212 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



As noted in chapter [V, Karth became the first of the eight fresh- 

 man Democratic charter members who joined the Science Committee 

 in 1959 to chair a subcommittee. Third in seniority among the eight 

 new members, Karth moved up to become a subcommittee chairman 

 early in 1961 following the death of Representative David Hall (Demo- 

 crat of North Carolina) and the I960 election defeat of Representative 

 Leonard Wolf (Democrat of Iowa). 



After some reshuffling of the subcommittee jurisdictions to con- 

 form with internal NASA reorganizations, Karth wound up in 1963 

 chairing a subcommittee with the formidable title "Subcommittee on 

 Space Science and Advanced Research and Technology," with the 

 following Members: 



Democrats Republicans 



Joseph E. Karth, Minnesota, Chairman J. Edgar Chenoweth, Colorado 



Thomas G. Morris, New Mexico William K. Van Pelt, Wisconsin 



William J. Randall, Missouri Charles A. Mosher, Ohio 



Thomas N. Downing, Virginia James D. Weaver, Pennsylvania 

 Neil Staebler, Michigan 



The lion's share of the time and effort of the Karth subcommittee 

 was devoted to wrestling with the annual NASA authorization bill. 

 This meant poking and probing, trying to measure and weigh the 

 arguments advanced by some outstanding scientific talent on how much 

 should be spent for a bewildering variety of scientific experiments. In 

 30 separate public sessions and additional no-holds-barred, off-the- 

 record or executive meetings, the Karth subcommittee carefully quizzed 

 NASA witnesses to establish whether their money requests were fully 

 justified, whether they were needed in 1963, what they would con- 

 tribute toward future programs, what would happen if they were 

 canceled or deferred and whether they were important enough to 

 receive support in the rest of the Congress and the Nation. 



Karth confessed to his colleagues in presenting the Space Science 

 and Advanced Research portion of the NASA budget on the floor on 

 August 1, 1963: 



There is nothing really exciting or glamorous about basic research and technology 

 and I might add there is nothing really glamorous about space sciences, either. 



He pointed out that his subcommittee had labored "under very trying 

 circumstances, with very little, if any, fanfare, on a most tedious and 

 most difficult job." Karth was well aware, as were other members of 

 the subcommittee, of the pulse-throbbing public excitement right next 

 door involving the astronauts in the Mercury program, and all the 

 glamor associated with the race to get to the Moon. Meanwhile, the 



