982 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



consideration of the House Committee reform bill had established the 

 joint jurisdiction of the Science and Merchant Marine Committees 

 over NOAA: (2) the Science Committee clearly had legislative as well 

 as oversight jurisdiction over oceanic R. & D. Brown also pointed 

 to an exchange he had had in 1975 with Representative Robert L. 

 Leggett (Democrat of California) at the time the Marine Sanctuaries 

 bill was debated that year. In 1975 Brown had pointed out "the minor 

 jurisdictional duplication that exists here," and Leggett had gallantly 

 responded: 



Certainly our committee is jealous of its prerogatives and jurisdiction, and I 

 do appreciate the fact that we are encroaching in part on an active jurisdiction of the 

 gentleman's committee. This is, as the gentleman indicated, a nominal encroachment. 



But in 1977, Brown decided it was time to resist. He assured 

 Chairman Murphy: 



I have no plans to introduce a hill to authorize appropriations for Tide II of the 

 Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act.* * * I can assure you that my sub- 

 committee does not have any interest in the regulatory or general program develop- 

 ment activities of NOAA which fall within the jurisdiction of your committee. 

 However, I do believe that where such programs or statutes involve environmental 

 research and development activities, it is within the purview and responsibility of 

 this committee to take an active legislative and oversight responsibility. 



VICTORY FOR THE SCIENCE COMMITTEE 



Speaker O'Neill, in granting sequential referral of the bill to the 

 Science Committee, recognized the legitimate jurisdictional interest 

 in the oceanic R. & D. But Chairman Murphy and the Merchant 

 Marine Committee continued to insist that the Science Committee 

 had only oversight, and not legislative jurisdiction. To emphasize 

 their point, the Merchant Marine Committee went ahead to authorize 

 the R. & D. section as well as the regulatory sections of the bill. Both 

 committees proceeded on a collision course. On April 7, 1977, Rep- 

 resentative John B. Breaux (Democrat of Louisiana) — chairman of the 

 Oceanography Subcommittee of the Merchant Marine Committee- 

 wrote to Teague reiterating his conclusion that legislative jurisdiction 

 over oceanic R. & D. remained with his committee, adding: 



I look forward to receiving any comments your subcommittee m.iv have on our 

 "ocean dumping'' act, and I will personally assure you that such recommendations 

 will receive full and serious consideration in any legislative actions which my sub- 

 committee will take. 



Brown would not sit still for that response, and he went right 

 on to put the oceanic R. & D. recommendations through his sub- 

 committee, and on to the full committee. Even though the sub- 

 committee recommended the same amount as had the Merchant 

 Marine Committee for oceanic R. & D., Brown was anxious to preserve 



