THE OVERTON BROOKS YEARS, 1959-61 



J] 



As the new chairman of the House Committee on Science and 

 Astronautics, Brooks at first tried to emulate Chairman Vinson. 

 According to Executive Director Ducander: 



He tried to copy him, word for word, sentence for sentence. There was only one 

 \li Vinson, and because of the way Congress has changed, there'll never be another 

 one like him because he was a benevolent dictator. Well, Mr. Brooks tried to be the 

 same thing, but he failed in one respect, he was not benevolent and he was not 

 like Mr Vinson so he couldn't emulate him. 



During the first year of the new committee's operation, Brooks 

 centralized power in his own hands, and he also declined to set up any 

 subcommittees. This created rebellion among the senior members of the 

 committee, some of whom had been persuaded by the leadership that 

 their seniority on the new committee would enable them to have new 

 responsibilities and rise within the congressional hierarchy. Strong 

 pressure from the senior members finally persuaded Chairman Brooks 

 to appoint subcommittees. But even then, he was reluctant to assign 

 subject matter titles to the subcommittees, and preferred to number 

 the subcommittees 1, 2, 3, and 4 in conformity with the practice of the 

 Armed Services Committee. 



For the eight freshman Democrats on the committee, Brooks was 

 a good leader even though he was peripatetic. To be sure, it took a 

 long time for a freshman legislator to be reached down the line in 

 order to question a witness during a hearing. By 11:30 a.m., when all 

 the whipped cream had been skimmed off the really important issues, 

 and the press table was deserted as newsmen peeled off to file their 

 afternoon copy, the freshman at last had his chance. At this juncture, 

 of course, he was prodded along by the chairman's warning that the 

 House would convene at noon, and there were eight eager freshmen 

 who had to divide up the remaining time. But the subject matter was 

 so fascinating, and Brooks was so enthusiastic about getting into new 

 topics that his interest was contagious. On some very rare occasions, 

 Brooks might even flatter the freshman members by announcing: 

 "Today, we'll start the questioning at the bottom of the committee 

 instead of by seniority.'' 



Chairman Brooks was very sensitive and eager to score a good 

 record for his new committee. A tireless worker, he frequently re- 

 mained in his office until 8 or 9 p.m., was always in the office on 

 Saturdays and often on Sundays. He made a special effort to get a 

 favorable press, called frequent news conferences, urged radio and 

 television stations that he was available for interviews, and arranged 

 to be taped for rebroadcast over "Voice of America." On the negative 

 side, he was always fearful lest his committee or any of its members 



