720 HISTORY OF THl COMMITTEE ON SCIENC1 AND TECHNOLOGY 



In the same bill, the Science Committee recognized the traditional 

 jurisdiction of the Armed Services Committee over Naval Reactor 

 Development, but agreed that certain new R. & D. activities were 

 civilian in nature and would be handled by the Science Committee in 

 future year budget requests. In 1978, Teague wrote Price on May 9: 



I am pleased chat this year our two committees have not had the type of jurisdic- 

 tional controversies that we faced last year. 



Teague raised some questions prompted by language in the Armed 

 Services Committee report, resulting in an exchange of letters with 

 Price. 



JURISDICTIONAL PROBLEMS WITH ENERGY 



The House establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on Energy did 

 not by any means resolve the complex issues raised when the Depart- 

 ment of Energy in 1978 started sending up its authorization requests 

 which involved the jurisdiction of four other committees — Interior, 

 Commerce, Armed Services, and International Relations. The joint or 

 sequential referral process established by the 1974 reforms could not 

 solve the problem of overlapping jurisdictions. Nor could the separate 

 distribution of certain titles of the bills eliminate conflict, because there 

 were heated arguments over substantive areas within titles. Since the 

 Department of Energy was formed not only from ERDA, but from the 

 Federal Energy Administration and portions of the Department of the 

 Interior, the organizational structure almost invited jurisdictional 

 fights on Capitol Hill. 



The most contentious jurisdictional squabbles were had with 

 Representative John D. Dingell (Democrat of Michigan). Dingell, 

 a member of the Commerce Committee, carried on a running fight 

 over numerous issues which were being handled by the Science Com- 

 mittee. Teague made this observation about the Chairman of the 

 Commerce Committee, Representative Harley O. Staggers (Demo- 

 crat of West Virginia) and one of his subcommittee chairmen: 



Harley Staggers was easy to work with. John Dingell now that's another story. 



Matters came to a head with the Commerce Committee in the 

 spring of 1978, when an attempt was made in that committee to assert 

 jurisdiction over a number of items in the R. & D. areas of solar, 

 conservation, nuclear and fossil energy in the Department of Energy 

 authorization bill. The Commerce Committee contended, for example, 

 that items such as the R. & D. program for the gas-cooled thermal 

 reactor were clearly on their way to commercialization and therefore 

 within the purview of the Commerce Committee. This was only one of 

 the many differences of opinion which led to extensive negotiations 



