916 



HISTORY OF THE COMMIT! I I ON s< II NCF AND TFCHNOI.OGY 



government support also will assist small businesses interested in manufacture of 

 electric vehicles for the demonstration program and for consumers. 



ORGANIZING HOUSE TO OVERRIDE THE VETO 



In a cleverly worded appeal to their colleagues, Ottinger and 

 McCormack teamed up with a statement which began: '"Guess who 

 agree the President is wrong!!- Ottinger and McCormack, McCormack 

 and Ottinger." The letter urged House and Senate Members to "short- 

 circuit the electric vehicle veto," and "we urge you to plug in your 

 electronic voting card and support the electric vehicle override." Sup- 

 porters of the bill divided up the membership of the House and Senate, 

 and made personal calls to urge that the veto be overridden. 



On September 16, the House had a lively debate on what to do 

 with the President's veto. Teague led off by stating that he was 

 "frankly puzzled" at the action of the President. He concluded: 



The only explanation of the veto that makes any sense is that the President 

 received some bad advice. 



Teague sketched in the progress being made toward development of 

 nickel-zinc batteries to replace lead-acid types, to be followed by 

 "second generation batteries such as lithium-sulfur." McCormack 

 underlined the congressional initiative on the bill, following the solar 

 and geothermal bills passed in 1974. He starkly referred to the fact 

 that, looking out from Capitol Hill toward the Washington Monu- 

 ment, he had seen a "brown pall of smoke covering Washington, 

 D.C." McCormack stressed the dire need for vehicles that did not 

 pollute and contaminate the atmosphere. 



Goldwater started out in a peculiar fashion, denouncing the 

 Democrats in Congress for "spending dollars we do not have and 

 spending large amounts of money on 'soft' projects and jobs that 

 produce no real substantial economic impact." He stated: 



I was greatly surprised that the President chose to veto this act. Regretfully, I 

 would have to concur with my colleagues that he may have been misled on this 

 particular piece of legislation. 



Goldwater said that if the White House had any objections to the 

 legislation, those objections were certainly not communicated to him 

 before, during or after consideration of the conference report. He 

 denied the program would be wasteful, extravagant or ill-considered, 

 and concluded: 



The Congress is overwhelmingly supported by the evidence that its approach is 

 sound and will be effective. 



WYDLER SUPPORTS PRESIDENT S VETO 



Wydler, the only committee member to speak in support of the 

 President's veto, cited an interagency report which was pessimistic on 



