IN THE BEGINNINC THE SELECT COMMITTEE 19 



During the debate on the Albert resolution, Majority Leader 

 McCormack underlined the new scientific responsibilities which would 

 fall to the Committee on Science and Astronautics: 



This is a dear recognition on the part of the House of the importance of basic 

 and applied research and the establishment of this committee as a standing committee 

 to which legislation ot that nature will be referred. It includes not only outer space 

 legislation but it takes over other activities, and it is going to be, in my opinion, one 

 of the most important committees of both branches of the Congress. 



Republican Leader Martin, in endorsing the resolution, noted: 



Mr. Speaker, as one who has been privileged to serve on this special committee, 

 I want to say that I am heartily in favor of making this committee a permanent part 

 of the House legislative system. * * * I want to pay my tribute to the nonpartisan 

 way in which the committee has worked under Congressman McCormack. There was 

 never the slightest semblance of partisanship shown at any of our hearings or in our 

 committee votes. 



The Albert resolution passed very quickly and unanimously. Thus 

 the effective date of the new standing Committee on Science and Astro- 

 nautics was scheduled for the opening of the new Congress on Jan- 

 uary 3, 1959. 



THE WRITING OF THE SPACE ACT AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NASA 



While the battle was going on to establish the House Committee 

 on Science and Astronautics, the House Select Committee in the spring 

 and early summer of 1958 was hammering out the Space Act which 

 chartered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 



It would be difficult to duplicate the feats performed by the 

 select committee and its staff; in a few short weeks they accomplished 

 the impossible. Here was a new committee, just established on 

 March 5, with new staff just getting acquainted with each other, 

 headed by the majoritv leader, minority leader, and minority whip 

 who had other pressing official duties, suddenly plunged into the mael- 

 strom of uncharted seas. The hot glare of publicity shone on their 

 every action. The public was fearful and apprehensive at dramatic 

 blows to America's prestige by the Soviet Union. The staff and members 

 had to perform a triple function simultaneously: to get educated on the 

 complexities of astronautics and space, to exercise oversight over the 

 existing confusion which was the administration's space program, 

 and to draft a new charter for a major regrouping of functions relating 

 to the entire administration program. All these challenges had to be 

 met yesterday, it seemed, and the targets were constantly moving. 



The timetable reflected a true sense of urgency in the Congress. 

 President Eisenhower on April 2 sent a message to the Congress along 

 with an administration bill to absorb the National Advisory Com- 



