870 HISTORY OF THF. COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



A new committee got it from scratch, and when they came down solidly against 

 the President, they had a great deal more weight with their colleagues. It brought 

 new faces into the battle who didn't have the old label of being rubber stamps. 



Having been rebuffed on loan guarantees in 1975 and 1976, a 

 majority of the committee had a temporary glow of success in the fall 

 of 1977. But the victory proved to be a hollow one. Congress was still 

 disturbed about the rapidly escalating costs of the CRBR. The day 

 after the defeat of the Brown amendment, a much narrower vote was 

 held on a Coughlin amendment that would have gradually forced 

 industry funding for up to 50 percent of cost over-runs for the CRBR. 

 The Coughlin amendment only failed by 206-196. 



CONFERENCE COMMITTEE WALKS ON EGGSHELLS 



When the conference committee met in 1977, it was an exercise in 

 walking on eggshells. The conferees wanted to keep the authorization 

 for the CRBR low enough to encourage President Carter to sign rather 

 than veto the bill. At the same time, they wanted to write into law 

 language which might prevent the Carter administration from inter- 

 fering further with the progress of the CRBR. Realizing that every 

 dollar the authorization was hiked above $75 million would invite a 

 Presidential veto, the conferees agreed on $80 million — far below the 

 $150 million which had whooped through the House. Then they went 

 to work and put in legislative language making it illegal for the 

 Nuclear Regulatory Commission to cancel or reduce funds for the 

 project or even move it from its proposed site near Oak Ridge, Tennes- 

 see unless the site were found to present a "radiological health and 

 safety hazard." 



In an effort to attract further administration support and try to 

 stave off a Presidential veto, the conference committee included the 

 language desired by the administration to allow the charging of higher 

 prices for uranium enrichment. But the conference committee also 

 included a provision requiring the administration to submit to Con- 

 gress proposed changes in the price to be charged for enriched uranium, 

 and gave the power to either House or Senate to veto the proposed 

 price change within 60 days. This one-House veto provision was 

 regarded by the administration as an invasion of the power of the 

 Presidency. 



Teague called up the conference report on October 14. Representa- 

 tive Morris K. Udall (Democrat of Arizona), an opponent of the 

 CRBR, raised a point of order that since new material not considered 

 by either House or Senate had been injected into the conference report, 

 this new language was not germane. When the Speaker sustained the 

 point of order, the conferees had to go back to the drawing board. They 



