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HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



FIRST MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE 



On January 19, 1959, the Democratic and Republican caucuses had 

 completed their work and the new membership of the Science and 

 Astronautics Committee became official. Wasting no time, Chairman 

 Brooks immediately called an executive session of the new committee 

 for 10 a.m. on January 20, in the cavernous caucus room of the Cannon 

 Building. 



On that historic day when the House Committee on Science and 

 Astronautics first met, the outside world paid no attention at all to 

 their deliberations. In fact, the news was pretty dull and routine 

 that day, and the headlines might have applied to nearly any year 

 before or since. "President Asks Action To Curb Rising Prices" blared 

 a 4-column headline in the Washington Evening Star. The Washington 

 Post dutifullv reported a recurring, predictable situation: "Iced-Up 

 Roads Snarl Traffic." The story reiterated the obvious: "The American 

 Automobile Association received hundreds of distress calls, and found 

 difficulty dispatching aid because of the same conditions that caused 

 the trouble." 



To be sure, it was an executive session with the press barred. But 

 Chairman Brooks, an eager seeker after good publicity, was strangely 

 silent in his public comments. The acoustics were atrocious as the 

 members eagerly leaned forward to interpret the stream of resolutions 

 and 19-paragraph committee rules which were read; 23 out of 24 

 committee members (Representative Riehlman was not appointed until 

 January 29) showed up for the first meeting, which proceeded smoothly 

 with passage of resolutions to organize the staff and adopt the com- 

 mittee rules. 



Chairman Brooks welcomed the new members, and also spent a 

 few minutes stressing how important it was to have Majority Leader 

 McCormack and the former Speaker and former Minority Leader 

 Martin serving with the committee. He stated there was no room for 

 narrow or partisan considerations in the future operation of the com- 

 mittee. He noted that it would be his policy to conduct a maximum 

 amount of the committee's business in open session, and he added a 

 caution to all the members to guard classified information which 

 would be brought out in executive session or documentary materials 

 made available to the committee. 



Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of that first meeting was to 

 enable the members of this new committee to mill around and get to 

 know each other a little better. But it was dramatically different from 

 the organization meeting of any other committee. There was a sense of 

 destiny, a tingle of realization that every member was embarking on a 



