THE EARL'S' MILLER YEARS 121 



the committee clamped down by knocking out the multiplicity of 

 design authorizations for all the construction projects, lumping all 

 design money at one point in the authorization, and then forcing 

 NASA through strict oversight to justify and utilize these funds for 

 the real purpose rhey were intended. 



At the end of 1963, Colonel Gould went off for a year's tour of 

 duty at the Army War College. He returned to the committee in 1964 

 as a uniformed officer, and without shifting gears at all he moved 

 easily into a civilian slot as one of the top staff members of the com- 

 mittee in 1965. As noted above, Gould was later named deputy staff 

 director of the committee, and in 1979 executive director. 



In contrast to his early criticisms of NASA, Gould looked back 

 in 1978 on the committee actions to beef up NASA's internal manage- 

 ment in the facilities area, and concluded: 



I think our actions in the oversight area helped to shape NASA's management. 

 NASA has, for example, now one of the best facilities management organizations in 

 the entire Government, in my opinion. 



PATENTS AND INVENTIONS 



One of the thorny issues which occupied the committee during its 

 early years was how to treat patents and property rights in inventions. 

 As noted in chapter I, the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 

 required NASA to obtain ownership of inventions, developed through 

 NASA contracts, unless the Administrator could show that the public 

 interest would best be served by waiving tide. In the space program, 

 many companies felt their investments were not being protected if the 

 Government contracted for certain types of work and then took title 

 to company-sponsored inventions. 



There was a rumbling of discontent with the 1958 provisions, not 

 only because there had been little public or agency input into their 

 formulation, but also industry, the legal profession, NASA, and other 

 interested parties felt the patent provisions might slow down the 

 space program. Under the chairmanship of Representative Erwin 

 Mitchell (Democrat of Georgia), hearings were held in 1959, with 

 most witnesses urging changes in the 1958 law. The bill produced by 

 the Mitchell subcommittee did not clear all the legislative hurdles, 

 passing the House but not being acted on by the Senate. 



When Representative Mitchell left the committee in 1961, Repre- 

 sentative Daddario was made chairman of the subcommittee. Chair- 

 man Miller rounded up most of the lawyers to serve on Daddario's 

 subcommittee, but since there weren't enough Republican lawyers, 

 Representative Alphonzo Bell (Republican of California), a special 



