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RESPONSES TO THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

Mr. Adams referred to the December 1989 report of the Committee on Government Operations, "The Challenge of Cultural Diversity and Cultural Equity at the Smithsonian Institution," noting that the Institution's responses to the Committee's recommendations will be forwarded to the Committee in early February. The central recommendation, he reported, calls for the appointment of an assistant to the Secretary with an appropriate mandate, budget, staff, and authority to address and monitor the Institution's challenge (a) to obtain cultural diversity in its workforce and on its many boards and (b) to integrate African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic, and Native American collections, research, and public programming throughout all of the Smithsonian's bureaus and offices. Mr. Adams pointed out that the expects to satisfy this primary recommendation in appointing an acting Assistant Secretary for Public Service in early February.

STUDIES IN BIODIVERSITY

As invited by the Secretary, Assistant Secretary Hoffmann reported on a recent approach from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, which is on the edge of the major Gulf coast wetlands extending westward from the Mississippi River delta, to join in a consortium to establish a marine and coastal laboratory there which would complement the work currently undertaken by the Smithsonian at Fort Pierce, Florida, in Belize and Carrie Bow Cay, and in Panama. The Smithsonian is interested in this laboratory because it would be devoted to those aspects of biodiversity -- namely, systematic, evolutionary, and taxonomic aspects -- which would round out the work of other laboratories which are being planned for there. While it is too early to tell how this proposal might take shape in an appeal for funding, the Secretary noted the encouragement the Office of Management and Budget had given to the