EPILOGUE: SUMMARY Ol CHAPTERS 



1023 



jurisdiction over nonmilitary nuclear R. & D. to the Science Commit- 

 tee, which did not go through until 1977. The Democratic caucus 

 scuttled the Boiling recommendations and referred the entire package 

 to a caucus committee headed by Representative Julia B. Hansen 

 (Democrat of Washington). The Hansen committee, with the sig- 

 nificant exception of the nuclear R. & D. jurisdiction, was equally 

 generous to the Science Committee. It took months of careful staff 

 work, numerous drafts of testimony and help solicited from outside 

 witnesses who testified. These efforts were supplemented by many 

 strategy sessions within the star! and committee. The presence or two 

 friendly staff members on the Boiling committee — Dr. Charles S. 

 Sheldon II and Robert C. Ketcham- certainly helped. But above all, 

 Teague's tremendous prestige in the House, his position as chairman 

 of the Democratic caucus, and his personal phone calls and con- 

 ferences with Boiling, Mrs. Hansen, and other Members were 

 worth their weight in gold. 



When the Boiling committee's recommendation to abolish the 

 Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee went down the tube, it 

 looked as though the Science Committee would lose its chance to 

 obtain jurisdiction over oceanic and atmospheric sciences. But a clari- 

 fying colloquy between Hechler and Mrs. Hansen established the 

 intent of the Hansen committee that this jurisdiction be shared. This 

 gave the Science Committee the green light to proceed in that area, in 

 collaboration with the Merchant Marine Committee. 



In December 1974, Teague took the senior committee Democrats 

 out for a boat ride one evening on the Potomac River. After drinks and 

 dinner, Teague asked each member to express his preference on the 

 jurisdiction of subcommittees. McCormack argued it made sense to 

 centralize authority over energy R. & D. in one subcommittee, and 

 Hechler argued for two. After extended discussion, a show of hands 

 indicated, by a narrow margin, that two energy subcommittees were 

 preferred. McCormack subsequently chose to head up a subcommittee 

 which encompassed solar, geothermal, conservation, and advanced 

 energy technologies, while Hechler chose coal, oil, and gas (fossil 

 fuels). In 1977, Flowers exercised his seniority to choose fossil and 

 nuclear R. & D. (By 1977, with the abolition of the Joint Committee 

 on Atomic Energy, nuclear jurisdiction passed to the Science Com- 

 mittee.) McCormack then chose advanced energy technologies — about 

 the same jurisdiction he had had the two prior years. In 1979, the 

 energy subcommittees were rescrambled, with McCormack getting 

 nuclear and geothermal, while Ottinger was given fossil, solar, and 

 conservation. 



