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Without commenting on those ramifications, he distributed to the Regents copies of the "Horizons" column he wrote for the forthcoming October issue of [[underlined]] Smithsonian [[/underlined]] magazine which touches on a number of related matters.

National Center for Biological Diversity

Mr. Adams mentioned the continued interest in Congress and among several agencies, including the Smithsonian and the Environmental Protection Agency, in establishing a National Center for Biological Diversity in the Smithsonian. As presently conceived, this Center would involve cooperation with the EPA in such a way that the Smithsonian would be restricted to the scientific aspects of the work while the EPA would have responsibility for policy decisions -- in a relationship which is roughly analogous to the cooperative arrangements of Department of Agriculture and other agencies' scientists currently working in several departments of the National Museum of Natural History.

[[underlined]] NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM EXTENSION [[/underlined]]

The Secretary introduced the materials prepared for discussion of the proposed extension of the National Air and Space Museum. Noting that the site evaluation, prepared by Helmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum, indicates that both BWI and Dulles airport facilities could amply accommodate the needs of an extension well into the next century. Mr. Adams urged the Regents to take action in terms of expressing at least a preference for one site over another as a means of lessening the current level of lobbying.

There was widespread agreement among the Regents that the pressure being exerted on members of the Board was not appropriate and ought to be discouraged. To that end the Regents were asked to recall their earlier action -- the motion approved September 16, 1986 stating the Regents' support for planning the extension at Dulles -- and to reaffirm that decision since,