transportation, and construction industries. The bulk of the cost of fracture, about 80 percent of the total, is associated with efforts to prevent fracture rather than with actual breakage. NBS plays an important third party role in investigating failures, usually structural collapses. At the request of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Bureau conducted an investigation to determine the most probable cause of the collapse of an East Chicago, Ind., highway ramp which killed 13 people. Researchers concluded that the collapse most likely was triggered by the cracking of a concrete pad under a leg of one of the shoring towers which were to help support the ramp during construction. An innovative tool for evaluating the fire safety of board and care homes has been developed by NBS. U.S. board and care homes house an estimated two million residents who are elderly, physically handicapped, or developmentally disabled. Known as the Fire Safety Evaluation System, this tool provides increased flexibility in renovating existing buildings or in designing new ones for adequate fire safety at a reasonable cost. The evaluation system can be used to help determine whether tradeoffs or less expensive alternatives to renovation may be used to upgrade the total fire safety of a home. In computer sciences and technology, NBS is working with the International Standards Organization and the American National Standards Institute to develop international computer network standards for interconnecting computers, terminals, and special purpose systems through networks. These protocols are needed to achieve computer-to-computer communications through computer networks. The Bureau is cooperating with U.S. industry and business organizations which will test the protocols using NBS-developed testing methods. Two NBS computer scientists received a patent for a computer security system that provides special safeguards for cryptographic keys used to scramble or unscramble computer data. The Key Notarization System has been tested in NBS laboratories and is being used experimentally by the U.S. Department of Energy at several of its national laboratories. The financial community, which uses encryption to protect financial data that is transmitted between facilities, is considering making the system part of its voluntary industry standard on cryptographic key management. National Telecommunications and Information The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is responsible for the development of national telecommunications policy. It serves as the President's principal adviser on domestic and international telecommunications issues. In addition, NTIA manages the federal government's substantial use of the radio frequency spectrum, participates in international radio conferences, conducts extensive research into radio communications, and administers the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, which awards matching grants for the construction and improvement of noncommercial broadcasting and related telecommunications services. NTIA in 1983 published extensive technical and scientific reports on radio communications. It also published a comprehensive report on long-range U.S. international telecommunications and information policy goals, a report on competitive conditions in the television and mass media broadcasting fields and related first amendment issues, and other reports addressing international telecommunications regulation and related topics. The agency participated in Congressional and regulatory proceedings concerning competition and structural changes in the telephone, broadcasting, and cable television fields. Officials testified in legislative hearings concerning telephone rates, cable television franchising, international copyright, and international trade in telecommunications and information industry goods and services. Formal comments were filed with the Federal Communications Commission concerning telecommunications industry cost accounting and pricing policies, the deregulation of equipment used to provide computer and data processing services, international communications industry regulation, and relaxing the regulatory burdens imposed on television stations. NTIA served as the administration representative on the statutory study commission established by Congress to review public telecommunications financing and dissented from recommendations that the airing of limited commercial messages by public television stations be allowed. The Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC), which NTIA chairs, approved 70,000 frequency assignments for federal agencies during 1983. NTIA participated in international telecommunications conferences concerning direct broadcast satellite services and the establishment of standards governing the deployment and operation of integrated services digital networks. NTIA's Institute for Telecommunication Sciences undertook major research efforts on a reimbursable basis for the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, State, and Transportation, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the FCC, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Board for International Broadcasting. NTIA officials chaired working groups responsible for international radio and common carrier communications standards setting functions under the auspices of the International Consultative Committees on Radio and Telephone and Telegraph. It also awarded 88 grants totaling $15 million to public telecommunications entities in 37 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Thirty-five grants went to establish or improve public television and 53 grants to public radio stations. Economic Development The mandate of the Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to generate jobs, help protect existing jobs in economically distressed areas, and promote the capacity of states and localities to plan and conduct economic development programs. Although the administration requested zero program funding for EDA for FY 1983, Congress appropriated $198.5 million for program funding. Thus EDA selected projects consistent with its mandate. More than 99.7 percent of the appropriated funds were obligated. Of the $130 million appropriated for the public works program, EDA approved $129.9 million for 193 projects. Fifty-one percent of the funds for 70 projects was awarded to urban areas and 49 percent for 123 projects to rural areas. Seventy-nine percent of program funds was approved for public facilities needed to attract private investment and increase permanent private sector jobs through industrial or commercial development in economically distressed communities. Twenty-one percent was approved for public works projects designed to provide immediate short-term jobs in areas of high unemployment. In addition to supporting departmental goals for private sector capital formation and job creation, public works funding also supported goals for increased exports (19 percent), minority business development (10 percent), southwest border assistance (3 percent), and domestic fisheries (1 percent). EDA awarded more than $14 million under the Long-Term Economic Deterioration (LTED) program to establish 16 new revolving loan funds and to recapitalize 11 previously funded projects. The Revolving Loan Fund program is designed to assist business development in distressed areas by providing capital for business start-ups, expansion, and retention. Thirty-nine percent of the funds contributed to minority business development. The Office of Public Works achieved major accomplishments in the area of debt management and deobligation of funds. Debt management activities resulted in the removal of 324 debtors (77 percent) from EDA roles and a reduction of $7.1 million (66 percent) from claims receivables. Forty-eight percent of the delinquent loans have been brought current. EDA collected $14.7 million in public works loans. The agency closed 1,167 project audits and as a result collected $2.6 million. Total project deobligations exceeded $34 million. Jobs Act The $4.6 billion Emergency Jobs Act signed by the President in March 1983 included a $100 million EDA public works program supplemental. A Jobs Act Task Force processed applications in Washington headquarters to meet the short timeframes necessary for selecting, processing and approving projects, as well as alleviating the workload burden in the EDA Regional Offices. EDA received more than 5,700 written requests for eligibility determination and application kits, and more than 2,800 applications for $1.6 billion. Two hundred and eleven projects were approved totaling more than $99.99 million. Projects which could be implemented quickly and had good potential for job creation were selected for approval. Grant offers were made in 48 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands. Fifty-one percent of the funds for 75 projects was awarded to urban areas and 49 percent for 136 projects to rural areas. One hundred and eight Public Works Impact Program (PWIP) projects representing 43.5 percent of program funds were approved and 103 projects establishing long-term private sector jobs representing 56.5 percent received awards. Consistent with the President's directive to speed help to the southwest border areas whose economies were hurt by the peso devaluation in Mexico last year, EDA awarded more than $8.6 million to Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico under the Jobs Act program. Economic adjustment The Sudden and Severe Economic Dislocation (SSED) program helped states and local areas cope with abrupt and serious job losses. SSED strategy development and implementation grants totaling $18.9 million were provided to states and local areas to prepare strategies, to capitalize revolving loan fund programs, to assist industrial site development, and to provide training and business development services. The Office of Economic Adjustment responded to 38 actual or threatened dislocations. Major activities included: • Responded to President-declared disaster areas by providing Utah a grant to devise strategies to recover from severe state-wide flooding and Coalinga, California, assistance to recover from devastating earthquakes by constructing a replacement facility for commercial and retail establishments; • Assisted Erie County, N.Y., to develop strategies to adjust to closure of the Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna; • Provided assistance to Susquehanna Economic Development Association Council of Governments (SEDA COG) in Central Pennsylvania to acquire and operate a short line railroad abandoned by Conrail. Technical assistance EDA approved more than $7.6 million for 108 technical assistance projects. Major departmental objectives in the areas of export development, productivity enhancement, technology transfer, minority business, and economic development were achieved under the program. Twelve projects totaling more than $1.5 million or 19.7 percent of technical assistance funds, contributed to export development. The Caribbean Council was awarded a $375,000 grant to stimulate domestic minority business development and exports to the Caribbean. The University of Wisconsin and the Arizona District Council also received grants for projects aimed at generating exports. EDA worked with the International Trade Administration in determining appropriate export projects to be funded. Productivity enhancement and technology transfer projects received more than $1.1 million for 11 projects. These are to help cities form cooperative relations with federal laboratories and university research centers to enhance local economies and technology development strategies. Thirteen projects received approximately $1.7 million to support activities to increase employment and income in minority business and economic development. Approximately $3 million of the technical assistance program was used to fund 32 existing and two new university centers. There are presently 37 centers in the program that provide on-the-scene assistance to help businesses and communities overcome a wide range of management and technical problems. Nine centers are located at historically black colleges and universities which are well equipped to recognize and respond to the problems of minority businesses and communities including the two newly established centers at Atlanta University and Benedict College in South Carolina. EDA awarded grants for 18 projects totaling more than $942,000 to finance locally oriented activities aimed at alleviating unemployment or underemployment. Grants totaling $24.98 million were approved for programs of economic development planning for states, cities, counties, multi-county development districts, and Indian tribes and councils. Planning program objectives are to help jurisdictions and tribes design and carry out long-range blueprints to stimulate private enterprise and create jobs. State and urban planning concentrated on creating business growth climate by improving the delivery of public services, reducing or eliminating controls and regulations and refining development strategies to reflect sectoral changes in the national economy. Special emphasis was placed on helping small businesses enter the export market. Funds provided multi-county districts and Indian tribes were used for specialized services to local officials and to assist small communities in overcoming and resolving economic problems. Seven new district grants were awarded during the year, as were four new urban grants, one new state grant, and one new Indian grant. Seven districts received grants to carry out export promotion activities. EDA approved five research grants totaling approximately $2 million for productivity and technology projects. A cooperative effort with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Productivity, Technology and Innovation will focus on the industrial competitiveness and feasibility of selected U.S. industries and technologies. Studies undertaken in previous years but completed during FY 1983 included the $6 million study of the regional resources of the Six-State High Plains Ogallala Aquifer. More than 20 other studies were completed including a catalog and users' guide on existing state industrial incentives. Business loans The business loan program provided guaranteed loans to private lending institutions on behalf of private borrowers in economically depressed areas. In considering loan applications, EDA complied with the statutory requirement to determine whether there was a reasonable assurance of repayment. As part of the review process, EDA performed a credit substitution review to determine whether a prospective borrower could obtain private or other federal financing elsewhere. It received and reviewed 19 guaranteed loan applications totaling $52 million. The agency approved two 90 percent guaranteed loans for working capital totaling $17.8 million. One $2.8 million project assisted a minority firm. The other provided $15 million to modernize a steel production facility involving five capital improvement components which are expected to save 2,200 jobs. EDA implemented intensive servicing and liquidation activities which resulted in the collection of $79.8 million in business loans. Sixteen million dollars was collected from liquidation efforts. Total debt collection was $97.1 million. Other intensive servicing activities included the review of 151 loan modification requests and the completion of 11 workouts. United States Travel and Tourism Administration The United States Travel and Tourism Administration (USTTA) is the national tourism office established by the National Tourism Policy Act signed by President Reagan October 16, 1981. Primary objectives are to increase U.S. international tourism receipts and visitor arrivals. The National Tourism Policy Act mandates that USTTA will carry out a program designed to ". . . optimize the contribution of the tourism and recreation industries to economic prosperity, full employment, and the international balance of payments to the United States..." USTTA promotes travel from abroad through a comprehensive international marketing program based on marketing research tailored to each key foreign market. It assists U.S. travel suppliers to promote and sell products or services to the foreign travel buyer at the wholesale, retail and consumer levels. Major programs include trade support, consumer support, and technical marketing assistance to regions, state and local governments, and media services. In addition to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., USTTA maintains six regional tourism marketing offices in Toronto, Mexico City, Tokyo, London, Paris and Frankfurt. There is also an international convention office in Paris which promotes the United States as a site for international congresses and conventions. Travel development activities in countries where USTTA has no direct representation are carried out by U.S. Foreign Commercial Service officers in cooperation with representatives of the U.S. travel industry working in those countries and with members of the foreign travel trade actively selling travel to the United States. Their joint efforts are guided by USTTA regional directors. Under standard international guidelines, international tourism data are reported on a quarterly and calendar year basis. During 1983, 21.6 million international travelers visited the United States, about the same number as during the previous year. However, this nation's 1983 international tourism and fare receipts, projected at slightly more than $13 billion, are estimated to have declined six percent from the 1982 level. This drop in receipts was caused by the detrimental impacts of serious economic difficulties in major tourism-generating countries, a devalued peso in Mexico, currency restrictions in France, and the continued strength of the U.S. dollar against major foreign currencies. Canadian tourism to the United States, particularly auto travel, rebounded strongly in 1983, as significantly lower gasoline prices and generally more favorable cost levels in the United States drew increasing numbers of visitors from this country's largest tourism trading partner. USTTA assists the travel industry's data needs by collecting and publishing statistics and technical information about international travel to the United States. Owing to a need for more detailed data, USTTA carries out an inflight survey for gathering essential marketing information on international travelers to and within the United States, as well as on American travelers going abroad. This inflight survey, besides providing comprehensive analyses of destination selections of foreign visitors, is upgrading the reliability of the statistical base from which data on U.S. international travel dollar accounts are derived. The inflight survey is carried out through the cooperative sponsorship of USTTA, the National Park Service, other public and private tourism concerns, and the participation of 35 major international and U.S. air carriers. One of the most visible and important of USTTA's marketing programs was the foreign media coverage of U.S. tourism attractions and events. Information material provided by regional, state, city and private tourism interests in the U.S. was translated or rewritten as necessary and placed without cost in foreign media through USTTA offices abroad. Foreign journalists, photographers and television crews were brought to the United States to write travel stories to stimulate the interest of the international consumer in visiting this country. This was made possible by the airlines which provided the transportation at no cost to the government. This editorial coverage would cost more than $111 million if it had been purchased as advertising space. Its impact was considered significant in motivating potential visitors to select the United States rather than another country as a travel destination. America's share In its effort to increase America's share of the international tourism market, USTTA expanded its training and technical assistance to travel agents, tour operators, state and city tourism officials and other travel industry entities both in the United States and abroad. It also provided trade and consumer support and media coverage abroad about U.S. destinations and attractions. A uniformed corps of multilingual receptionists at 13 U.S. gateway airports provided interpreter and allied services for arriving international tourists requiring assistance with U.S. entry formalities. International gateways offering this service were: New York City's John F. Kennedy International, Seattle, San Juan, Philadelphia, Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Bangor (Me.), Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston and New Orleans. International affairs Key international consultations and meetings in which USTTA participated and agreements were consummated during the year included: • The second meeting of the Facilitation Committee of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), November 24-26, 1982, in Madrid, dealing with standards and recommended practices for the issuance of passports and visas; • A Bilateral Agreement on Tourism negotiated with Egypt, signed February 21, 1983; • A seminar on the Development of Domestic and Intraregional Tourism in the Region of the Americas, March 28-30, 1983, in San Jose, Costa Rica. • A Bilateral Agreement on Tourism renegotiated with the United Mexican States was signed April 19, 1983; • The tenth meeting of the World Tourism • The Seventh Annual Caribbean Tourism Conference, June 12-17, 1983, in Jamaica; and the Executive Committee of the Organization of American States' Inter-American Travel Congress, Washington, D.C., August 15-16, 1983. The national Tourism Policy Council, an interagency coordinating group, met four times to consider policies, programs, and issues relating to tourism, recreation, and national heritage resources involving federal departments and agencies. The United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board (TTAB) met twice and adopted resolutions supporting federal tourism policy, research and marketing programs, and simplification of U.S. entry procedures for international visitors. Minority Business The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) MBDA continued to provide a comprehensive range of services to minority-owned businesses through a national network of 100 Minority Business Development Centers equipped with telecommunications and automated information systems to serve minority clients better. Through these centers, MBDA provided management, marketing, and technical assistance to more than 11,000 minority clients and generated more than $500 million in procurements and more than $190 million to minority-owned firms. Competition and cost-sharing efforts were continued in the centers and state and local government programs, generating an additional $4 million in non-federal funds to support minority business programs. The centers obtained 779 agreements with major corporations and other non-minority firms in the private sector to help generate new business opportunities for minority-owned businesses. Also, the National Minority Supplier Development Council, funded by MBDA, reported purchases totaling $5.3 billion from minority-owned businesses by council members, consisting of major corporations and other non-minority-owned businesses. Minority Business Development Centers negotiated more than 100 memoranda of understanding with city and county governments to increase contract and subcontract awards to minority-owned firms. MBDA also signed 26 public sector agreements with state and local governments to increase opportunities for minority entrepreneurs. MBDA signed major interagency agreements with ACTION, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Communications Commission, Small Business Administration, and Bureau of Indian Affairs to expand opportunities for minority entrepreneurs in federal procurement, land development, telecommunications, and high technology. It also awarded $2.2 million in grants to 26 state and local government offices of minority business enterprise. Coordination continued of the first Minority Business Program Committee to increase the Department's participation in minority business development. MBDA also headed the Department's efforts to increase opportunities for historically black colleges and universities in departmental projects and activities. A $425,000 grant awarded Florida A&M University established the first national minority entrepreneurial development center. A special minority business development handbook was published for city mayors and their staffs to establish local programs and policies affecting minority-owned businesses. MBDA funded the following minority trade associations: National Association of Minority Contractors, Latin American Manufacturers Association, U.S. Hispanic Business Investment Companies, National Bankers Association, and American Savings and Loan League. In international trade, MBDA funded 14 minority export development consulting firms to assist minority business exporters. The consulting firms assisted more than 300 clients and helped to generate more than $3 million in export sales. In addition, the Harlem Third World Trade Institute, funded by MBDA, assisted a black-owned construction company in New York to obtain a $10 million contract to build a telecommunications system in the Republic of Guinea. MBDA also sponsored an international trade mission to Mexico to generate new opportunities for minority entrepreneurs in these countries. A computerized data base known as PROFILE, listing more than 30,000 minority vendors, was developed to help in brokering opportunities for |