Theodore
Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, Dennis Chavez was chairman
of the Public Works Committee, Allen Ellender was chairman of the
Agriculture Committee, and Warren Magnuson was chairman of the Commerce
Committee; and they were all going to be members of the Select Committee
because it cut across all of their responsibilities. But Senator Murray had
medical problems-I don't remember just what it was-and Clint Anderson
took over the responsibilities of the Interior Committee.
When it was found out that Senator Murray would not be able to serve as
chairman, and then since Senator Kerr was chairman of both the Rivers and
Harbors and Flood Control Subcommittee of Public Works and the
Subcommittee for Civil Functions of the Appropriations Committee, he seemed
to be a natural person to serve as chairman. I don't think he had had anything
to do with the passage of Senate Resolution 48, and he probably didn't even
know about it until it was passed because it came out of the Interior
Committee. It was also felt that if one of the four full committee chairmen took
it, there might be a violation of the rule about how many committees you can
chair in the Senate, but I am not sure that rule applies to select committees.
So that's how Senator Kerr got to be chairman, and to show that it was going
to be a bipartisan committee, Senator Tom Kuchel of California was made the
vice chairman. There were a number of powerful senators on the committee in
addition to the four chairmen: Henry "Scoop" Jackson, Magnuson, and, of
course, Senator Murray, who was ex officio, but he never came to the
meetings. On the Republican side, Milt Young and Francis Case. Case was
very much involved in water resources, having been one of the sponsors of the
Case-Wheeler Act back in the '30s.
Then there were some of the newcomers. Well, Clair Engle was a newcomer
in the Senate, but he had served a long time in the House, and Phil Hart and
Gail McGee and Ted Moss. So we had some really powerful committee
chairmen, and then we had some new, younger senators who were a joy to
work with because they were so open with me and relied on me to educate
them about water resources.
Q: There seems to be a strong Western representation on the committee.
A: Yes, very strong Western representation, but we had Phil Hart from Michigan
and Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania. I should also mention Thomas Martin of
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