Post-war Legislation
In July 1944, before the Interim Committee was formed, Bush, Conant and Irvin Stewart had produced a proposal for legislation to control nuclear energy . Conant submitted the proposals to the Interim Committee at its meeting on July 9, 1945. Harrison brought in two experienced lawyers, Kenneth Royall and William L. Marbury to take up the job of drafting the legislation. Their draft bill would have created a nine-man commission consisting of five civilian and four military members. It granted the commission broad powers to acquire property, to operate facilities, to conduct research and to regulate all forms of nuclear energy. The Royall-Marbury bill was reviewed by the Interim Committee at its July 19 meeting and revised in line with their suggestions. The bill was forwarded to the President in August. The Interim Committee met again on September 28 to discuss legislative strategy. The Royall-Marbury bill was introduced into the United States Congress by the chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee, Andrew J. May, and the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, Senator Edwin C. Johnson on October 3. It then became known as the May-Johnson bill.
The May-Johnson bill soon ran into difficulties. Although the Interim Committee was discharged in November, it met one more time in December to discuss amendments to the May-Johnson bill. On December 20, 1945, Senator Brien McMahon introduced an alternative Senate bill on atomic energy, which quickly became known as the McMahon bill. This was initially a very liberal bill towards the control of scientific research, and was broadly supported by scientists. McMahon framed the controversy as a question of military versus civilian control of atomic energy, although the May-Johnson bill also provided for civilian control of atomic energy. In 1946, several major revisions were made to the McMahon bill in order to appease the more conservative elements in the Senate. The resulting bill passed both the Senate and the House without major modifications. On August 1, 1946, Truman signed the McMahon bill into law as the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.
Read more about this topic: Interim Committee
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