792 HISTORY Ol Illl COMMITTEE ON SCIENC1 AND rECHNOLOGY 



wh.it was happening there. I was glad to approve it an.! I would again Also, I 

 think something good will come of the hearing in Jim Lloyd's district, and 1 will 

 he glad to approve a hearing in your District. 



It 1 were Jesus Christ or Solomon, someone would still raise Hell. 



When the President's budget called fur the closing of 19 weather 

 stations .uound the country in 1978, immediate opposition arose 

 from Members of Congress, State and local officials, and numerous 

 private citizens. This stimulated joint hearings by the Milford and 

 Hiown subcommittees in April, following which the two subcom- 

 mittee chairmen sent a joint letter to the House Appropriations 

 Committee, strongly recommending that sufheient funds be provided 

 for the Department of Commerce to keep the 19 stations open. This 

 was done in the appropriations voted in 1978. 



CHARTER FOR THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVK1 



A bigger issue arose on basic legislation for the National Weather 

 Service. In 1977, Milford introduced a bill to give a charter to the 

 National Weather Service for the first time in history. For over 100 

 years, bits and pieces of scattered legislation had imposed various 

 duties on the NWS and its predecessor agencies. The objective of the 

 legislation was to pull these all together and also for the first time 

 give authorizing authority to the Congress for an agency which here- 

 tofore had gone directly to the Appropriations Committee. Milford 

 also stated these reasons for introducing his bill: 



The time has come to examine what the Nation wants in the way of weather 

 services; how it wishes to organize them, and what MWS' relation should be to 

 other Federal agencies, and to the states and local communities. It is also timely to 

 examine what the Congress feels should be the role of the National Weather Service 

 in research, and in the provision of specialized weather services 



Milford's subcommittee had eight days of hearings on his bill during 

 May, June, and July 1978. Frank Hammill assisted on the bill 



Meanwhile, the Brown subcommittee was holding hearings on a 

 much broader bill to provide an organic act for the National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), of which the National 

 Weather Service is an integral part. In consultation with the House 

 Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee and the Senate Commerce 

 Committee, it was the feeling of the Brown subcommittee that this 

 entire issue should be approached through writing the new charter 

 for NOAA in an overall fashion, instead of simply tackling one 

 piece of the problem through the NWS. This precipitated a clash 

 between the two subcommittees. Brown felt that the Senate was not 

 going to act in 1978 in any case, and it was better to reach agreement 

 on a firmer basis for the NOAA Organic Act. Milford. who realized 



