Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

76
THE HISTORY OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
Committee on Science and Astronautics shall be notified when all steps necessary to the
organization of the Corporation have been completed, including approval of the proposed
Corporation by-laws by the Commission. Sec. 402 will take effect thirty days after the
date of such notification.
(c) If the organization of the Corporation has not been completed within three
months after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall make an interim report
to the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences and the House Committee
on Science and Astronautics on the status of such organization.
Document I-17
[1]
Executive Secretary April 11, 1962
Memorandum to the President
It is understood that Chairman Oren Harris of the House Interstate and Foreign
Commerce Committee is scheduled to see you tomorrow. If so, he may want to discuss the
Communications Satellite legislation, which is before his committee. He has completed
his hearings and is hoping to mark up the bill very soon.
Your bill was introduced in the Senate as S. 2814. It was introduced by Congressman
Harris in the House as H.R. 10115. Harris also introduced your bill as modified by the
Senate Space Committee. That bill is H.R. 11040, and is currently the one primarily being
considered by Chairman Harris.
Harris has been most cooperative in this matter, as illustrated by his invitation to Nick
Katzenbach and me to help iron out various questions with him and his staff yesterday. He
indicated that he wanted to make the minimum number of changes in the bill and
thought it important to act quickly so that efforts by others to obtain Government ownership
of the system would not have time to block action this session. This same view is, I
believe, held by Senator Kerr and his Space Committee, and Senator Pastore and the
Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee in the Senate.
Our meeting with Chairman Harris was also attended by Newt Minow, who stated that
the majority of the FCC, including himself, believed they could “live with and make work”
the bill as it now stands. Some clarifying language of various minor points is being worked
out by the staff of the Commerce Committee and staff of the Justice Department.
It is suggested that emphasis might well be made on the following:
1. That broad-based ownership is the important principle, and that the provision in
H.R. 11040 (50% of stock ownership by the public, and 50% by authorized carriers)
is satisfactory.
2. That the new corporation should be authorized to own ground stations, without
preventing individual carriers from also [2] owning such terminals, and that it
would be best if the legislation left the decision as to ground station ownership up
to a finding of public interest, convenience, and necessity on the part of the FCC,
without any language in the bill which would prejudice or influence the FCC’s
decision in any individual case.
3. That legislation should not be delayed any longer than absolutely necessary.
4. That it makes no difference whether the new legislation becomes a separate
statute (which you had proposed) or takes the form of amendment to the
Communications Act or to the Space Act, and that this is a matter for the
Congress to determine.
Attached for possible reference is my recent testimony on the major changes made in