302 



similar bill (H.R. 9460) was reported by the Interior and Insular 

 Affairs Committee of the House, but the House took no action on it 

 before adjournment. Apparently, there was still some possibility (or 

 expectation) that the Department of the Interior without further 

 legislative authority, might be induced to intensify its coal research 

 efforts — with particular reference to short-range applied research to 

 improve the demand for coal.^® 



Prefiidential veto of Independent Coal Research Agency 



In 1959, hearings were held by the Mines and Mining Subcommittee 

 of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs on H.R. 6596, in- 

 troduced by Chairman Aspinall of the full committee, and on 16 other 

 similar or identical bills, and on six other bills of similar purpose. Main 

 reliance, however, was still placed on the voluminous hearings in 1956- 

 57 and the report of these findings from these hearings. In particular, 

 the report of the committee on H.R. 6596 reaffirmed the findings of 

 the earlier report. It went on to dismiss the proposal by iha Department 

 of the Interior for an Office of Coal Research in the Department as not 

 likely to be "* * * as effective [as if administered] by an independent 

 coal research and development commission established for the sole 

 purpose of developing and conducting such a program." ^'^ The previous 

 year the committee had dismissed the Department's proposal as "little 

 more than a 'self-defense' proposal offered as a counter to the proposals 

 for an independent Commission." ^^ 



A brief 1-day hearing was held in the Senate Committee on Interior 

 find Insular Affairs, June 10, 1959, to consider coal research legislation. 

 Before it were two bills, one (S. 49) a companion measure to H.R. 

 6569, and the other (S. 1362) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior 

 to place contracts for research in coal. Before the Senate committee 

 hearing. Marling J. Ankeny, Director of the Bureau of Mines, recalled 

 that his agency "* * * in its previous testimony has stated that, should 

 Congress decide on additional research, it would create a new office 

 within the Bureau which would report directly to the Director." ^^ 

 Nevertheless, the full committee, July 22, reported H.R, 6569, with a 

 compromise amendment, placing the new agency within the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior "to give the commission a home and to provide it 

 with housekeeping facilities." In conference, language making the com- 

 mission independent of the Department was restored, and the confer- 

 ence report, was accepted by both Houses of Congress by voice vote. 

 However, when it went to the President, he rejected it by pocket veto. 

 In a memorandum, September 16, 1959, he explained that the creation 

 of an additional agency would dilute the Department of the Interior's 

 "established interest" and "* * * the result could only be a blurring of 

 the lines of governmental responsibility in this important area of 

 concern." However, the President agreed that legislation authorizing 



^ In 1939, the House committee reported: "* • * the Department of the Interior has 

 made no effort to establish an Office of Coal Research as proposed In Its report of Apr. 14, 

 1958. This is evidence of Its indifference to the coal mining Industry's acute need for 

 increased and reorganized research and development assistance" (U.S. Congress. House 

 Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. "Coal Research and Development Act : report 

 [to accompany H.R. 6596], May 20, 1959." 86th Cong., 1st sess., H. Rept. 370 (Wash- 

 ington. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1959), p. 12. 



'" Idem. 



■-^Ihld., p. 11. 



^^ U.S. Congress. Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. "Coal Research. 

 Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Minerals Materials, and Fuels of the ♦ * * on S. 4'J 

 and S. 1362. bills to encourage and stimulate the production and conservation of coal in 

 the United States." June 10, 1969, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (Washington, U.S. Government 

 Printing Office, 1959), p. 40. 



