788 HISTORY OF THI COMMITTEl ON SCIENCI AND TECHNOLOGY 



side to announce his "full support" and commendation for holding 

 the hearings. Brooks added: 



Wc have had a lor of dealings with the FAA Their crack record has not been 

 what 1 would call beautiful." * * I find it very astounding that the Administrator 

 of the FAA has tried to get this subcommittee to cancel the hearings. 



THE BURTON-GOLDWATER AXIS 



The leadoff witness was Goldwater, followed by Harkin and 

 Wydler. Goldwater started off by observing that "anytime John 

 Burton and Barry Goldwater can agree on anything, then it must be 

 one helluva problem." He then scored the Milford subcommittee: 



I am not convinced in my own mind that our subcommittee has conducted a 

 thorough investigation of this controversy. If it had, these hearings would not be 

 necessary. In addition, during the course of hearings and questioning of witnesses, 

 especially the FAA, adequate and sufficient answers have not been forthcoming from 

 the FAA. Or, if they had, I would not be sitting here. 



Goldwater reiterated that he had no idea which MLS system was 

 superior, and "I really do not care which system is chosen." He 

 concluded: 



Wc have a mess on our hands — and I hope the news media is listening to this — 

 because we in the Congress have failed to provide effective oversight. We pass money 

 bills around this place and give agencies of Government untold powers and then 

 conveniently forget about the whole darned process. No wonder public opinion polls 

 show Congress at a low level in terms of prestige and respect. 



Walker, a member of both the Science Committee and the Burton 

 subcommittee, raised the same issue as Goldwater had raised; namely, 

 that "one of the reasons why this problem has arisen is because there 

 has not been proper oversight by the subcommittee responsible in 

 Science and Technology." Wydler responded: 



I think in this particular case there has been a sharp division between the atti- 

 tude of the chairman of the subcommittee and the majority of the members on the 

 subcommittee — be they Democrats or Republicans.* * * I think the fact these hear- 

 ings are being held speaks for itself- that it was necessary to go beyond where we 

 had gone and to dwell on things that we had not dwelled upon 



When Harkin testified, he added: 



To the suggestion that these hearings should not be held now, I say they would 

 not have had to be held now had FAA come forward and responded to requests 

 made by Mr. Goldwater, Mr. Wydler and myself over the past months to open up 

 the process to scrutiny and respond to questions 1 submitted last October. 



The Burton subcommittee hearings were scarcely over before the 

 Milford subcommittee went into another round of divisive argument 

 over MLS. Looking back on the experience in the Burton hearings, 

 Wydler and Milford had this exchange: 



