THE OVERTON BROOKS YEARS, 1959-61 49 



ANNUAL AUTHORIZATION 



As noted in chapter I, Senator Lyndon Johnson in 1958 inserted 

 an amendment requiring annual authorizations for NASA. However, 

 the powerful opposition of Representative Gerald R. Ford and others 

 had forced a compromise limiting the requirement to one year. Now 

 Chairman Brooks took the leadership to extend the annual authoriza- 

 tion requirement — thus insuring that the Committee on Science and 

 Astronautics would have a powerful oversight weapon which by prece- 

 dent became permanent. In a dramatic presentation to a May 6, 1959, 

 executive session of the committee, Brooks termed his annual authori- 

 zation amendment — 



the crux of the whole thing, the important thing that we have to battle for. 

 * * * this is a vital section * * * you are blazing a path and you want to look 

 ahead at the type of work they do in development. * * * what we want to do is to 

 bring them back year by year for the next few years until they become an established 

 agency and we have fashioned a program. 



Teague commented immediately: "Mr. Chairman, I am going to 

 be for your amendment." After a little discussion, the amendment 

 passed. 



It was perhaps lucky for the Science and Astronautics Committee 

 that when the authorization bill hit the floor on May 19, 1959, it came 

 up under suspension of the rules which barred any amendment. To 

 many of the members of the Science and Astronautics Committee, it 

 was outrageous to bring out their first authorization bill with only 

 40 minutes of debate allotted under suspension of the rules. To be sure, 

 they were only authorizing $480,550,000 that first year — less than 10 

 percent of the high watermark of funding for NASA through most of 

 the 1960's. But here was a great chance to educate all the Members of 

 the House and the time limitation was cruelly constricting. 



Under the circumstances, however, the leadership had to reckon 

 with the mood of the House which in 1958 had soundly rejected the 

 annual authorization concept by a whopping 236-126 margin. The same 

 cast of characters, led by Congressman Ford, were sharpening their 

 weapons to try and remove the requirement for annual authorization. 



When the bill came onto the floor on May 19, the Brooks forces 

 caught their opposition napping. The opponents were entitled to con- 

 trol 20 minutes of the 40-minute debate if they had been alert enough to 

 "demand a second" when the Speaker asked at the outset: "Is a second 

 demanded?" But they were really asleep at the switch. Congressman 

 Gordon McDonough of California, a member of the Science and Astro- 

 nautics Committee and strong supporter of the bill, grabbed the micro- 

 phone and claimed the time before the opposition realized it was being 



