284 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



WINNING KARTH'S SUPPORT FOR THE SHUTTLE 



In June of 1971, Joe karth penned a little note to Tiger Teague 

 about the space program. Enclosing an article from the St. Paul, 

 Minn., Pioneer Press which depicted Karth's support for both the 

 Space Shuttle and other space expenditures, Karth's note read: 



Dear Tiger: I just wanted you to know that while I don't agree with every 



d thing the Agency has for sale, I support the program even back home where my 



poll showed constituent support 5 to 1 in the negative] 



Karth, who along with Mosher and a sizable group of committee 

 rebels had led a nearly successful fight against overfunding the Space 

 Shuttle in 1970, came around to supporting the Shuttle in 1971. He 

 even went so far as to come out publicly for the Shuttle in these terms: 



If we're going to have a space program, we're eventually going to have to de- 

 velop a new transportation system, there's no question about it. We can't afford to 

 build the short-launch vehicles that cost $5 million to $15 million which are treated 

 like skyrockets. 



What led Karth and the other rebels of 1970 to reverse their posi- 

 tion in 1971? The answer lies in an interesting bit of parliamentary 

 maneuvering within the committee. 



In its 1971 presentation to the committee, NASA quietly dropped 

 all references to a Space Station in their discussion of the Space Shuttle. 

 The Space Station was a victim of chloroforming by the Office of 

 Management and Budget. OMB also slashed the NASA request for 

 funding the Shuttle from $190 million down to $100 million. 



Following extensive hearings and their customary series of field 

 trips, the Teague Manned Space Flight Subcommittee recommended 

 increasing the authorization for the Space Shuttle from $100 million 

 to $135 million. Additional increases in the manned space flight area 

 made the subcommittee total $90 million above the budget. Since 

 the Subcommittee on Advanced Research and Technology was advo- 

 cating a $71.4 million increase in calendar year 1971 over the NASA 

 budget request, and the Subcommittee on Space Science and Applica- 

 tions was holding its increases to $2.5 million, it almost seemed as 

 though the stage was set for a repeat of the 1970 fight by Karth and 

 his subcommittee colleagues. 



When the full committee met on March 30, 1971, to consider the 

 subcommittee reports, the mood appeared to be less combative than 

 in 1970. Mosher, who had helped lead the Republican side of the fight 

 against the Shuttle, was more subdued in his 1971 criticisms. He told 

 the full committee in its executive session on March 30 that he was 



