490 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



wind speed. Unlike the bull-in-the-china-shop approach of the High- 

 way Administration, the Weather Service dipped a tentative toe into 

 the water before plunging in. First, the proposed plan was published 

 and circulated. Second, a public conference was held in Washington, 

 D.C., on June 30, 1977, to receive public comments on the proposed 

 plan. Third, 300 copies of the draft plan were mailed to affected organi- 

 zations such as instrument manufacturers, news organizations, farm 

 and consumer groups, et cetera. 



When Congressmen went home to their districts in July 1977, 

 during the "district work period," they began to receive questions 

 and complaints about the Weather Service plan. Teague also received 

 queries in Texas and correspondence from his constituents. As a result 

 of all these inquiries as well as the generally angry reaction against the 

 Highway Administration, Teague decided to send out an explanatory 

 memorandum to radio, television, and news executives to give them 

 an authoritative background. The memorandum, dated September 6, 

 1977, had this covering letter from Teague: 



I have received a number of letters and comments about the changeover to the 

 Metric system which is now increasingly affecting every citizen. 



Some of these letters and comments reflect information made available through 

 the media, and frequently they appear to involve an incomplete understanding of 

 what the position of the Congress and the President is in this matter. 



In his memorandum, Teague explained the historical background 

 of the metric movement, what was happening throughout the world, 

 the fact that the 1975 act was voluntary, and all that the act provided 

 for was "to conduct public education activities and to assist in the 

 coordination of the ongoing changeover in industry, trade, education, 

 government, and other sectors of our society." He described why he had 

 opposed the precipitous changeover clumsily attempted by the High- 

 way Administration. He then went into the Weather Service activities 

 in some detail, concluding: 



Whatever the Weather Service finally decides to do will not be in the form of a 

 regulation. 



He noted that neither the Weather Service nor the U.S. Metric Board 

 could make any newspaper, radio, or television station use either dual 

 measurements, or metric only, and that "each media organization is 

 entirely free to adopt whatever way of providing weather information 

 it sees fit." 



THE COMMITTEE STEPS INTO THE BREACH 



Actually, what Teague was doing was filling the vacuum which 

 had been left by the failure of the Metric Board to get organized and 

 do the job assigned to it by the 1975 act. The confusion, and false 



