626 HISTORY OF rill COMMITTEE ON SCIENCI AND TECHNOLOGY 



TEAGUE AND PRESIDENT FORD 



During President Ford's first month in office, Teague was called 

 to the White House three times. As former chairman of the Veterans' 

 Affairs Committee and still one of its subcommittee chairmen, Teague 

 was called on as "Mr. Veteran'' in the Congress. Science advice or the 

 House committee hearings simply did not come up during the dis- 

 cussion. Teague remarked during this period: "The timetable is slow, 

 there's no hurry, and we won't push." He was determined that Con- 

 gress write a bill which was acceptable to the President, and he wanted 

 to be sure the administrative machinery would really be used instead 

 of thrown into the garbage can. Teague's decision, shared by Mosher 

 and strongly supported by Yeager, was also based on the fact that 

 President Ford had a host of other problems to face, and the first 

 imperative was to heal the Nation's wounds created by Watergate and 

 its aftermath. The strong personal bond of friendship between Teague 

 and the President, as well as Mosher and the President, motivated 

 them to defer action until the time was right. All three men knew 

 each other well enough to appreciate that sooner or later, they would 

 come to an agreement. In 1978, Teague said to the former President: 



I don't know whether you remember it or not. You asked us to write a bill 

 creating a science advisory office, which we did. 



Ford responded: 



I think that was the outgrowth of my feelings and my more or less individual 

 commitment, Tiger. 



YEAGER 's APPROACH 



During the fall and winter of 1974, the lengthy, laborious process 

 of drafting and redrafting a bill, digesting and analyzing the mass of 

 material accumulated during the hearings, listening and assimilating 

 the many divergent viewpoints in the scientific community as well as 

 the Senate and the executive branch, went on under the able and 

 experienced supervision of Yeager. At Teague's direction, Yeager 

 enlisted the active collaboration of Daddario, by now the OTA 

 Director, plus any other assistance which Daddario could whistle up. 

 Wells, who worked closely with Yeager during this process, assessed 

 his personal approach in the following terms: 



Patient, skillful negotiation, great tolerance in listening to different points of 

 view, a deep understanding of the political process, and quiet persistence have been 

 important factors in Mr. Ycager's strategy of consensus building. A high tolerance 

 for ambiguity, the total absence of any need to be visibly " out front" and a willing- 

 ness to take a long-range view have been additional personal characteristics important 

 to the success of his endeavors 



