g-g HISTORY ol nil (OMMITTII ON SC.II NCI AND TECHNOLOGY 



At the December 14, 1973 markup of the solar heating and cooling 

 bill, the following colloquy occurred. 



Mr. Hechler. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the gentleman from Washing- 

 ton about the attitude of the administration toward this bill. 



Mr. McCormack. The administration witnesses, when the bill was first heard, 

 all supported the idea of the bill, but suggested the ERDA bill be passed. They 

 didn't say instead, but they said as an order of priority they thought the ERDA bill 

 should be passed. 



The response of this committee was then to prepare Section 13, which allows 

 the administration of this program to fall into ERDA or any other Federal agency 

 if it comes into being. 



Aside from that, certain members of OMB have expressed a desire that solar 

 energy research and development be managed by the National Science Foundation. 

 And we have pointed out to them this is not a research and development program, 

 but a demonstration program. They have sort of grudgingly accepted this fact and 

 offered no objection to the bill. They say -well, they think it is better funded through 

 NSF, but that is as far as it's gone. 



OMB OPPOSITION TO SOLAR HEATING AND COOLING 



Early in 1974, Teague, McCormack, Mosher, and other committee 

 members put heavy pressure on the administration to try and persuade 

 them to support the solar heating and cooling bill. The OMB reiterated 

 its position that the demonstration program should wait until ERDA 

 was established. At that point the ERDA bill had passed the House 

 but not the Senate. OMB also wanted NSF to administer all solar 

 energy research and technology funding, and the bill provided that 

 NASA should be in charge of contracting for and installing the solar 

 demonstration units. The difference of opinion with OMB touched off 

 a long argument during the spring of 1974 which spilled over into the 

 issue of which agency should take the initiative in fostering solar 

 satellite power development. Many conferences were held between the 

 committee members, staff", and OMB Director Roy L. Ash and his 

 assistants. 



Teague finally informed Ash that despite OMB opposition, he was 

 going to take the solar heating and cooling bill to the House floor with 

 or without their support, and he would beat them over the head with 

 an overwhelming, veto-proof majority in the House. He fired off a final 

 blast to Ash on February 8, a letter remarkable in its belligerent tone. 

 Teague labeled OMB's opposition to the bill as "shortsighted and 

 unwise." He said that OMB's position "represents an internal contra- 

 diction within the administration." Teague noted that he had opposed 

 the creation of ERDA because, like McCormack, he did not believe it 

 went far enough in consolidating responsibility for energy. He added: 



In spite of this opposition to ERDA, I encouraged my committee to include, in 

 our markup of the bill, a new section that provided for transfer of this Solar Heating 



