Recommendation: The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) should acknowledge the adverse impact of corrosion on the nation and launch a multi-agency effort for high-risk, high-reward research to mitigate this impact. OSTP should set up a multiagency committee on the environmental degradation of materials. It should begin by documenting current federal expenditures on corrosion research and mitigation and then encouraging multiagency attention to issues of research, mitigation, and information dissemination. Collaboration among departments and agencies should be strengthened by collaboration with state governments, professional societies, industry consortia, and standards-making bodies.