The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is a
committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
of the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
. It has jurisdiction over non-defense federal scientific
research
Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...
and development. More specifically, the committee has complete jurisdiction over the following federal agencies:
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
,
NSF,
NIST, and the
OSTP. The Committee also has authority over R&D activities at the
Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-re ...
, the
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
,
FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
,
NOAA, the
DOT, the
NWS, the
DHS
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...
and the
U.S. Fire Administration.
History
In the wake of the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
Sputnik program
Sputnik (Спутник, Russian for "satellite"NOTE: The Russian word "sputnik" can have many meanings: "satellite", "travelling companion", "fellow traveller", etc. However, in astronomy, it means only "satellite".) is a spacecraft launched ...
in the late 1950s, Congress created the Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration in 1958, chaired by majority leader
John William McCormack. This select committee drafted the
National Aeronautics and Space Act
The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 () is the United States federal statute that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Act, which followed close on the heels of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union ...
that created the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A staff report of the committee, the ''Space Handbook: Astronautics and its Applications'', provided non-technical information about spaceflight to U.S. policy makers.
[
The committee also chartered the permanent House Committee on Science and Astronautics, which officially began on January 3, 1959, and was the first new standing committee established in the House since 1946. The name was changed in 1974 to the House Committee on Science and Technology. The name was changed again in 1987 to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. After the Republican Party gained a majority in Congress in 1994, the name of the committee was changed to the House Committee on Science. With the return of control to the Democrats in 2007, the committee's name was changed back to the House Committee on Science and Technology.
In the 112th Congress, Committee Chairman Ralph Hall added "Space" back into the committee's name: "The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology" – a nod to the committee's history, broad jurisdiction, and the importance of space exploration in maintaining American innovation and competitiveness.][
]
Members, 117th Congress
Resolutions electing members: (Chair), (Ranking Member), (D), (R), (D), (D), (R), (R)
Subcommittees
There are five subcommittees in the 117th Congress.
Committee chairs, 1959-present
Chairmen since 1959[
* ]Overton Brooks
Thomas Overton Brooks (December 21, 1897 – September 16, 1961) was a Democratic U.S. representative from the Shreveport-based Fourth Congressional District of northwestern Louisiana, having served for a quarter century beginning on Janu ...
(LA), 1959–1961
* George P. Miller
George Paul Miller (January 15, 1891 – December 29, 1982) was an American veteran of World War I who served 14 terms as a U.S. Representative from California from 1945 to 1973.
Early life
George Paul Miller was born in San Francisco, Califo ...
(CA), 1961–1973
* Olin E. Teague (TX), 1973–1978
* Don Fuqua
John Donald Fuqua (born August 20, 1933) is a former U.S. Democratic politician.
Early years and Education
Don Fuqua was born in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida in 1933. Fuqua attended the University of Florida at Gainesville from 1951 t ...
(FL), 1979–1987
* Robert A. Roe (NJ), 1987–1991
* George Brown, Jr.
George Edward Brown Jr. (March 6, 1920 – July 15, 1999) was an American Democratic politician from California. He represented suburban portions of Los Angeles County in the United States House of Representatives from 1963 to 1971 and parts of t ...
(CA), 1991–1995
* Robert Smith Walker (PA), 1995–1997
* Jim Sensenbrenner (WI), 1997–2001
* Sherwood Boehlert
Sherwood Louis Boehlert (September 28, 1936September 20, 2021) was an American politician from New York. He represented a large swath of central New York in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 until 2007. Boehlert, a Republican, ...
(NY), 2001–2007
* Bart Gordon
Barton Jennings Gordon (born January 24, 1949) is an American politician and former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1985 until 2011. The district includes several rural areas and fast-growing suburbs east of Nashville. He was Chairman of ...
(TN), 2007–2011
* Ralph Hall
Ralph Moody Hall (May 3, 1923 – March 7, 2019) was an American politician who served as the United States representative for from 1981 to 2015. He was first elected in 1980, and was the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Tec ...
(TX), 2011–2013
* Lamar S. Smith (TX), 2013–2019
* Eddie Bernice Johnson
Eddie Bernice Johnson (born December 3, 1935) is an American politician who represents Texas's in the United States House of Representatives. Johnson is a member of the Democratic Party.
Elected in 1992, Johnson was the first registered nurse ...
(TX), 2019–present
Historical membership rosters
116th Congress
Sources: (Chair), (Ranking Member), (D), (R), (D), (R), (R), (R), (D), (R)
;Subcommittees
There were five subcommittees in the 116th Congress.
115th Congress
See also
*
References
External links
Official web site
Archive
House Science, Space, and Technology Committee
Legislation activity and reports, Congress.gov.
Republican Science Committee website
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Democratic Science Committee website
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*
*
{{Authority control
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
House Committee on Science
Space policy of the United States
NASA oversight
Politics of science
1958 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Organizations established in 1958