This study is a political analysis of federal interagency policy processes in a diffusion project involving a national educational laboratory, a state department of education, and nine local districts. Data were collected through ethnohistorical procedures over one and one-half years for summative evaluation reports of the project and the curriculum. Diffusion was a discrepancy area, and lab autonomy occurred. State and local implementation of a curriculum developed by the federal agency led to dissension within the project. Project renewal negotiations, following unanticipated events, were for further exchange of services among federal, state, and local agencies operating on scarce resources. This study demonstrates successful federal policy strategies, which are presented as prescriptions and characterized as "realistic opportunism." (Author)