You, Mr. Wagner, have served in two administrations, and you will, in fact, although you are not on the payroll now, you are embarking on a third period of service, and so the Tennessee Valley Authority, in a sense, has grown stronger because of your stature. I think this can be properly said.

You go back to 1934. This was the year after I was privileged to come to the House of Representatives. I supported TVA when it was created, by my vote and approval, by my voice. It was later, after this service in TVA that you became a member of the Board. In 1961 you became the General Manager of the Authority.

And so without being trite, I think it could be said that if there was a bottom in TVA, you started there, and you worked your way to the top.

I think the citizens of the Tennessee Valley, of that group of States, and the Nation as a whole, have benefited, Mr. Wagner, by this climb, and more importantly, by your service each succeeding year of your tenure of office.

I could say much more, but I think you are capable, highly capable, of continuing the activities in which you are now engaged. This is a great water and power resource. I recognize it. Some mistakes, certainly, certain errors have crept into TVA, as in any agency of Government, directly or indirectly, which is a continuing body or created, as this one was, by the Congress of the United States, to stand in a sense alone, although part of the fabric of Government.

At this point in the record, I will place a biographical sketch of Mr. Wagner.

(The biographical sketch follows:)

BIOGRAPHY OF AUBREY J. WAGNER

Aubrey J. Wagner became a director of the Tennessee Valley Authority on March 3, 1961 for the term expiring in May 1969, and was designated Chairman by President Kennedy in June 1962. A career official with service going back to 1934, he was the agency's General Manager at the time of his appointment to the Board.

Mr. Wagner joined TVA a year after it was created as an engineering aide in the General Engineering and Geology Division. He was assigned to the navigation program and took part first in the planning and construction of Tennessee River navigation facilities. Later he also engaged in transportation economics studies designed to develop the fullest possible contribution of low cost water transportation to TVA's total program for integrated resource development.

In 1948 he was named chief of the Navigation and Transportation Branch. In that post he was responsible for general planning of TVA's navigation program, including both engineering matters and economic studies involved in the growing commercial use of the newly improved Tennessee waterway.

In 1950 Mr. Wagner was a member of the "Committee on Domestic Water Navigation Projects and National Policy" of the President's Water Resources Policy Commission.

He was appointed Assistant General Manager in 1951 and General Manager in 1954. In this capacity he was the agency's chief administrative officer.

Mr. Wagner was born January 12, 1912, in Hillsboro, Wisconsin. He received the bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1933. In 1962 he received the Distinguished Service Citation at the University of Wisconsin 14th Annual Engineers Day. In May 1966 he received an honorary LL.B. degree from Newberry College (S. C.). In May 1969 he received the N. W. Dougherty Award, University of Tennessee College of Engineering; it is given annually to an outstanding leader in the engineering field.

From 1963 to 1965 Mr. Wagner was a member of the President's Appalachian Regional Commission. In April 1965 he was designated a member of the President's Council on Recreation and Natural Beauty; in April 1968 a member of the President's Council on Cost Reduction in Government. In the spring of 1968 he was a lecturer for the Agriculture and Natural Resources Session at the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies (Austria). Member of Engineering Advisory Committee, Tennessee Technological University, May 1968; member of Governor's Science Advisory Committee, Tennessee, 1969.

He is president of St. John's Lutheran Church Council in Knoxville, Tennessee, and is serving a second term as a member of the Executive Council of the Lutheran Church in America. He has been active in Boy Scout work since 1935; holds the Lamb Award, the Scoutmaster's Key and Silver Beaver awards; and is a member of the Boy Scouts of America National Council.

He was married in 1933 to the former Dorothea J. Huber of Sioux City, Iowa. They have four children: Mrs. J. Donald Elam of Lexington, Kentucky; Joseph, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Terre Haute, Indiana; James, on the editorial staff of the Greensboro (N.C.) Daily News; and Karl, a medical student at the University of North Carolina.

The CHAIRMAN. There are many who will come this morning to introduce and to speak well of the nominee. We shall have the privilege at this time of having the formal presentation of Mr. Wagner to the members of the committee, given to use by our colleague, Senator Howard Baker, a new member, in a sense, of this committee, but a member who has become very much a part, a helpful part, of this group. And so, Howard, if you would proceed, as you desire to, in a statement, or in comment, I am sure that Senator Cooper, and Senator Young, and hopefully, other members who will be able to come by, that when we can consider, perhaps in colloquy with Mr. Wagner, some of the matters that he finds are very important, and perhaps he would like to call to our attention about the developmental structure of TVA.

Senator Baker.

STATEMENT OF HON. HOWARD H. BAKER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE

Senator BAKER. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.

Distinguished members of the committee, it is my great pleasure to be here today on this occasion and for this purpose. I believe that the Tennessee Valley Authority has served well and nobly in the development of our region and in fact, as a model for development of the United States.

It has been pointed out by you, Mr. Chairman, that Mr. Wagner came to the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1934, and has worked with the agency, since that time, in many capacities. He became the General Manager of the Tennessee Valley Authority during the tenure of General Vogel as Chairman of TVA.

He was later appointed Chairman of the Board by President Kennedy, and he now has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors by President Nixon.

TVA is, has been, and, I hope, always will be a nonpartisan, nonpolitical service function of the Government of the United States, on behalf of the people, not just of the Tennessee Valley, but of the Nation as a whole.

I have known Mr. Wagner in his professional capacity by reputation and personally for many years. I unhesitatingly commend him to the favorable consideration of this committee, on the basis of that professional competence, and on the basis of his character as an administrator, and as a person.

Parenthetically, Mr. Chairman, I visualize the work of TVA as only just begun. I think, and I believe, that the Tennessee Valley Authority is uniquely qualified to serve this country in fields that require, indeed cry out, for attention and for coherent effort and for intelligent study, for example in the fields of research and development of facilities and techniques for the control of the pollution of our air envelope and of the waters and streams of this country.

TVA is the only agency of the Federal Government that has direct primary jurisdiction for the management of an entire river basin. The Tennessee Valley encompasses parts of seven States of this Union. I believe that in addition to the traditional functions of the Authority, which they handle so well and have handled so well under the administrative guidance of Chairman Wagner, there are new fields, new efforts, and new endeavors, which will thoroughly match and thoroughly justify and compare favorably with the contribution already made in terms of that which I believe it will make, in the years ahead.

So it is, Mr. Chairman, with a great deal of pleasure that I present to you and to my distinguished colleagues on this committee a man for whom I have great respect, and I am very proud to say that the President of the United States has nominated him to be Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority and I am happy to state publicly that I fully, thoroughly, and unequivocally support his confirmation in this high and distinguished position. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Senator Baker.

We have reason to want to hear, of course, from all members of the committee who will be present this morning, but one member of our committee, the ranking minority member, Senator John Sherman Cooper, has another commitment at 9:30; he frankly remains behind that hour that he may have the opportunity to be joined

in remarks at this time.

Senator Cooper.

Senator COOPER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your courtesy.

I would note that Senator Young is here. As I recall, he has stated on other occasions that he has voted for the TVA, when he was a member of the House, and has a long history of support for it. I also see Senator John Sparkman here, who has, of course, been its advocate during his entire service in the Congress.

I wanted to come here this morning, although I do have an appointment right now, to be able to express my support for Mr. Wagner. I think it is very appropriate that Senator Baker introduced him. to this committee. Senator Baker is from Tennessee, and he, too, is a strong supporter of TVA.

I may say I very much recall his father, Congressman Baker, throughout the years that he served in the House-his advocacy of

I am very much interested in TVA because it serves a considerable part of Kentucky, southwestern Kentucky, and beyond that, of course, it serves the Nation. In many ways, I think it has been a yardstick a measure of what can be accomplished-for the Nation. It has been very important.

I have known Mr. Wagner for many years. I think it is very appropriate that he be renominated to be Chairman of the Board. He has come up through the ranks, served in many capacities with TVA, and I know there is no one better qualified than Mr. Wagner to continue this work.

I have been a supporter of TVA, and as we all pay ourselves little kudos from time to time, I am happy that in 1954, when we had the debate over Dixon-Yates, I opposed the plan and proposed on the Senate floor that a self-financing plan be adopted, so we could avoid such issues. I asked President Eisenhower to submit that plan to the Congress, which he did.

I have talked to Mr. Wagner about some problems we had in the past. But I have no doubt about his purpose, and his will to make the Tennessee Valley move forward. I have said to him that TVA is a very unusual agency. I believe that it has more independence than any other agency of the U.S. Government, and that in being so, there is a great responsibility upon it, too. That is, to remember its essential purpose, which I believe is to assist in raising the living standards of the people of that area. I have always said that no agency of the United States should ever be larger than the Government itself, neither in attitude nor in purpose.

Mr. Wagner certainly is not one who would do that. I am happy to have come here this morning to voice my support for him.

I apologize, but I have to go now. I leave my proxy with all of you. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Cooper.

Senator John Sparkman has come into the room, and we will hear him in just a moment, because another member of our committee, referred to by Senator Cooper, is with us, and he, of necessity, must go to another assignment. I appreciate Senator Cooper and Senator Young both remaining.

Senator Young of Ohio, as has been indicated, supported the Tennessee Valley Authority when it became a reality through law, and I am very happy that he arranged his schedule to be with us today. Senator Young.

Senator YOUNG. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want you and Mr. Wagner to know that it is a very happy permanent recollection of mine that during my first term as Congressman-at-large from Ohio, many years ago, one of the best votes that I cast was to create the great Tennessee Valley Authority. Along with my colleague, Jennings Randolph, we worked together and spoke out in support of that great agency, and over the years, we have been very happy that that is part of our life's record as a Member of the Congress of the United States.

You have been a part of the great achievements accomplished by the TVA. You come in today, introduced by Senator Baker, à colleague whom we all hold in highest admiration, affection, and respect. I regret very much that I can't remain here throughout the entire morning,

31-944-69 -2

because as a member of the Aeronautics and Space Sciences Committee, we are marking up an important bill, and we Americans have always been explorers, and we are taking up the challenge of outer space, and I do want to participate.

I am a conservative on fiscal matters when it comes to myself, and my wife Rachel at times accuses me of being a tightwad, sometimes. However, when it comes to appropriations for the continuing exploration of outer space, I am not going to be too conservative on a fiscal matter of that sort, because I fervently believe in it. That is why I feel it is important that I leave here later this morning.

I will stay as long as I can, and of course, Mr. Chairman, whether I am here or not, I do wish to be recorded in support of this nomination. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Senator Young. We are grateful for your continued service in Congress, so that what you have helped to begin 35 years ago, you can help to continue in 1969, through your support of the leader, in a sense, of the Tennessee Valley Authority, in its Government structure.

I am going to ask Senator Baker to preside in my absence. Senator Young has to leave, and I will be back in perhaps 2 or 3 minutes. I need to take a long-distance call, so if you will come here, or sit there, as you want to, Howard, and we are going to have the privilege of hearing from Senator John Sparkman, and I know that John would want me to say that his former colleague, Lister Hill, that Lister was a crusader for TVA. We remember him in the Senate of the United States.

Senator Sparkman, we know of your identification, and identification of positive approach to the Tennessee Valley, in its inception and since, and we are very delighted that you could come to speak on behalf of the nominee this morning.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN J. SPARKMAN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA

Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Of course, I remember back to some of those days when I had the pleasure of serving with the chairman on a committee in the House of Representatives, and with Steve Young, when I first came to Congress.

Mr. Chairman, as you know, I grew up in the heart of the TVA. In fact, the project that really provoked the interest in establishing some kind of an authority around the river was in my district, in the congressional district that I represented. That was Muscle Shoals, Ala., Wilson Dam, and all of the facilities there.

I have known Chairman Wagner for many years, and I certainly want to put in the best recommendation I can for him. Chairman Randolph mentioned Senator Hill. Senator Hill was one of the mainstays in the enactment of the original TVA Act.

As a matter of fact, he handled the bill in the House of Representatives. He was not chairman of the committee at the time that had jurisdiction, but as it ppened the chairman was not in favor of the TVA, and he turned over to Lister Hill, who at that time was a member of the House of Representatives. He and Senator Norris, and President Roosevelt worked together very closely in shaping the original legislation of TVA.