IN THE BEGINNING, THE SELECT COMMITTEE 



15 



that had teeth in it, that covered the entire field. * * * I wanted to have a committee 

 that had some power where Members would want to get on, seek the committee 

 assignment because of the challenge it meant to them, as legislators and in connection 

 with the national interest of our country and the world of tomorrow. * * * I con- 

 sidered it one of the most important committees of the Congress. 



The catalyst was Carl Vinson, the powerful chairman of the 

 Armed Services Committee. Vinson, as has been noted, looked down 

 his nose at Brooks and was adamant that Brooks, the ranking Demo- 

 crat on the Armed Services Committee, should never succeed him as 

 chairman of that committee. 



According to Carl Albert, 



Carl Vinson came over to see Rayburn and they called me over and said: "Listen, 

 we don't want Overton Brooks ever to be chairman of the Armed Services Commit- 

 tee. * * * He's a troublemaker, a griper, and a groucher and (Paul) Kilday is steady 

 and solid and knows the business and he should be the next chairman of the 

 Committee on Armed Services." 



Turning to Carl Albert, Speaker Rayburn confided: 



We would give you the committee were it not for that fact, but that is an over- 

 riding factor. [Ironically, Brooks died in 1961, Vinson stayed on as Armed Services 

 Committee chairman for over three years following Brooks' death, and Vinson cele- 

 brated his 96th birthday on November 18, 1979.] 



Now came the problem of how to insure that Brooks would be 

 forced to relinquish his post on the Armed Services Committee. It 

 became necessary to broaden the jurisdiction of the House Committee 

 on Science and Astronautics in order to enhance its status, making it a 

 major committee, so that Brooks would be ineligible to remain on 

 Armed Services while chairing a major committee. Here is where 

 McCormack's interest in a Department of Science entered the picture, 

 and McCormack was influential in helping to define the new juris- 

 diction along broader scientific lines. At the same time, Carl Albert 

 was commissioned as Speaker Rayburn's trouble-shooter to buttonhole 

 Chairman Oren Harris of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Com- 

 mittee, whose committee would be forced to give up some jurisdiction 

 to the new Science and Astronautics Committee. 



"He gave in, but he didn't do it very easily," recalled Albert. 

 "He twitched around a little bit about it, but he had Rayburn and 

 McCormack on his neck so he had to do it." 



JOINT COMMITTEE OR SEPARATE HOUSE AND SENATE COMMITTEES? 



Early in 1958, both the House and Senate select and special com- 

 mittees were thinking in terms of creating a Joint Committee on 

 Aeronautics and Outer Space. The concept of a joint committee was 

 drawn from the experience of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. 



