sl».\( I s( II \( I. APPLICATION'S. AM) ADVANCED RESEARCH, 1963-69 243 



But when the Members walked through the teller lines, Roudebush 

 had won the light to cut back the program by the margin of 140 to 129. 

 The following year (1964) when NASA asked for an increase of only $6 

 million, six Republican committee members (Roudebush, Pelly, 

 Rumsfeld, Weaver, Gurney, and Wydler) publicly expressed the hope 

 "that the funding for this program has now leveled off and that the 

 Congress will not be faced with requests for increased funding year 

 by year." This time the sponsors of the program in the House had to 

 tight the Senate's effort to cut down the sustaining university program. 

 After a brisk argument in the conference committee, the House con- 

 ferees restored the $6 million cut by the Senate and observed in the 

 conference report : 



Any reduction would result in disruption of long-term planning, particularly in 

 the training grants part of the program which provides 3-year predoctoral oppor- 

 tunities for selected graduate students at qualified universities. 



The Karth subcommittee once again took the lead in protecting 

 the $46 million contained in the bill brought up in 1965 to extend the 

 sustaining university program, which Karth praised during the floor 

 debate: 



Nothing is more important, in my view, than to improve the universities' role 

 in support of the national space effort, and to increase the future supply of scientists 

 and engineers on which the space program depends. 



At the present time, about 185 universities are working on NASA-sponsored 

 research. And 142 universities in all 50 States and the District of Columbia are now 

 participating in the predoctoral program. Nearly 2,000 graduate students are now 

 engaged in research and advanced training under this program, and the number will 

 increase to more than 3,000 this fall. 



Again in 1966, the Karth subcommittee took the lead in pushing 

 this program through Congress, even though NASA reduced its request 

 to $41 million. The full committee supported the subcommittee's 

 efforts, noting in its report that "The committee considers the sustain- 

 ing university program an essential adjunct to the Nation's space 

 effort." The committee chided NASA for suggesting such a small 

 program to upgrade the laboratory facilities at the Nation's uni- 

 versities. But the Congress held the line and both the House and Senate 

 supported the Karth subcommittee's recommendations in 1966. 



Real trouble hit the program in 1967. NASA was forced to cut 

 back and directed by the Budget Bureau not to spend $10 million of 

 the $41 million authorized and appropriated in the calendar year 1966. 

 Then when NASA went up before the Karth subcommittee in 1967, 

 they were asking for only $20 million for the following year. The 

 subcommittee unanimously recommended that this amount be in- 

 creased to $30 million. 



