942 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Fuqua suggested that, as in the Apollo program, the SSPS should 

 proceed along several parallel lines simultaneously, instead of in serial 

 form. He chided NASA Deputy Administrator Dr. Alan Lovelace for 

 an unenthusiastic statement on SSPS: 



If I had some Tabasco, i would put it on there to make it taste a little better. * * * 

 I realize that there is another agency in town, Dr. Lovelace, besides NASA. And that 

 is the faceless people at OMB. It appears to me that they have put bridles on both 

 NASA and DO] 



In presenting the bill for approval by the full committee on May 3, 

 1978 — Sun Day — Fuqua emphasized that the bill represented no com- 

 mitment to future commercialization, but was designed to move for- 

 ward the testing and technology of this inexhaustible source of energy. 

 McCormack labelled the effort another example of the Science Com- 

 mittee taking the lead in introducing legislation for solar research, 

 development and demonstration which is both aggressive and 

 responsible. 



While strongly supporting the bill, Wydler told the committee: 



As you know, Mr. Chairman, I am one of the minority of the Congress who feels 

 that solarmania has gripped the land and the Congress, and that this phenomenon 

 will run its course, as most of these things do. But in the meantime, I hope we don't 

 do a great deal of damage to the Treasury or to some of the proposals that are coming 

 forth in the solar field by overselling them to the people and overfunding them so that 

 the money is wasted. 



Brown raised a question as to whether the bill placed an over- 

 concentration on the SSPS to the detriment of other near-Earth mis- 

 sions "to sense what is going on in and, at the other end, to turn the 

 sensors around and sense what is going on in Space." Brown expanded 

 on this thought in an "Additional View" appended to the committee 

 report, stating: 



By accepting this program now we may be limiting our future for the next thirty 

 to fifty years in space. The program could totally devour all the effort, capital, and 

 technology available to move forward in near space. 



OTTINGER OPPOSES THE SSPS 



Ottinger, who wrote a scathing minority report, emerged as the 

 major opponent of the bill. He charged that the aerospace industry 

 was foisting a $40 to $80 billion R. & D. program on DOE and NASA 

 before preliminary studies had been completed. He pointed out that 

 the hearings had called no major critics to testify, and that the danger 



