by not more than 2 per centum, if any such increase under any paragraph is accompanied by an equal decrease in expendiutres and obligations under one or more of the other paragraphs. SEC. 2. Section 6(d) of the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-60; 85 Stat. 159) is deleted and sections 6(e) and 6(f) thereof are redesignated sections 6(d) and 6 (e) respectively. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D.C., January 24, 1972. DEAR MR. SPEAKER: Enclosed is a draft of a proposed bill "To authorize appropriations for the Saline Water Conversion Program for fiscal year 1973, to delete section 6(d) of the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971, and for other purposes." We recommend that the bill be referred to the appropriate committee for consideration, and we recommend that it be enacted. Fiscal year 1973 appropriation authorization The legislation under which the Office of Saline Water conducts its program, the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-60; 85 Stat. 159), authorizes "to be appropriated such sums, to remain available until expended, as may be specified in annual appropriation authorization acts." In order to meet fiscal year 1973 program requirements, we propose an approprition of $26,871,000 be authorized to conduct the desalting reserch and development program as follows: I. Research expense, $5,850,000; II. Development expense, $12,131,000; III. Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion test beds and test facilities, $5,085,000; IV. Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion modules, $1,075,000; and V. Administration and coordination $2,730,000. The amount approprated for fiscal year 1972 included $2,500,000 for the construction of two test beds ($2,100,000) and for modifications to test beds ($400,000). Since these are nonrecurring items, the amount requested for fiscal year 1973 represents an increase of $2,443,713 over the fiscal year 1972 net program. This increase also includes funds to cover first-year costs of projects initiated during fiscal year 1972 such as operation of the two new test beds, the Fountain Valley Test Facility, and VTE/MSF Module Operation. Major changes in each of these categories from the fiscal year 1972 program of $26,927,287 are described as follows: Research expense shows an increase of $415,000. Increases are required to conduct an intensive research program on sea water mebrances, geothermal, brines, hat transfer and materials, and new freezing processes. Development expense contains a net increase of $1,958,513. The increase in this program includes construction of a new process freezing pilot plant, development of sea water and brackish water reverse osmosis systems, operation of reverse osmosis and distillation pilot plants, and test components being constructed during fiscal year 1972. Funds are also provided for development work on desalting geothermal waters. Preliminary desalting investigations and cooperative studies will continue. Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion test beds and test facilities reflects a decrease of $2,209,800. For fiscal year 1972 this category included authorization for two reverse osmosis test beds and modifications to existing plants amounting to $2,500,000, which is not included in the category this year. But increases for the category are shown for first-year operation of the two reverse osmosis test beds, increased maintenance and operating cost, and modernization of facilities that have been operating for as long as 9 years without being updated to modern technology. Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion modules is decreased by $340,000 due to reductions in the operating requirements of the multistage flash distillation module. Administration and coordination shows an increase of $120,000. No additional positions are requested. Additional funds are requested to cover cost of increased man-years of employment in positions previously authorized. Environmental effects-The program that will be carried out under Public Law 92-60 during fiscal year 1973 will not have significant environmental effects beyond those described in the environmental statement submitted with this Department's proposed legislation "To expand and extend the desalting program being conducted by the Secretary of the Interior" forwarded to the Congress by executive communication dated April 1, 1971. Such legislation is substantially in accord with Public Law 92-60. Should future actions under this program involve significant environmental effects are not previously covered by an environmental impact statement prepared under section 102 (2) (C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, such a statement will be prepared and circulated in accordance with the Act's requirements. Deletion of section 6(d) of the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971 In addition to authorizing fiscal year 1973 appropriations, the proposed bill would delete section 6(d) of the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971 under which the OSW program is carried on. Section 6(d) provides: (d) All research within the United States contracted for, sponsored, cosponsored, or authorized under authority of this Act, shall be provided for in such manner that all information, uses, products, processes, patents, and other developments resulting from such research developed by Government expenditure will (with such exceptions and limitations, if any, as the Secretary may find to be necessary in the interest of national defense) be available to the general public. This subsection shall not be so construed as to deprive the owner of any background patent relating thereto of such rights as he may have thereunder. Within six months of the date of this Act, the Secretary shall publish rules in the Federal Register to give effect to the provisions of this subsection and shall subsequently publish all revisions in the same manner. The effect of deleting this provision from the Act would be to bring "information, uses, products, processes, patents and other developments resulting from research developed by Government expenditure" in the Saline Water Conversion Program under general Federal policy. For inventions and discoveries made under Government sponsored grants and contracts, Federal policy is currently embodied in a Presidential Memorandum of August 23, 1971, dealing with Government Patent Policy (36 FR 16887-16892), a copy of which is attached hereto. This policy applies "subject to specific statutes governing the disposition of patent rights of certain Government agencies" such as section 6(d) of the Act. In the opinion of the Solicitor's Office of this Department, section 6(d) precludes the application of general Federal policy and inventions and discoveries developed under the Saline Water Conversion Program must be made "available to the public" on a royalty-free, nonexclusive basis. Situations have, however, arisen in the program where we believe the public interest would best be served through a grant of patent rights to contractors and others as provided for by the general Federal policy memorandum. In such circumstances, granting greater rights to inventions and discoveries may result in their more rapid development in accordance with the public interest. The Presidential Memorandum provides appropriate guidelines, desirable flexibility and consistent treatment for the use of information developed under Federal sponsorship and we believe it is superior to the present provisions of section 6(d). The Office of Management and Budget has advised that this proposed legislation is in accord with the program of the President. Sincerely yours, Enclosures. JAMES R. SMITH, Assistant Secretary of the Interior. |