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Three measures pertaining to the National Air and Space Museum have been introduced. S. 1790 would authorize Museum expansion at Washington Dulles International Airport and appropriations for fiscal years 1988 and 1989 of $1,000,000 for master planning (Federal funds are specifically not authorized for construction); the bill has been referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration which has taken no action on it. H.R. 3629 has provisions identical to those in S. 1790. H.R. 3746 would authorize the expansion of the Air and Space Museum at Baltimore-Washington International Airport or at Dulles, and its other provisions are the same as those in the other two bills. Both House bills have been referred to the Committee on House Administration and the Committee on Public Works and Transportation. The Chairman of the Smithsonian's House Appropriations subcommittee has agreed that it would useful now to undertake a feasibility study of such an extension; approval by the Senate Appropriations subcommittee chairman is currently being sought. 

On October 23 the Secretary wrote to Senator John Glenn, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, to express the concerns of the Institution with respect to S. 908, a bill to amend the Inspector General Act of 1978. While it acknowledged that the Smithsonian is in compliance with the primary objectives of the measure (the establishment of an independent audit unit with no program responsibilities, the director of which is appointed by and reports directly to the agency head), Committee staff did not find such compliance, as well as the fact that the Regents play an active role in the resolution of audit matters, sufficient reason to exclude the Smithsonian from the measure which otherwise abrogates authority of the Board of Regents.

Legislation regarding the National Museum of the American Indian was alluded to in the context of the Regents' discussion on that topic, below.

[[underline]] NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM EXTENSION PLANNING [[/underline]]
Mr. Adams introduced a paper (summarized below) and noted that its distribution in advance of the meeting had prompted Senator Garn to question the degree to which is implies that the Smithsonian is departing from the Regents' earlier approval for the development of Air and Space Museum facilities at Dulles International Airport. (Letters were also received from Governor Schaefer of Maryland and Governor Baliles and Senator Warner of Virginia.) The Regents were provided a brief chronology of their earlier discussions of this potential facility; on September 16, 1985, it was "VOTED that the Board of Regents supports the facility for the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles International Airport, and to that end endorses the purposes of legislation, S. 1311, introduced by the Senate Regents..." 

In discussion it was generally agreed that the Regents should reaffirm their earlier presumptive support for the Dulles site, though they ought to recognize that no final commitment regarding site could be made at least until all of the program, financial, and site studies have been completed. It was also recognized that the issue of site will continue to attract political attention and it would be in the best interest of the Smithsonian to expedite its independent study. With these understandings, it was