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Vol. 92 No. 165 (6 pages) 1893 - A Century of Service to Texas A&M - 1993 Tuesday, June 29,1993
NASA space station survives drastic budget cuts
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The space
station, nearly killed last week by
lawmakers who scorned its cost
and scientific promise, faced a sec
ond survival test Monday as the
House took up NASA's money
bill for next year.
Both sides hunted for last-
minute swing votes, and Speaker
Tom Foley, D-Wash., said he
might even have to cast a rare
vote in order to keep the space
station alive.
Last week, foes fell just one
vote short, 216-215, of scuttling
the space station when the House
debated a bill authorizing NASA
to spend $12.7 billion in the next
seven years on the project.
Monday's vote was on the ac
tual appropriation bill for the Na
tional Aeronautics and Space Ad
ministration and several other
agencies. It would give NASA $15
billion for the 1994 fiscal year,
with $2.1 billion of that for the
space station. Earlier this month.
President Clinton backed a scaled-
down version of the station.
The government has spent $9
billion on the space station. NASA
has yet to produce hardware
ready to fly.
"Every dollar spent on the
space station is a dollar less spent
on other programs," said Rep.
Dick Zimmer, R-NJ., one of the
key opponents.
"Some say the hard choice is to
kill the space station," said Rep.
Jim Bacchus, D-Fla. "I say the hard
choice is to see through all the
rhetoric and look to the future."
"Not all science is pork," said
Rep. Bob Walker, R-Pa., adding
that if Congress continued to cut
research, "Congress will be
known not for its vision, but for
the relegation of this country to a
second-class technological pow
er." i
Killing the project "is not going
to give you one penny of deficit
reduction," Walker said, and pre
dicted any savings would just get
funneled to social welfare spend
ing or other space projects.
The overall bill spends $88 bil
lion for the year starting Oct. 1
for the Veterans' Affairs and
Housing and Urban Develop
ment departments, plus indepen
dent agencies such as the Envi
ronmental Protection Agency and
the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration.
Bacchus dismissed arguments
that the space station takes away
from other programs in the bill.
EPA gets $269 million more
than the president requested; vet
erans get $113 million more; and
housing receives $398 million
more, Bacchus said. The NASA
funding is $708 million less than
what Clinton wanted, he said.
The NASA authorization bill
that barely passed the bill last
week requires only that the station
be designed to provide scientific
and engineering research in low
Earth orbit, that it be capable of
being permanently manned and
that it be able to accommodate in
ternational partners who have
spent $4 billion.
Earlier in the year, Clinton had
ordered that drastic cuts be made
in the space station construction
and operating costs. He was pre
sented with three versions, all
more expensive than the $5 bil
lion, $7 billion and $9 billion op
tions he requested.
He chose a hybrid that would
cost $16 billion by the year 2001
when the station would be ready
to accommodate four astronauts
permanently.
Texas projects mired in funding concerns
By CARRIE MIURA
The Battalion
The controversy that has sur
rounded two Texas projects did
not end with last week's U. S.
House vote to cut the super con
ducting super collider (SSC) and
to go ahead with funding for the
space station.
An amendment against abol
ishing the space project passed
the House Wednesday, by a 216-
215 vote.
In order to continue work on
the NASA space station, the
space agency must now limit its
staff by 30 percent and cut other
programs.
The super-collider project
was abolished Thursday by a
280-150 vote.
With the huge budget deficit
in mind, many are questioning
the funding of the two Texas
projects.
Linda Mills, press assistant to
Rep. Bill Archer, R-Houston,
who favors the passage of the
space station, but rejects the su
per collider, said with the high
deficit the U.S. has now, budget
cuts need to be encouraged.
In a questionnaire issued by
See Funding/Page 2
Clinton: 'back to domestic agenda'
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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WASHINGTON — Swiftly turning from the U.S.
missile strike on Iraq, President Clinton said Monday
he's focusing his attention back on America's econom
ic problems. Vice President A1 Gore warned Saddam
Hussein it would be unwise to retaliate for the attack.
Clinton said Saturday's assault crippled Saddam's
intelligence capacity, although Pentagon officials
said Iraq could use backup locations.
"I think other terrorists around the world need to
know that the United States will do what we can to
combat terrorism," the president said.
Clinton made a pointed effort to demonstrate he
was not consumed by his first major showdown with
Saddam. And White House officials said the attack
was not intended to boost Clinton's political standing.
Summoning his Cabinet, Clinton said he wanted
to "move on to other matters, that we go back to the
domestic agenda."
"I'm anxious to go forward," the president said.
He said he was concentrating on House-Senate
negotiations on his deficit-reduction plan, next
week's economic summit in Tokyo and swift action
by Congress on his national service program.
Clinton said he did not know if he would get a po
litical boost from the strike.
"I have no idea," he said. "I did my job. It was my
job and I did it the best I could. ... It was the right
thing to do for the United States and I feel quite com
fortable with it."
In light of the missile attack and the arrests of peo
ple accused of terrorism in New York, Clinton said,
"I think the American people know enough about
terrorism to know that it is always a potential prob
lem but we are going to be very aggressive in dealing
with it."
White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said
politics didn't play any role in Clinton's decision.
"It absolutely was not part of the calculation. Ab
solutely was not," Myers emphasized.
See Clinton/Page 2
A&M bus operations to change shuttle routes
By JAMES BERNSEN
The Battalion
Texas A&M shuttle bus routes
Howdy and Rudder will change
July 6 because of increased traffic
and decreased occupancy on
campus.
Sherryl Wine, assistant manag
er of bus operations, said Howdy
and Rudder will no longer include
Lamar and Lubbock Streets be
cause of the high volume of
pedestrian and other traffic on
those streets.
"Right turns on those small
streets were hazardous," she said.
Eleni Lyristis, a shuttle bus dri
ver who has driven A&M buses
for almost three years, said on the
Rudder route, traffic is often very
congested, especially in the late af
ternoon.
"The places we stop are some
times very busy, and pedestrians
are often walking in the intersec
tions," she said, "I think that in
the long run, these changes will
help out."
The buses will also go only
clockwise along their routes to de
crease congestion and to increase
efficiency, she said.
Wine said Bus Operation's
larger buses will be used on those
routes to take up the excess capac
ity created by eliminating the
counter-clockwise routes.
Rudder will also include new
stops on Bizzell Street and Lewis
Street to allow residents of South-
side dormitories to continue to
have access to the bus.
Southside residents previously
boarded Rudder on Lubbock
Street.
Wine said surveys conducted
in the Fall semester show a de
creasing trend in the numbers of
passengers on the off-campus Fish
Camp and Ol' Sarge buses.
"We've combined routes be
fore," Wine said. "About three or
four semesters ago, we combined
Aggieland and Twelfth Man into a
new route called Traditions."
Wine said one change to off-
campus routes includes Reveille,
which will no longer run near
Brookside Apartments because of
a decline in passengers.
Lyristis said although some
people hate change. Bus Opera
tions conducts extensive research
before changes are made, and
from her experience, the areas tak
en off routes usually have few
people who ride them.
Submarine team wins experience at contest
By STEPHANIE PATTILLO
The Battalion
Although the Texas A&M submarine team re
turned from the Third Annual International Human
Powered Submarine Race Sunday night without a
victory, they say they gained invaluable experience
from the competition.
This was the second year in a row that a team of
ocean engineering students competed in the Interna
tional Human Powered Submarine Race. The 12-
person A&M team competed with 45 other other uni
versities such as MIT, the Naval Academy, and
Texas A&M at Galveston as well as private compa
nies and European teams in Ft.Lauderdale, Fla., last
week.
According to the Texas Engineering Experiment
Station, the race is held to "raise awareness of chal
lenges posed by ocean exploration and let students
test their knowledge of submarine design, construc
tion and operation."
Fifteen graduate and undergraduate students in
the department designed and constructed a two-per
son human-powered submarine.
Control problems caused the the vessel, "Argo" to
be eliminated early from the overall race. Dr. Jack
Lou, ocean engineering professor faculty adviser
said.
James Soliah, team leader and senior ocean engi
neering student said the 14-foot submarine was elim
inated after two attempts to submerge it in the water.
"We were fast, but there was a problem with the
weights in the front and the back of the boat," he
said.
Soliah said the vessel shot out of the water like a
rocket because the tail of the submarine was heavier
See Submarine/Page 2
Studying hard
MARY MA CM A NUS/Thc Battalion
Enduring the elements to study. Holly Thompson, a junior
accounting major from Austin, reads outside the library on Monday
afternoon.
Serbs, Croats
agree to truce,
urge end to
15-month war
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA — Serbs and Croats
agreed Monday on a nationwide
truce and troop pullback that
would take effect if all three war
ring factions work out a settle
ment of the 15-month war in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The two former enemies also
agreed that a transitional body rep
resenting the three factions should
govern until new political arrange
ments take hold, Bosnian Serb
leader Radovan Karadzic said.
"I do think it was very, very
important day," Karadzic told re
porters after a meeting with Bosn
ian Croat leader Mate Boban and
international mediators. "Serbs
and Croats are going on toward
an overall agreement."
The accords further isolated
Bosnia's Muslim president, Alija
Izetbegovic, who has refused to
negotiate over a Serb-Croat plan
to divide Bosnia into three ethnic
states.
Numerous truces have col
lapsed in the past, and wide
spread fighting was reported
across Bosnia on Monday. Anoth
er unknown is the strength of the
Serb-Croat alliance, which is a re
cent development in a war that
broke out after Muslims and
Croats voted to break away from
Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.
More than 138,000 people have
been declared dead or missing
since the fighting began. Serbs
now control 70 percent of Bosnian
territory, and Croats hold much
of the rest. Their gains have left
Muslims in control of just a few
isolated pockets.
The military accord announced
Monday includes provisions for a
countrywide truce, pullback of
heavy weapons, separation of
forces and oversight by U.N. ,
forces. The political provisions
call for a nine-member transition
al governing council equally di
vided among Serbs, Croats and
Muslims.
The accords were carried over
from a peace plan drafted by the
European Community's Lord
Owen and former U.N. envoy
Cyrus Vance.
The leaders of Serbia and Croa
tia presented the new ethnic parti
tion plan two weeks ago. No map
delineating exact boundaries has
been publicly presented.
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Inside
Sports
•Baseball; Rangers lose one to
Royals, 4-2
•Baseball; White Sox release
Carlton Fisk
Page 3
Opinion
•Editorial: killing super collider
short-sighted maneuver
•Summer premiere of
expanded mail call
Page 5 & 6
Weather
•Tuesday: mostly cloudy
in morning, partly cloudy
and hot in fbe afternoon
highs in the 90s
•Forecast for Wednesday;
same as Tuesday - partly
cloudy and hot
•Extended forecast: same
ol' stuff - partly cloudy,
lows in the 70s, highs in
the 90s \
AIDS commission ends frustrating 4-year study
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The Na
tional Commission on AIDS end
ed its work Monday with a final
warning. Members say the last
four years left them frustrated —
sometimes to the point of tears —
over prejudice and inertia toward
the deadly epidemic.
"I think a lot of people in
America don't believe the roof is
about to cave in on them," said
Dr. Charles Konigsberg,
Delaware's public health director
and a member of the commission.
The commission was created
by Congress and started work in
1989 to advise the nation on what
to do about acquired immune de
ficiency syndrome. In the four
years that followed, it became the
government's nag, constantly re
minding anyone who would listen
that for all the billions of dollars
being spent on AIDS, it was too
little too late.
"The failure to respond ade
quately represents at best contin
ued dogged denial, and at worst a
dismaying hidden and unvoiced
belief that this is 'just' a disease of
gay men and intravenous drug
users, both groups that are per
ceived as disposable," the com
mission's report said.
While the fatal disease, which
attacks the body's immune sys
tem, has no cure, members of the
commission said its spread is
largely preventable.
Nevertheless, the panel's rec
ommendations on prevention,
such as sex education and making
clean needles available to drug ad
dicts, were largely unheeded.
"It's a failure of political will to
carry out effective HIV prevention
programs," said Don Des Jarlais,
another commission member who
is a researcher in drug addiction
and the spread of the human im
munodeficiency virus, the virus
that causes AIDS.
As of March 31, acquired im
mune deficiency syndrome had
been diagnosed in 289,320 Ameri
cans, of whom 63 percent, or
182,275, have died since June 1,
1981, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
The commission, whose mem
bers are from both political par
ties, often criticized the Bush ad
ministration for not doing enough
about the epidemic and for being
squeamish about discussing sub
jects such as homosexual sex.
In this final report, the commis
sion said, "New hope surged with
the election of President Clinton."
The administration has pro
posed a 1994 budget that includes
$2.7 billion for AIDS research, treat
ment and prevention, a 28 percent
increase over this year's spending.
Nevertheless, the report said
that while Clinton was sympathet
ic and had promised much, he
had yet to deliver.