14 



MA, just a little bit south of the main Boston metropolitan area 

 and will be relocating the office there at that point. That construc- 

 tion is also complete. The installation of those radars are imme- 

 diate in order to provide that type of coverage. 



Senator Kerry. Not that it has to be for any reason located 

 there, but I am curious why you say that there is no location at 

 Logan, just out of curiosity. 



Dr. Friday. Tower clearance. This radome is considerably larger 

 than the existing radome. The tower height to clear the surround- 

 ing obstacles for the ground clutter and all of that sort of thing. 

 The air traffic control situation at Boston Logan would simply not 

 permit a 90-foot tower with a 35-foot radome on top of it. 



Senator Kerry. OK. Now, what about the additional items in the 

 investment packge here? You have got geostationary satellites at 

 $66 million and change; polar satellites at $11 million plus, almost 

 $12 million; the climate and global change research that you men- 

 tioned at $23 million. Now, none of that is currently within the 

 caps; correct? 



Dr. Baker. That is correct. 



Senator Kerry. So, in essence you are presenting us a budget at 

 this point that is really out of whack. You know that there were 

 different earlier expectations, and I understand that. But now you 

 are presenting us a budget which really does not have the flexibil- 

 ity to address the current situation. 



Dr. Baker. The fiscal year 1994 budget was put together with a 

 total number that was given to us. It was, as I understand it, 

 OMB's decision to identify certain parts of that. 



Senator Kerry. I think it is terrific they did it, Dr. Baker. I am 

 not complaining about that, but it failed. I mean, it was great that 

 they tooK out some stuff for an investment package. I was all for 

 it. I voted for it. I think it is a shame we did not get it. And it is 

 a damn good way to begin to move to a capital budget concept, 

 which is what we ought to be doing around here. 



But it did not happen, and now we are all stuck. I am looking 

 to you for some guidance because we are going to have to come in 

 here with a markup that must somehow find offsets if we do not 

 already have them from you. 



Now, as it currently is put to us, you have this $243 million pot 

 sitting outside of the current budget that you have presented us, 

 and I am trying to get a handle on where we go. What do you rec- 

 ommend taking from where in order to get at this, or is there some 

 other solution that is being contemplated? 



Dr. Baker. This is a serious problem which we are looking at 

 right now. In fact, we started about 2 months ago when the new 

 appointees had the chance to start to understand what was hap- 

 pening in NOAA. 



We started a strategic planning process and we have put to- 

 gether a draft strategic plan to look at our priorities in NOAA. And 

 I think the first test of this plan is, in fact, going to be for us to 

 try to find how we can find these numbers within the caps. And 

 that is something that we are doing at present, something that we 

 are taking very seriously. 



We have to look at our overall strategic plan to see, in fact, how 

 we can accommodate numbers that do not fit within the caps. 



