816 



HISTORY Ol Mil COMMITTE) ON SCIENC1 VND TECHNOLOGY 



tees; a minority, led by Hechler and a group of freshman Democrats, 

 with the somewhat independent aid of Goldwater, generally opposed 

 the measure Mc( ormack's position was further hacked up by his 

 experience with loan guarantee provisions which he had written into 

 the solar and geothermal bills which had come out of his Subcommittee 

 on I nergy in 1974. As a recognized leader in the energy held, McCor- 

 mack attracted strong Democratic support for his position, which was 

 later bolstered by additional Republican support when the administra- 

 tion swung around to backing the proposal. 



league's position throughout was to be fair and judicious in 

 examining the proposal, hearing all sides, and trying to weld a con- 

 sensus without filibustering or delay. He felt the proposal was needed 

 in the national interest, yet saw the danger in rushing it through 

 without hearings. 



In opening the tension-charged September 18 full committee meet- 

 ing at 8 a.m., Teague mentioned that there were many questions in the 

 minds of the conferees. He told his colleagues that after the September 

 18 meeting there would be another meeting of the conferees. He noted: 

 My guess is th.u they will want to have further hearings on this provision, and 

 if that is the wish of the conferees, that's what we will do. I would hope we could 

 hold them as soon as possible and get through with this thing. 



MCCORMACK VERSUS HECHLER 



McCormack and Hechler took opposite sides on the role of the 

 committee in the process. Hechler contended the subcommittees should 

 examine all angles of the proposal and then make a quick and respon- 

 sible recommendation to the full committee for action. McCormack 

 countered that the bill being in conference, the conferees were servants 

 of the House and not of the committee: 



Mow this committee can take all the action in the world to advise, hut its only 

 authority is to advise in this matter. 



Hechler asked : 



What's wrong with trying to poke this pig and find out whether he really is a 

 pig-in-the-poke, or how much pork chops, ham and bacon are really there? 



McCormack noted: 



One of the fundamental facts that we're facing here today is that the technology 

 to make that fuel in a pilot plant has been in existence in this country for 4 years, 

 and nothing has been done about it, and mainly because there hasn't been any capital 

 available to do it. 



Dr. Robert W. Fn, ERDA's Deputy Administrator, noted that 

 since President Ford's State of the Union Message, an Interagency 

 Task Force on Synthetic Fuels had been studying the subject, and he- 

 hoped to have an administration position by September 22. Fn said 



