In 1977, O'Neill saw the peak of interest in space colonization, along with the publication of his first book, "". He and his wife were flying between meetings, interviews, and hearings. On October 9, the CBS program "60 Minutes" ran a segment about space colonies. Later they aired responses from the viewers, which included one from Senator William Proxmire, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee responsible for NASA's budget and an aggressive critic of government failure. His response was: "It's the best argument yet for chopping NASA's funding to the bone ... I say not a penny for this nutty fantasy". He successfully eliminated spending on space colonization research from the budget. In 1978, Paul Werbos wrote for the L-5 newsletter, "no one expects Congress to commit us to O'Neill's concept of large-scale space habitats; people in NASA are almost paranoid about the public relations aspects of the idea". When it became clear that a government-funded colonization effort was politically impossible, popular support for O'Neill's ideas started to evaporate.