SPACE SCIENCE, APPLICATIONS, AND ADVANCED RESEARCH, 1963-69 213 



Karth subcommittee was dealing with "more than 50 highly technical, 

 highly scientific, and grossly difficult to understand programs" which 

 he generally described to his colleagues in the House as follows: 



Just to give you a feel for the diversity of projects before the committee, let me 

 call to your attention that they range through energetic particle explorers, iono- 

 spheric monitors, physical and astronomical observatories to propulsion systems of 

 all types, chemical, nuclear, and electric, research grants and facilities to universities 

 and colleges, space programs of all kinds, human-factor systems, the supersonic 

 transport, international satellites, and so on. 



The Karth subcommittee operated somewhat differently from the 

 Teague Manned Space Flight Subcommittee. Some held trips were 

 made to NASA and contractor installations, but for the most part the 

 annual authorizations were hammered out in very intensive, exhaus- 

 tive discussions in Washington between the subcommittee members 

 on one side of the table and the responsible NASA officials on the other. 

 There were very few agency briefings outside of the formal hearings, 

 and no regular visits to NASA headquarters such as Teague scheduled. 

 Karth's philosophy was that the agency should be kept at arm's 

 length, that there should be a frank but adversary relationship, and in 

 no event should the subcommittee develop into a kind of appendage 

 or apologist for the agency — as he felt wrongfully occurred in some 

 other congressional committees and subcommittees. 



Karth's relations with Chairman Miller developed along an interest- 

 ing pattern. Miller often used the expression "you don't get yourself 

 a watch-dog and then do your own barking." So from the standpoint 

 of his own philosophy as well as his reaction against the Brooks 

 practice of not delegating much authority to the subcommittees, 

 Miller was inclined to let Karth and the other subcommittee chairmen 

 pursue their own courses of action. On the other hand, as a team player 

 who believed in party regularity and was strongly inclined to go along 

 with NASA, Miller sometimes clashed with Karth and the other 

 subcommittee chairmen in full committee meetings. In Karth's words: 



He had a fuse that was three-quarters of an inch long. That means a very low 

 boiling point and a very hot temper. He was so pro-agency that if you asked a question 

 that sounded in his judgment to be a negative-type question, to be one that wasn't 

 necessarily laudatory toward the agency, he himself would become incensed and he'd 

 rap the gavel on you. I remember that very specifically. He'd almost want to rule 

 you out of order, and at times would rap the gavel much before your 5 minutes was 

 up, just because he was displeased with the line of questioning you were pursuing. 



In addition to the annual authorization bills, the Karth sub- 

 committee was extremely active in oversight investigations to insure 

 that appropriations were properly spent, that management and cost 

 factors were being properly observed, and that the taxpayers were 



