g2 HISTORY <>! THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Fulton was insistent, and he told the committee: 



Spend the money that is ncccssar) and let's be preeminent in science. I think you 

 can win with all the international conferences in the world and you lose one on man- 

 in-spacc such as we i arc rated a second-rate power whether you like 



it or not. 



With one eve on the press table, Fulton also added a one-liner 

 which eventually reverberated all the way up Pennsylvania Avenue to 

 the White House: "1 am tired of coming in second best all the time," 

 he told Welsh. 



REACTION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY 



A few hours later when President Kennedy held his news confer- 

 ence, a reporter asked: 



Mr. President, a Member of Congress said today that he was tired of seeing the 

 United States second to Russia in the space field. I suppose he speaks for a lot of others. 

 Now, you have asked Congress for more money to speed up our space program. What 

 is the prospect that we will catch up with Russia and perhaps surpass Russia in this 

 field? 



The President answered at some length, and among his remarks 

 were the following: 



Well, the Soviet Union gained an important advantage by securing these large 

 boosters which were able to put up greater weights, and that advantage is going to 

 be with them for some time. However tired anybody may be, and no one is more 

 tired than I am, it is a fact that it is going to take some time and I think we have to 

 recognize it * * *. 



So that in answer to your question, as I said in my State of the Union message, 

 the news will be worse before it is better, and it will be some time before we catch 

 up. We are, I hope, going to go in other areas where we can be first and which will 

 bring perhaps more long-range benefits to mankind. But here we are behind. 



The April 12 hearing with Welsh spent precious little time on the 

 more mundane issues of how to hurry along the legislation to make 

 the Vice President head of the Space Council. Typical of the observa- 

 tions was the reaction of Representative Victor L. Anfuso (Democrat 

 of New York), fourth-ranked member of the committee and a sub- 

 committee chairman: 



We can't just wait on this 10-year period program because if we carry out the 

 things that thev say in 10 years the Lord knows where the Russians will be by then 

 and whether America will still be in existence. 



Finally, Anfuso added: "I think we have debated this bill long 

 enough. We have had an interesting session here. I move that we 

 report out H.R. 6169" The committee quickly went into executive 

 session, reported out the bill, 20 to and got ready to send it to the 

 House floor. The bill cleared the House and Senate with remarkable 



