20 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



mittee for Aeronautics into a new National Aeronautics and Space 

 Agency. The message arrived just as Congress left for a brief spring 

 recess. The break-neck speed with which the select committee moved 

 is reflected in the fact that Chairman McCormack opened public 

 hearings on April 15, held 17 sessions through May 12, and charged 

 onto the House floor with the NASA bill on June 2- just two months 

 after the President had first revealed his recommendations on the new 

 space agency. After a difficult and delicate series of negotiations with 

 the Senate, the conference report was approved July 15, passed by 

 the House on July 16, and signed by the President on July 29- 



The speed as well as the depth and thoroughness of the com- 

 mittee's work will long stand as some kind of record for dedication 

 and drive under tremendous pressure. 



By way of contrast, the Senate moved more slowly, heard fewer 

 witnesses (48 for the House and 20 for the Senate), met fewer days (17 

 for the House and 6 for the Senate), and called most of its witnesses 

 from within the executive branch. The House, on the contrary, 

 summoned not only military and civilian space experts, but sought 

 the advice of scientists, university professors, and leaders in the 

 aerospace industry. 



The value of the hearings by the House select committee was 

 clearly demonstrated by the questioning and probing which revealed 

 the weaknesses and ambiguities in the administration bill. For ex- 

 ample, committee members, staff, and witnesses soon discovered that 

 the bill needed to be beefed up to strengthen congressional oversight 

 and control, to cover international cooperation, relations with the 

 Atomic Energy Commission, as well as the overall policy determina- 

 tion and coordination. 



At first, administration officials balked at the very idea that staff 

 underlings in Congress could improve on their fine handiwork. William 

 Finan of the Bureau of the Budget, who helped draft the administration 

 bill, lunched at the Congressional Hotel with Committee Staff Director 

 Feldman and Assistant Director Sheldon, and according to Feldman 

 he said: 



"Everybody, you know, is getting carried away by this space thing — the Soviet 

 Union beat us into space but we mustn't panic." 



And then he handed us a bill that the administration wanted as the basis for the 

 Act and he said: 



"We don't want any changes in this." I didn't want to get into any argument 

 with him — I didn't say anything to him — but I did report that back to the committee 

 and the committee paid no attention to it at all, including the Republicans 



Once the administration witnesses and staff discovered the House 

 select committee really meant business, had the facts and the know- 



