686 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENC 1 AND TECHNOLOGY 



its markup session. McCormack made quite a point of the fact that the 

 L974 testimony from the executive was "'very constructive and very 

 helpful." He elaborated: 



As you will recall, contrary to our experience with previous bills, the Admin- 

 istration came in and endorsed this bill and supported it with some very specific and 

 constructive recommendations, all of which have been adopted in the modifications 

 of the bill. 



The events which surrounded the administration support for this 

 omnibus solar bill are in themselves a fascinating drama, the actors in 

 which would no doubt relate different accounts from their own per- 

 spectives. In November 1973 in an effort to protect the jurisdiction of 

 the Science Committee, Teague introduced two different versions of 

 the "National Energy Research and Development Policy Act of 1973" 

 which was being sponsored in the Senate by Senator Henry Jackson 

 (Democrat of Washington). One version covered geothermal energy 

 and the second was devoted to other energy sources. Teague was dis- 

 turbed that Lewis Deschler, the House Parliamentarian, had referred 

 these bills to the Interior Committee instead of the Science Committee, 

 and he argued at length with both Deschler and Speaker Albert that 

 these bills belonged in the Science Committee. Teague also wrote de- 

 tailed arguments to both the Speaker and Parliamentarian. He con- 

 tended that the energy R. & D. authority being exercised by NSF, 

 NASA and the National Bureau of Standards, plus the additional au- 

 thority given to the NSF Director after the abolition of the Office of 

 Science and Technology, justified referring the bills to the Science 

 Committee which had jurisdiction over these officials. 



DEFENDING JURISDICTION OVER ENERGY 



From that point forward, the Science Committee watched very 

 closely as Senator Jackson's bill was passed in the Senate and started 

 through the House Interior Committee. It was decided to light the 

 House Interior Committee bill before the House Rules Committee on 

 the grounds that it violated the jurisdiction of the Science Committee. 

 The Interior bill, sponsored by Representative Morris Udall (Demo- 

 crat of Arizona) was called the Federal Nonnuclear Energy Research 

 and Development Act. On July 15, 1974, Teague wrote a letter to every 

 member of the Rules Committee informing them: 



The bill proposes to authorize funds in eight areas, including solar, geotherma 

 energy, wind energy, hydrogen (which is not an energy source at all) and basic re- 

 search and development. All of these areas of technology clearly lie within the juris- 

 diction of the Committee on Science and Astronautics. Thus the bill constitutes an 

 infringement of the jurisdiction of the Committee on Science and Astronautics. 



Teague asked the Rules Committee to defer action on the Udall bill. A 

 passel of Science Committee members trooped over to the Rules Com- 



