House Science Committee, U.S.

The House Science Committee, more precisely known as the Committee on Science and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives, was born in the reaction of the Congress and the American people to the shocking 1957 launch of Sputnik by the supposedly backward Soviet Union. A second factor was congressional realization that since World War II, federally funded research and development (R&D) had become continually larger and more important and that the Congress was not organized to deal comprehensively with this burgeoning activity. Since its inception, the committee has received information on scientific and technical matters, considered it, and communicated its import to a lay Congress.

The committee's original name was Science and Astronautics, recognizing the importance of both science and its jurisdiction over the National ...