EPILOGUE SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1013 



Chapter II 



When House Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Vinson 

 succeeded in spiriting out the second-ranked member of his committee, 

 Overton Brooks, by maneuvering to have him named Chairman of 

 the Science and Astronautics Committee, there were those who con- 

 cluded that this doomed the new committee because of poor leadership. 

 To be sure, Chairman Brooks made mistakes he operated all over the 

 lot, his adrenalin was too strong for his small and overworked staff, 

 and he angered the subcommittee chairmen by centralizing power 

 without delegation. Yet he rirmly and fearlessly pressed forward to 

 instill a sense of urgency into the space program, while encouraging 

 broader relationships throughout the scientific arena. In getting the 

 committee off to a fast start, Brooks was aided considerably by the 

 presence of Majority Leader— and later Speaker— John W. McCormack, 

 who had chaired the select committee in 1958. Former Speaker and 

 Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin Jr. also helped smooth Republican 

 support for the committee's efforts. Later, Carl Albert's service on the 

 committee helped weld stronger leadership support as Albert ad- 

 vanced through the ranks to become Speaker of the House. 



Once the committee had firmly established its authority to conduct 

 annual authorizations for NASA, the next step was to insure that the 

 intent of the Congress was carried out in the policies and programs 

 of this rapidly expanding agency. In a larger sense, the committee 

 repeatedly prodded NASA into speedier action on propulsion, training, 

 spacecraft development, and the timetable on a manned lunar landing. 

 At the same time, the committee pushed for a speedup in programs 

 for communications, weather and navigations satellites. In addition 

 to its role as an accelerator, the committee actively worked to protect 

 NASA from the intrusions of the military attempting to invade 

 NASA's jurisdiction. This included committee initiative to expand 

 the Cape Canaveral launch area for NASA's future operations. 



Chapter III 



When George P. Miller became chairman after Brooks' death in 

 1961, the subcommittees were delegated expanded authority, and 

 morale generally rose among the staff. But the size of the staff never 

 exceeded a dozen professionals during the Miller regime and this 

 handicapped the scope of investigations and oversight. Despite the 

 agitation of the minority for staff representation, not until 1968 was 

 the minority allowed to have one staff member and it was 1971 before 

 the minority had its own unit including more than one staffer. 



