24 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



ANNUAL AUTHORIZATIONS FOR NASA 



The House select committee in a somewhat roundabout way also 

 helped strengthen the power of its successor, the House Committee on 

 Science and Astronautics. History may conclude that it was in spite of, 

 rather than because of, the House select committee. In any event, the 

 issue arose in a somewhat casual way without the kind of preplanning 

 which Speaker Rayburn liked on his taut ship. 



A few weeks after the President had signed the Space Act on 

 July 29, the House of Representatives took up a supplemental appro- 

 priations conference report on August 20. Congressman Gerald Ford 

 suddenly arose to object vigorously to a conference committee provi- 

 sion which had been inserted in the Senate, reading: 



No appropriation may be made to the National Aeronautics and Space Agency 

 [sic] unless previously authorized by legislation hereinafter enacted by the Congress. 



Ford proceeded to denounce a provision which he argued placed 

 an unnecessary burden on NASA. He contended: 



In effect, what you are telling the people of this new agency is that they have to 

 spend about half their time up here first before an authorization committee and then 

 before an appropriations committee to get any money whatsoever for their operations. 

 Instead of * * * spending the maximum amount of time in running their agency and 

 trying to give us the needed impetus to get ahead or stay ahead of the Russians, they 

 are going to be up here justifying every penny they get for operations and construction 

 before four committees of the Congress. 



What Ford did not mention, of course, was that the annual au- 

 thorizations required of NASA were the real tools for legislative over- 

 sight needed to give muscle to the House Committee on Science and 

 Astronautics. Looking back in 1978 on his fight against annual au- 

 thorizations, Ford reminisced: 



I, having been on Appropriations, was always suspicious that annual authoriza- 

 tions would interfere with the appropriations process and I think there was some 

 justification for that concern. I think it is probably less so now than it was at the 

 outset, but the original concept there was a real, legitimate concern * * *. We all 

 suspected and we can't prove it that Lyndon wanted that annual authorization be- 

 cause it gave him a vehicle to keep himself in the spotlight. 



Ford's forceful rhetoric quickly won over other members of the 

 House select committee. 



"I want to associate myself emphatically with the gentleman from 

 Michigan," proclaimed Representative Kenneth Keating of New York. 

 "This agency is going to be concerned with a great many matters that 

 arc vital to the future welfare of this country. To hamstring them this 

 way is a great mistake." 



Representative Gordon McDonough of California wanted to 

 know: 



1 low, for instance, are we going to continue on a program of research on cosmic 

 rays or satellites * * * where it requires research and development tor months and 



