i H \PTER XV 



A New Name and Expanded Authority for the Committee 



The Science and Astronautics Committee was initially established 

 as a major committee, as part of the plan hatched to insure that 

 Representative Overton Brooks would transfer from the Armed Serv- 

 ices Committee to become the first chairman of the Science Committee 

 (seepage 15). With a broader jurisdiction than the comparable Senate 

 committee, the House committee nevertheless experienced some dif- 

 ficulty in attracting Members with interests outside of space and 

 science. The turnover in committee membership became unusually 

 large, as many Members sought to be on those committees which helped 

 their own districts to a greater extent. This was especially true after 

 the Moon landing in 1969, as it became apparent that the decline in 

 the space program might mean a decline in the significance of the 

 Science Committee. 



As chairman, Brooks did a remarkable job in preserving and even 

 extending the jurisdictional frontiers of the committee. He success- 

 fully fended off numerous attempts by other committees, notably 

 Armed Services and Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to hem in the 

 scope of Science Committee activities. Miller, who had greater prestige 

 among his colleagues, did not go out of his way to expand jurisdiction 

 and thereby create conflict. Both Brooks and Miller were well pro- 

 tected at the highest levels of the House by the membership of two 

 successive Speakers, McCormack and Albert, on the committee at the 

 time each served as House majority leader. In 1963, Miller moved 

 positively to strengthen the jurisdiction of the committee 

 through the establishment of the Daddario Subcommittee on Science, 

 Research and Development. By the end of the decade the committee 

 had authorization power over the National Science Foundation, but 

 the power to authorize the funding of the National Bureau of Standards 

 did not get asserted until the 1970's. 



Aside from his brilliant initiative in establishing the new Science 

 Subcommittee, and his imaginative utilization of panels of distin- 

 guished scientists, Miller's greatest contribution toward expanding 

 the power and influence of the committee came in the international 

 area. This was done primarily through international visits and his 

 somewhat reluctant consent to adopt Fulton's recommendation to set 

 up a special Subcommittee on International Cooperation in Science and 

 Space (see chapter X). 



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