Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 13:29:05 -0400 From: "(Gary Chapman)" Subject: File 2--Defense Conversion Hearing The Department of Defense has set up a Defense Conversion Commission, which is traveling around the country to conduct hearings on local conversion requirements. So far there have been hearings in Atlanta; Long Beach, California; St. Louis; Dallas; Groton, Connecticut; and Seattle. The public hearings last one day, and the commission also visits sites of major defense contractors and speaks to the local press about defense conversion. The commission is scheduled to release a report on its findings no later than December 31. On September 24th, the commission held its hearing in Seattle and testifying on behalf of CPSR and The 21st Century Project was Professor Philip Bereano, professor of technology and public policy at the University of Washington. Phil spoke for ten minutes -- the alloted time for each hearing witness -- about The 21st Century Project and its program of democratizing U.S. technology policy and redirecting research and development programs to peaceful and environmentally responsible goals. There were eighteen other hearing witnesses testifying, representing a broad range of public interest and business organizations, including Washington State SANE/Freeze, Seattle Women Act for Peace, and the Washington Association of Churches. Professional organizations represented included the Seattle Professional Engineering Employees Association and the IEEE Engineering Manpower Committee. There was also testimony from the King County Diversification Committee, the local commission on economic conversion. There are six members of the commission, most of them Pentagon officials; there is one representative from the Department of Labor, and one from the President's Council of Economic Advisers. It is chaired by David J. Berteau, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Production and Logistics, and former director of the DoD's Office of Economic Adjustment. The representative from the Department of Labor (and the only woman on the panel) is Robin Higgins, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veteran's Employment and Training, a former Marine officer, and widow of Colonel William R. Higgns, the Marine officer captured and executed by Lebanese terrorists in 1988. For more information about the commission and its work, contact the Commission on Defense Conversion, 1825 K Street, N.W., Suite 310, Washington, D.C. 20006, or call (202) 653-1664. Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253