Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 46

Introduced by Senators Hill and Knight

(Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Beth Gaines and Quirk)

May 22, 2013

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 46—Relative to the National Academy of Sciences sesquicentennial anniversary celebration.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 46, as introduced, Hill. National Academy of Sciences.

This measure would honor the sesquicentennial of the National Academy of Sciences.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The year 2013 commemorates the sesquicentennial
of the year in which President Abraham Lincoln signed an act
incorporating the National Academy of Sciences to advise the
federal government on “any subject of science or art”; and

WHEREAS, As science and technology began to play
increasingly important roles in national priorities and public life,
the National Academy of Sciences expanded to include the
National Research Council in 1916, which was created by executive
order of President Woodrow Wilson for the purpose of conducting
the institution’s science policy and technical work by working
outside the framework of government to ensure unbiased, credible
advice on matters of science, technology, and medicine; and

WHEREAS, The National Academy of Engineering and the
Institute of Medicine were founded in 1964 and 1970, respectively,
under the same congressional charter as the National Academy of
Sciences to perform similar advisory roles; and

WHEREAS, These private, nonprofit institutions enlist the aid
of the nation’s most knowledgeable scientists, engineers, health
professionals, and other experts who volunteer their time to provide
authoritative, independent advice on many of the pressing
challenges that face the nation and the world; and

WHEREAS, Each year a small number of distinguished
individuals are elected by their peers to membership in the National
Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and
the Institute of Medicine, bringing the total membership of these
three institutions to include more than 6,000 of the nation’s most
accomplished scientists, engineers, and health professionals living
today; and

WHEREAS, The earliest reports of these institutions addressed
United States weights, measures, and coinage; examined magnetic
deviation of compasses on the Navy’s new ironclad warships; and
proposed the creation of the National Park Service and the national
park system; while other reports contributed to the founding of the
United States Geological Survey and the reorganization of the
National Weather Service and Signal Corps; and

WHEREAS, Since their inception, these institutions have also
suggested methods for controlling landslides, as during the
construction of the Panama Canal, studied highway safety as the
nation’s transportation system began to expand, issued reports on
the feasibility of the atomic bomb, which led to the Manhattan
Project, and studied the biological effects of atomic radiation,
which led to national policy on this issue; and

WHEREAS, In 1962, a landmark report was issued at the request
of President John F. Kennedy regarding an evaluation of the
research on conservation and the development of the nation’s
natural resources, and in the 1970s and 1980s, important studies
on motor vehicle emission standards and acid rain were influential
in bringing national and international attention to these issues; and

WHEREAS, On the health front, in the 1980s, the first reports
to identify research needed to confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic
were issued; other studies led to a blueprint for the Human Genome
Project. A landmark 1999 study on medical errors also galvanized
the medical community and sparked a national movement to
improve patient safety; and

WHEREAS, The significance of these institutions’ scientific
reports has come not only through their value to and impact on
California scientific disciplines of biotechnology and high
technology, but also as those reports have informed policy on such
diverse areas as marine health, greenhouse gas emissions,
evaluation in education, water policy, and agriculture; and

WHEREAS, The state has been not only the beneficiary of
scientific policy advice, but also its benefactor, as more members
of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of
Engineering, and Institute of Medicine live and work in California
than in any other state; and

WHEREAS, The National Academy of Sciences continues to
provide sound scientific, technological, and health policy advice;
now therefore be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature takes great pleasure in
honoring the National Academy of Sciences for its 150 years of
commitment to providing unbiased, peer-reviewed advice on
science, technology, and medicine to our nation; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the President of the National Academy of
Sciences and to the author for appropriate distribution.