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 NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party * National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political g ...

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 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-rela ...

, 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 John William McCormack (December 21, 1891 – November 22, 1980) was an American politician from Boston, Massachusetts. McCormack served in the United States Army during World War I, and afterwards in the Massachusetts State Senate before winnin ...

. 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's launch of Sputnik, was ...

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 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 Janua ...

(LA), 1959–1961 * George P. Miller (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 from Florida. He represented Florida in the United States House of Representatives from 1963 to 1987. Early years and education Fuqua was born in Jacksonville, Duv ...

(FL), 1979–1987 * Robert A. Roe (NJ), 1987–1991 * George Brown, Jr. (CA), 1991–1995 *

Robert Smith Walker Robert Smith Walker (born December 23, 1942) is an American educator and politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican for ten terms from 1977 until his retirement in 1997. He was best kn ...

(PA), 1995–1997 *

Jim Sensenbrenner Frank James Sensenbrenner Jr. (; born June 14, 1943) is an American politician who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 2021 (numbered as the 9th district until 2003). He is a member of the Republican Party. ...

(WI), 1997–2001 * Sherwood Boehlert (NY), 2001–2007 * Bart Gordon (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 United States House elections, 1980, 1980, and was the chairman of the Uni ...

(TX), 2011–2013 * Lamar S. Smith (TX), 2013–2019 *

Eddie Bernice Johnson Eddie Bernice Johnson (December 3, 1934 – December 31, 2023) was an American politician who represented Texas's in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 2023. Johnson was a member of the Democratic Party. Johnson was electe ...

(TX), 2019–2023 *

Frank Lucas Frank Lucas (September 9, 1930 – May 30, 2019) was an American drug lord who operated in Harlem, New York City, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from hi ...

(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
-> * * {{Authority control

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