IN THE BEGINNING. THE SELECT COMMITTEE 9 



FUTURE PRESIDENT JOINS SELECT COMMITTEE 



A 5th-term member from Michigan, Gerald R. Ford, Jr., was 

 named to the select committee as the lowest ranking Republican. 

 Ford blossomed into an active member, both in the hearings and 

 in the executive sessions which involved drafting the new NASA 

 legislation. 



As Ford recalls it, 



I had lots of experience in the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and at that 

 time virtually all of the funding for space, missiles, etc., came out of the Defense 

 Appropriations. 



When it came time to name the conference committee on the Space Act, 

 Ford was included, although lower in seniority than both Martin and 

 Arends. 



Chairman McCormack recruited a small but highly competent 

 staff for the select committee. Heading the staff as chief counsel and 

 director was George J. Feldman, a New York attorney and close per- 

 sonal friend of McCormack, who had cut his legislative eyeteeth with 

 Massachusetts Senator David I. Walsh, and later served as Ambassador 

 to Malta and Luxembourg. From the Legislative Reference Service of 

 the Library of Congress came Dr. Charles S. Sheldon II, who served as 

 assistant director, and Spencer Beresford, special counsel. The regular 

 staff was rounded out by Richard P. Hines, Raymond Wilcove, Harney 

 S. Bogan, Jr., and Philip B. Yeager, who served as a special consultant. 



HEARINGS BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE 



Shortly after he decided to appoint George J. Feldman as chief 

 counsel and director of the select committee, Chairman McCormack 

 sat down in his office one Saturday morning and scratched out on lined, 

 note-pad paper a personal note which he dropped in the mail to Feld- 

 man in New York. In addition to advice on people he wanted Feldman 

 to interview, McCormack wound up the handwritten set of instruc- 

 tions with these important words: 



Frankly, I would like to get the jump on the Senate Committee, so our Com- 

 mittee might in the public mind be the leader and not the follower. 



Chairman McCormack organized a stellar series of witnesses to 

 appear before the select committee. In addition, he scheduled morning, 

 afternoon, and occasional evening sessions to help meet the challenge 

 of the rapidly developing scientific subject matter necessary for the 

 committee to cover. Some of the Nation's greatest scientists, rocket 

 engineers, military leaders, and administrators were summoned to ex- 

 plore the nature of the major problems faced. 



