( HAPTER I 



In the Beginning, the Select Committee 



The House Committee on Science and Technology had its roots in 

 the American public's intense reaction to the Soviet launch of Sput- 

 nik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth, on October 4, 1957. 



The committee was originally named the "House Committee on 

 Science and Astronautics," which first saw the light of day on January 

 3, 1959- That was a unique event, because it was the first standing 

 committee of the House to be born since the Legislative Reorganization 

 Act of 1946 had drastically reduced the number of standing committees 

 from 48 to 19- Even more significant, it was the first time since 1892 

 1 when the predecessors of the House and Senate Interior and Insular 

 Affairs Committees had been established) that both the House and 

 Senate had moved to create standing committees on an entirely new 

 subject matter. And, as we shall see, the House committee enjoyed a 

 considerably broader jurisdiction than its counterpart in the Senate. 



The 20-year history of the committee traces back to a landmark 

 action of the Congress in 1958. 



Scarcely five minutes after the House of Representatives convened 

 on Wednesday, March 5, 1958, and before many Members had reached 

 the floor, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn crisply but gruffly 

 intoned: 



The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Massachusetts. 



House Majority Leader John W. McCormack had a real sense of 

 the deep significance of the moment, but his words were simple: 



Mr. Speaker, I offer a resolution and ask unanimous consent for its present 

 consideration. 



If McCormack sounded matter-of-fact, the actual reading of the 

 resolution was delivered in booming and stentorian tones by House 

 Reading Clerk George Maurer. The Members on the floor stopped 

 their conversations and when Maurer read House Resolution 496, it 

 seemed to take on deeper meaning as each word was emphasized: 



Resolved, Thar there is hereby created a Select Committee on Astronautics and 

 Space Exploration to be composed of 13 Members of the House of Representatives 

 to be appointed by the Speaker, 7 from the majority party and 6 from the minority 

 party, one of whom he shall designate as chairman 



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