884 HISTORY OF THi: COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



most bitter and divisive in the history of the committee. At the outset 

 of the April 11 session, Flowers confessed: 



I have to say that I have been dealing with the opposing forces on this issue, and 

 I feel somewhat like the referee or the umpire when both sides turn on you and start 

 slugging you. 



The slugging started almost immediately. McCormack branded the 

 compromise as having the effect "to kill the Clinch River Breeder 

 Reactor Project and to substitute for it a rather vague study which 

 would come back to us in 1981 after the next presidential election." 

 Flowers shot back: 



That is editorializing, Mike. That is not what my amendment is aimed at doing. 

 McCormack punched again: 



The President has repeatedly stated that he intends to try to destroy the program, 

 but I think we cannot, as representatives of the people of this country, be frightened 

 by this threat. 



Mrs. Lloyd added: 



There is no other way I can read this except this is the death of the CRBR 

 program. 



Brown warned against forcing the President to the mat once again 

 in "a confrontation which apparently a substantial number of members 

 of this committee are seeking to encourage and perhaps hope to see 

 happen." He urged support for the Flowers amendment, which he 

 said would "move us forward into a constructive nuclear program and 

 to avoid this bickering over something which we really feel — regardless 

 of what we do in this committee — is dead and we might as well bury 

 it and go on with the work that needs to be done." Jim Lloyd added: 



We cannot stand around fighting over a Clinch River Breeder Reactor. The 

 President ain't gonna buy it. So let's accept that and go forward wih other programs 

 which will allow us to participate in the energy program in the nuclear field as rapidly 

 as possible. 



Lujan disagreed: 



The American public feels that we are headed in the wrong direction and that 

 someone has to take the bull by the horns and direct it in the proper direction * * * 

 and keep us away from floundering. 



