concurrent effort of the Congress to provide itself with the institutional 

 means for examining important scientific and technological develop- 

 ments to determine the needs of the public for their support, exploita- 

 tion, and regulation. 



When the Congress in 1946 created the U.S. Atomic Energy 

 Commission it also brought into being the Joint Committee on Atomic 

 Energy, a novel and uniquely equipped congressional institution, to 

 oversee and guide developments in the emerging field of atomic 

 power, nuclear weaponry, and supporting research and development. 

 The Joint Committee played a significant role in atomic energy deci- 

 sions: e.g., in support of President Eisenhower's peaceful atom 

 initiative, in winning congressional approval for U.S. participation 

 in the International Atomic Energy Agency. It also participated in the 

 joint hearings held with the Foreign Relations Committee on the 

 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. However, the 95th Congress abolished the 

 Joint Committee and reassigned its functions and authorities to other 

 appropriate committees. 



The Russian Sputnik evoked a corresponding congressional re- 

 sponse. The Senate Special Committee on Space and Astronautics was 

 created on February 6, 1958, and the House Select Committee on 

 Astronautics and Space Exploration was created on March 5. These 

 undertook a vigorous program of policy formulation. One important 

 product originated by the House committee was the House concurrent 

 resolution on the peaceful uses of space, on which hearings were then 

 held before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Another was the 

 National Aeronautics and Space Act (NASA) of 1958, 1 approved 

 July 29, which not only established the basic space policy of the Nation, 

 but blueprinted the organizational form for its implementation as well. 



An important feature of the NASA Act, section 205, provided that : 



The Administration, under the foreign policy guidance of the President, may 

 engage in a program of international cooperation in work done pursuant to agree- 

 ments made by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. 



On the executive side, the President instructed Ambassador Henry 

 Cabot Lodge, U.S. Representative to the United Nations, to request 

 the inclusion on the agenda of the 13th General Assembly of a program 

 for international cooperation in the field of outer space. The resolution 

 initiated by the United States was introduced November 13, 1958, 

 and was adopted by the General Assembly December 13 ; it established 

 a Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and instructed 

 the committee to report on appropriate forms such cooperation 

 should take. 



A permanent standing Committee on Aeronautical and Space 

 Sciences was established under an amendment to the Standing 

 Rules of the Senate. January 14, 1959. This committee was abolished 

 in February 1977; its functions were transferred to the Commerce, 

 Science, and Transportation Committee. In the House, action had 

 already Ix-en taken, July 21, 1958, to establish the standing Com- 

 mittee' on Science and Astronautics; to this committee was assigned 

 the broader jurisdiction over astronautical research and development, 

 the Bureau of Standards. NASA and the National Aeronaut ics and 

 Space Council, the National Science Foundation, outer space, science 



1 72 Stat. 426 ; 42 U.S.C. 2451 et seq., as amended. 



