SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1960

MONDAY, JULY 13, 1959

U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS,

Washington, D.C. The committee met at 10:30 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 1224, New Senate Office Building, Hon. Carl Hayden (chairman) presiding. Present: Chairman Hayden, Senators Robertson, Stennis, Johnson, Kerr, Smith, Dworshak, Allott, and Martin.

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION STATEMENTS OF DR. T. KEITH GLENNAN, ADMINISTRATOR; DR. HUGH L. DRYDEN, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR; ALBERT SIEPERT, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION; ROBERT G. NUNN, ASSISTANT GENERAL COUNSEL; AND RALPH E. ULMER, BUDGET OFFICER

STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN

Chairman HAYDEN. The committee will be in order.

This morning the committee is beginning open hearings on H.R. 7978, the supplemental appropriations bill for 1960.

We will begin with the largest amount requested in the bill, covering funds for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for 1960 as well as supplemental items for 1959. Such funds would usually be considered in connection with the independent offices appropriation bill, but due to the requirement placed in last year's supplemental bill, the regular budget estimates could not be submitted until after the passage of the specific authorizations.

Estimates for the 1959 supplemental items in House Document 114 were authorized by Public Law 86-12, approved April 22, 1959; and estimates for the 1960 regular items in House Document 173 were authorized by Public Law 86-45, approved June 15, 1959.

The total request for the five items in the bill is $530,300,000, which the House action reduced by $68,225,000, and the Space Administration is requesting full restoration involved in 13 amendments.

Dr. Glennan, I will place your letter in the record with the authorization, but I would first like to hear from Senator Johnson who is the author of this legislation.

Senator JOHNSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Some of the most distinguished members of the Appropriations Committee are also members of the Space Committee and participated with Senator Stennis, who served as chairman of the NASA Authorization Subcommittee, in the most thorough hearings on the authorizing legislation that have been conducted in this field.

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Senator Smith and Senator Martin are both members of our Space Committee and I know that this committee will want to get their views about the wisdom of the House's action after I have had a chance to speak briefly and after Senator Stennis, who is perhaps the most competent person on our side of the Hill in this field, has had a chance to give you his views.

Your Appropriations Committee has a proud record of approving the funds and the programs that our national interest requires. think this was fully demonstrated last week in the action taken on the Department of Defense appropriation bill, which comes up for floor action today.

ACCELERATION OF BALLISTIC MISSILES PROGRAM

In the case of the Department of Defense appropriation bill, your Appropriations Committee wisely recommended appropriating at least $346 million more than the budget estimates as well as providing the Secretary of Defense with additional authority to accelerate the ballistic missiles program.

I have no doubt that perhaps other programs would have been increased had the thought been entertained that the money would have been spent if we had appropriated it.

I wholeheartedly support these steps, which I think are clearly necessary to overcome some of the deficiencies in our defense program. We have from time to time pointed out those deficiencies in hearings conducted by the Preparedness Subcommittee.

SPACE PROGRAM AND NATIONAL SECURITY

As we meet here today, we have to deal with appropriations of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In many respects the space program is a vital part of our national security efforts.

I am very pleased, Mr. Chairman, to know that the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Dr. Keith Glennan, will testify in full in connection with their request for restoration.

I did not know Dr. Glennan until he came before our committee in connection with his confirmation. Since then I have had a number of dealings with him. I believe he is an extremely competent administrator, a very dedicated public servant, and I have commended the President on his selection of this quality of man to head this most vital program.

PROJECT MERCURY

Project Mercury, which is NASA's No. 1 task, has been given the same highest national priority designation that applies to the ballistic missiles program.

The Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences has examined the NASA program in every detail. Copies of the comprehensive hearings and report are on the table for each member here today. That was done under the leadership of Senator Stennis, and I do not believe we have ever had a more thorough or more comprehensive hearing than was conducted in that connection.

Our committee procedure in reviewing the NASA authorization program was to first address ourselves to the $45 million fiscal year

1959 supplemental request, and then to the $485,300,000 fiscal year 1960 program. In each instance the authorizing committee's concern was whether or not the programs as presented were sufficient for the time periods concerned to provide the United States with a program which could make us preeminent in this field.

We were assured by all responsible witnesses that these specific programs were sufficient, but that the following years would require additional authorizations and appropriations.

On the basis of this expert testimony and on the basis of the thorough deliberations of the subcommittee, the subcommittee and the full committee unanimously recommended favorable Senate action, and the Senate took that action.

The House Space Committee took parallel action and the House approved the authorization bill as reported.

HOUSE REDUCTIONS

In dealing with the appropriations request, however, the House reduced the fiscal year 1959 supplemental from $45 million to $18,675,000, a reduction of approximately 59 percent.

The House reduced the fiscal year 1960 appropriation from $485,300,000 to $443,400,000, a 9 percent reduction.

Mr. Chairman, the total of these two bills as authorized by both the House and the Senate was $530,300,000. This does not include $3,354,000 authorized for the costs of the civilian pay increase in fiscal year 1959, the appropriations for which were provided in the Second Supplemental Appropriation Act for 1959.

The House Appropriations Committee action totaled $462,075,000, or $68,225,000 less than both the Senate and the House had authorized. That is what we are talking about now, the sharp cut of $68,225,000. Mr. Chairman, I urge that this committee support the full amount as authorized; in other words, take appropriate action to reinstate the full $68,225,000.

I shall not at this time ask the committee to indulge me in order to go into precise details of the impact on the space program if this action is not taken because, as I have told you, I have the greatest respect and confidence in the Administrator, Dr. Glennan, and in his staff of dedicated experts, who are here ready and willing and eager and prepared to testify on the subject and to justify their request.

LETTER FROM DR. GLENNAN

On July 10, Dr. Glennan sent me a letter expressing his deep concern over the cuts. I believe the letter will be of interest to all members of the committee. I assume that it is somewhat the same as the letter which the chairman indicated will be put in the record, so I will not ask that it be inserted in the record, but the letter will be available to anyone interested in it.

I would like to conclude by saying that we all know the importance to our Nation of this space program. It is a program that knows no party lines. It is a program that should appeal to and receive the support of all good Americans.

The program is new and it is one with many unknown areas,

I do not think we can afford to be complacent. I think we must provide our country with the means to be preeminent in the field.

I am convinced that if the administration has erred at all in this field, it has erred in the field of conservatism in appropriations rather than exaggeration or extravagance. I believe my opinion in that field will be confirmed by some of the most solid and stable and prudent Members of this Congress who serve on our committee.

I thank the chairman for giving me this opportunity to state these views. I want to be here and participate when the markup is taken on the bill, and I commend to you the hearings conducted by Senator Stennis, and particularly the opinions of Senator Stennis, Senator Smith, and Senator Martin, who were active in these authorization hearings and who also serve as members of this committee.

I want to point out again that these authorizations passed the House and the Senate by practically unanimous votes. I think one of them was 81 to 1 and the other was 91 to 0.

That is the kind of unity I like to see presented to the rest of the world in national security matters like this, and I think it would be a great mistake if this committee refused to agree to the request made by Dr. Glennan.

Thank you very much.

Chairman HAYDEN. Senator, thank you.

Senator Stennis?

Senator STENNIS. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to supplement what Senator Johnson has said with a brief statement, and I feel that I am speaking for our subcommittee on this.

We on the subcommittee that held the hearings were favorably impressed indeed with Dr. Glennan and Dr. Dryden and their very fine staff. Dr. Glennan was very frank in his statements about the cost of these projects, that some of them might be more, and some might be less.

However, we went through every item and did not recommend reduction of one dollar in the overall program, and that passed the floor, as the majority leader said, by these overwhelming votes. But there was a technical point of order raised on the floor of the House that resulted in the deletion of some funds. These funds were rejected not on the merits, as I understand it, but simply because of a technicality. I have prepared a very brief statement that I believe should be read, in order to clear the record and bring into exact focus the point that is here before the committee. Of course, the merits of the NASA programs will be testified to by Dr. Glennan and others.

EFFECT OF DELAY IN AUTHORIZATION

There was discussion on the floor of the House after this technicality arose that summed the matter up by this statement:

When you do not get the authorization bill passed promptly and when you do not get an adequate authorization, you run into roadblocks that slow down the U.S. effort to achieve the first manned vehicle in space.

That gives the impression, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, that the program has been hampered somewhat here this year by the lack of authorization and that is just not the fact.

Legislative authorization for the supplemental appropriation required by NASA for the fiscal year 1959 was promptly provided by