BILL NUMBER: SCR 46	ENROLLED
	BILL TEXT

	ADOPTED IN SENATE  JUNE 24, 2013
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  AUGUST 30, 2013

INTRODUCED BY   Senators Hill and Knight
   (Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Beth Gaines and Quirk)

                        MAY 22, 2013

   Relative to the National Academy of Sciences sesquicentennial
anniversary celebration.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 46, Hill. National Academy of Sciences.
   This measure would honor the sesquicentennial of the National
Academy of Sciences.



   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.