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 or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

. 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 to ...

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 federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, NSF,

NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...

, and the OSTP. The committee also has authority over R&D activities at the Department of Energy, the EPA, FAA,

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

, the DOT, the NWS, the DHS and the U.S. Fire Administration.

History

In the wake of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 name for multiple sp ...

in the late 1950s, Congress created the Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration on 05 March 1958, chaired by majority leader John William McCormack. This select committee drafted the National Aeronautics and Space Act that created the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States's civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it su ...

(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. During the 112th Congress, which was in session from 2011-2013, 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, 119th Congress

Resolutions electing members: (Chair), (Ranking Member), (R), (D), (Foster)

Subcommittees

Committee chairs, 1959–present

Chairmen since 1959 * Overton Brooks (LA), 1959–1961 * George P. Miller (CA), 1961–1973 * Olin E. Teague (TX), 1973–1978 * Don Fuqua (FL), 1979–1987 * Robert A. Roe (NJ), 1987–1991 * George Brown, Jr. (CA), 1991–1995 * Robert Smith Walker (PA), 1995–1997 * Jim Sensenbrenner (WI), 1997–2001 * Sherwood Boehlert (NY), 2001–2007 * Bart Gordon (TN), 2007–2011 * Ralph Hall (TX), 2011–2013 * Lamar S. Smith (TX), 2013–2019 * Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX), 2019–2023 * Frank Lucas (OK), 2023–2025 *

Brian Babin Brian Philip Babin ( ; born March 23, 1948) is an American dentist, politician and member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party who has served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from since 2015 ...

(TX), 2025–present

Historical membership rosters

118th Congress

Resolutions electing members: (Chair), (Ranking Member), (R), (D), (D), (R), (D), (D) ;Subcommittees

117th Congress

Resolutions electing members: (Chair), (Ranking Member), (D), (R), (D), (D), (R), (R) ;Subcommittees

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

References

External links

Official web siteArchive

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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Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

Science and technology in the United States Space policy of the United States NASA oversight Politics of science 1958 establishments in Washington, D.C. Organizations established in 1958