excerpt:
"Dear Dr. Beckman: Weather modification, although a relatively young science, has over the years stimulated great interest within the scientific, commercial, governmental, and agricultural communities. Such responses are readily understandable. Weather-related disasters and hazards affect virtually all Americans and annually cause untold human suffering and loss of life and result in billions of dollars of economic loss to crops and other property. While weather modification projects have been operational for nearly 25 years and have been shown to have significant potential for preventing, diverting, moderating, or ameliorating the adverse effects of such weather related disasters and hazards, I am greatly concerned regarding the lack of a coordinated Federal weather modification policy and a coordinated and comprehensive program for weather modification research and development. This fact is all the more disturbing in view of the manifest needs, and benefits, social and economic, that can be associated with weather modification activities. These deficiencies in our Federal organizational structure have resulted in a less than optimal return on our investments in weather modification activities and a failure, with few exceptions, to recognize that much additional research and development needs to be carried out before weather modification becomes a truly operational tool.

Reports and studies conducted by such diverse organizations as the National Academy of Sciences, the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere, the General Accounting Office, and the Domestic Council have highlighted the lack of a comprehensive Federal weather modification policy and research and development program. Hearings that I chaired in February of this year reinforced my concerns regarding the wisdom of our continued failure to implement a national policy on this very important issue."