agement, and environmental cleanup, marine biotechnology simply 

 is not receiving the full support which it deserves from NOAA and 

 other Federal agencies. While biotechnology is the largest of the 

 Government's interagency research initiatives, with annual funding 

 of about $4 billion, only about 1 percent of that amount is available 

 for marine research. I encourage the administration to examine 

 carefully the promise of marine biotechnology and to develop a plan 

 to maintain U.S. leadership. I also encourage NOAA to expand its 

 ongoing efforts in this area, and particularly the research, tech- 

 nology transfer, and education programs of the National Sea Grant 

 Program. When the Stratton Commission challenged the Nation to 

 explore the secrets of the ocean frontier, it was with the expecta- 

 tion that we would discover revolutionary new uses for the knowl- 

 edge we obtained. Marine biotechnology offers that kind of revolu- 

 tionary potential. 



I welcome Under Secretary Baker and our other witnesses today 

 to discuss this important issue and the many other challenges fac- 

 ing NOAA. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Senator Kerry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We obviously are in- 

 terested today in examining exactly how we are going t^ deal with 

 the budget situation without losing some of NOAA's capacity, and 

 we welcome you here for those purposes. 



Why do we not just dig right into it? Dr. Baker, if you want to 

 lead off with your testimony we would appreciate it. 



STATEMENT OF HON. D. JAMES BAKER, UNDER SECRETARY 

 OF COMMERCE FOR OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE, NATIONAL 

 OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, WASHING- 

 TON, D.C.; ACCOMPANDED BY DOUGLAS HALL, ANDREW 

 MOXAM, DR. NANCY FOSTER, AND DR. ELBERT FRLDAY 



Dr. Baker. Thank you, Senator Kerry. It is a pleasure to be here. 



Senator Kerry. Let me say before you begin, if I may, I want to 

 express my appreciation to you and to Doug Hall for what I 

 thought was a terrific response of Government to a bad govern- 

 mental decision initially. But I think you folks handled it well. You 

 acknowledged that things were not handled well. We did not get 

 a lot of stonewalling. 



On the contrary, we got a responsive, open approach, frank sort 

 of admission that something had goofed up along the road, and I 

 thought a very beneficial effort of outreach that, while it has not 

 solved all of the problems and brought everybody into the fold, it 

 has gone a long way to addressing what was received to be an egre- 

 gious situation, and I want to thank you for that and congratulate 

 you for that. 



We can beat you up sometimes from this rostrum and pound 

 away, but I think it is also appropriate and important for us to rec- 

 ognize good efforts when they are made, and I think you made a 

 good effort on that and I thank you for it. 



Dr. Baker. Thank you, Senator Kerry. 



Doug was on the scene there, and he provided some outstanding 

 decisionmaking as he looked at the issues and came to what I 

 think we all agree was the right decision about what we should do. 



