N.m'RAL RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT 



969 



work represents a joint effort of the two committee staffs. * * * There have been no 

 problems that were not easily resolved as far as our two positions were concerned. 



During the subcommittee markup session, Ambro, who had had 

 considerable personal experience as a town and county supervisor in 

 newer methods of solid waste disposal, urged the staff to assemble 

 fuller data on the advanced methods being developed in other coun- 

 tries. When the bill reached the full committee markup, Brown pre- 

 sented an amendment which had been worked out with Hechler to 

 expand solid waste studies to include an analysis of the adverse effects 

 of wastes from active and abandoned underground and surface mines. 



COORDINATION WITH COMMERCE COMMITTEE 



On August 30, 1976, Teague dropped a note to Commerce Com- 

 mittee Chairman Staggers: 



I am writing to suggest a procedure for coordination of our two committees on 

 solid waste legislation that will recognize and maintain the separate jurisdictions 

 of the two committees. 



He then reviewed the success of the process which had been used 

 when the Science Committee had worked with the Commerce Commit- 

 tee on the ozone protection provisions of the Clean Air Act. Teague 

 suggested that the Science Committee bill be incorporated as a separate 

 title in the Commerce Committee bill, and that explanatory material 

 developed by the Science Committee be included with the report on 

 the legislation. Staggers readily agreed to this approach, and joined 

 Teague in a letter to the Chairman of the Rules Committee on Septem- 

 ber 9, asking that the bill be given a hearing. Teague modestly sug- 

 gested that he be given 20 minutes of time for floor debate while 

 Staggers should be allocated a full hour. The Rules Committee, in 

 granting a rule, recognized the joint jurisdiction of the two committees 

 but gave Teague and Staggers each one hour to make their case on 

 the House floor. 



Working closely with William Kovacs of the House Commerce 

 Committee staff, Dr. Byerly helped draft the R. & D. title of the 

 Resource Recovery Act which was then merged with the regulatory 

 bill which came out of the Commerce Committee. Brown and Rooney 

 gave their blessing to the final version in a hastily called session held 

 in the Rayburn Room. As Brown reported to the full committee, the 

 R. & D. sections of the bill included the authorization of several re- 

 search studies and demonstrations designed to aid the marketability 

 of separated materials, to improve land disposal practices, to reduce 

 the environmental impact of hazardous wastes, and to develop clean 

 ways to burn wastes and produce the most energy where possible. 



