76 2 HISTORY Ol llll COMMITTEI ON SCIENC1 AND TECHNOLOGY 



various subcommittee members, both Democrats and Republicans, to 

 chair different subject matter areas being handled by the subcommittee. 

 This practice encouraged every member of the subcommittee to bone- 

 up more actively on the subject matter over which he was billed to 

 preside. It stimulated a greater sense of unity in the subcommittee, 

 with every member sharing some responsibility. It afforded a chance 

 for freshmen members to gain the experience which they otherwise 

 would not enjoy for many years. Needless to say, the practice was 

 especially popular among the Republican members, who never had 

 the opportunity to chair any session as long as the Democrats con- 

 trolled Congress which was during this entire period. On the nega- 

 tive side, one observer, James R. Kerr, in his Stanford University 

 Ph. D. dissertation, remarked that the practice of rotating subcom- 

 mittee chairmanships resulted in spotty differences in the information 

 elicited and the oversight exercised. Staff Director Ducander did not 

 like the diffusion of authority which made his job more bothersome, 

 since every member had a different style. It is evident that Ducander's 

 complaints to Miller prompted him to direct Hechlcr to cease the 

 practice, which Hechlcr resumed after Teague became chairman in 



1973. 



When he announced the new practice, Hechlcr observed: 



I think one of the ways that tne seniority system can be improved is by recog- 

 nizing the fact that all Members of Congress are equal and that we have a tremendous 

 amount of talent available among all Members. 



In the 1973 hearings, Hechler divided up the responsibilities of 

 the subcommittee as follows, with the members presiding over these 

 subjects: 



Cotter — General overview of aeronautics. 



Davis — Short-haul aircraft development. 



Pickle — Noise control. 



Gold water- Supersonic technology. 



Parris — General aviation. 



Thornton — Space nuclear power and propulsion. 



Conlan Research and program management and construction. 



Wydler Tracking and data acquisition; closing session on aero- 

 nautics. 



One day while Goldwater was presiding, Moshcr exercised his 

 prerogative as ex officio member of the subcommittee, by reason of 

 being the ranking minority member of the committee, and dropped in 

 on the hearing. Turning to Hechlcr, seated over at the side, Moshcr 

 started the following interchange: 



