670 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE OX S( [EN< I AND TECHNOLOGY 



favor Flowers for the new subcommittee position. There are several 

 reasons why McCormack was allowed to pluck the plum. Teague 

 was impressed with the aggressive manner in which McCormack had 

 headed the task force. He admired the way the task force received 

 lots of attention from the scientific community and the trade journals, 

 yet not too much of the kind of publicity which stirred the jurisdic- 

 tional jealousy of other committee chairmen. McCormack made sure 

 that Teague heard from NASA and NSF officials, as well as others 

 whom Teague respected, about the tremendous job the McCormack 

 task force was doing. On several occasions, Teague had mentioned to 

 McCormack the work being done at the University of Texas, and 

 when McCormack took his task force out of the way to visit that 

 facility, followed by excellent reports from Austin, McCormack s 

 stock went way up. Most important of all, Teague fully recognized 

 that space could no longer be the centerpiece which dominated the 

 Science Committee, and to extend the emphasis to cover energy 

 would pave the way for a far broader-based committee jurisdiction. 

 Teague knew that McCormack, no shrinking violet, had shown his 

 eagerness to branch out aggressively. So why not take a chance, even 

 though it meant a personal affront to both the system and Flowers? 



ANNOUNCING THE DECISION 



Teague swore McCormack to secrecy in advance of a caucus of 

 the committee Democrats at the opening of the 93d Congress in 1973- 

 He told McCormack he'd "take care" of it, and it was to McCormack*s 

 self-interest to stay mum. Asked in 1978 if it were a well-kept secret, 

 McCormack responded : 



Oh yes, I think that it was. He said that he'd take care of it and he did. I had 

 no clear notion of what he was going to do 



The atmosphere was very pleasant when Teague walked into the 

 committee room for the Science Committee Democratic Caucus early 

 in 1973. The committee members were eager to give Teague the strong 

 backing he deserved as he started off his chairmanship. As he rattled 

 off the issues the committee would tackle, it became apparent that the 

 committee had a determined leader who was really going to run the 

 show and take the committee out of the doldrums suffered in the 

 latter Miller years. It was also a time when a new committee chairman 

 deserved a honeymoon, rather than a challenge to his authority. So 

 when Teague crisply sprung the news that he was setting up a Sub- 

 committee on Energy, and Mike McCormack would serve as its chair- 

 man, the fait accompli was like a speed ball whizzing by an unsuspect- 

 ing batter. Nobody raised an objection, of course, so the deed was 

 done mercifully. 



