Politics of technology: U.S. technological progress: Alternative approaches: Technical developments might best be served by modifying existing agencies or by legislation, rather than by creating a new agency

A National Engineering Foundation within the Federal government was recently proposed by Bruno Weinschei, president of the Weinschel Engineering Co. in Gaithersburg, Md., to help increase innovation and productivity in the United States (Spectrum, February, pp. 58¿60). Allen B. Rosenstein, professor of engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, then suggested a different type of Federal agency ¿ a National Professions Foundation (Spectrum, August, pp. 41¿43). Meanwhile, a National Technology Foundation has been proposed in Congress. In this article, F. Karl Willenbrock discusses alternatives to the new agency approach.