NATURAL RESOURCES AND THI ENVIRONMENT! 961 



layer of the stratosphere, solid waste disposal, and water pollution 

 control. The issue of depletion of the ozone layer was just coming to 

 the fore at the time the Brown subcommittee started its work in the 

 early months of 1975. Much public attention had been focused on the 

 danger that aerosol propellants, high-flying aircraft and photochemical 

 reactions would so disturb the ozone layer as to destroy its protection 

 against ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. This issue became the 

 subject of a major inquiry by the Brown subcommittee later in the 

 summer and, pending that inc|uiry, $2 million was added to EPA's 

 R. & D. authorization to support a program to complement what other 

 agencies were doing. 



SATISFYING HOB JONES OX WATER POLLUTION 



The subcommittee had remarkable success when the EPA R. & D. 

 bill reached the floor on July 10, 1975- Brown handled the bill adroitly 

 in Teague's absence, orchestrating a series of supportive speakers, 

 including Mosher, Hayes, Ottinger, Scheuer, Hechler, Ambro, and 

 Winn. During the amending process, Representative Robert E. Jones, 

 (Democrat of Alabama), Chairman of the House Public Works Com- 

 mittee, submitted an amendment to hike the authorization for water 

 pollution control R. & D. from $91 million to $149 million. When 

 Brown readily accepted this whopping increase and recommended 

 its adoption, Jones was ecstatic: 



Mr. Chairman, I would like to say that we are indeed fortunate to have the 

 leadership of the gentleman from California (Mr. Brown) in the direction and in the 

 purposes of the legislation that is now before this body. The committee is initiating 

 a broad range of centralized effort in the held of research and development among the 

 various agencies of the Government which I think will produce a more profitable, 

 more uniform and more understandable research and development program. I think 

 that the gentleman from California and the rest of the members of the committee are to 

 be commended, and I again want to thank the gentleman for accepting my amendment. 



The Jones amendment went through on a voice vote. 



Back of the Jones amendment was an interesting story, the full 

 details of which were not made public until Jones inserted into the 

 July 10 Congressional Record the text of two letters written to the 

 Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the House Committee 

 on Rules. On June 12, a blunt letter of protest had been sent to the Rules 

 Committee, charging that the EPA authorization bill represented 

 action by the Science Committee to "infringe drastically" on the 

 jurisdiction of the Public Works Committee. The Rules Committee- 

 was requested not to grant a rule for the bill. Then on June 24, a follow- 

 up letter was sent from the Public Works Committee to the Rules 

 Committee. 



