The Administration will ask Congress to strip the National Cancer Institute of the extra powers it was granted by the National Cancer Act of 1971, unless President Nixon over-rules HEW Secretary Caspar Weinberger and Asst. Secretary for Health Charles Edwards.
Benno Schmidt, chairman of the President's Cancer Panel, feels he made progress when he argued NCI's case on research training grants and fellowships with Office of Management & Budget. In this instance, however, OMB will not have the last word. HEW Secretary Caspar Weinberger decided, when he headed OMB, to kill the NIH training program and wouldn't change his mind after moving to HEW. Congress may have forced Weinberger to back down (See HEW budget story page 2) ....
