24 



As I understand the budget request, and I am not critical of that 

 budget, Dr. Baker, it is about $126 milHon less than last year if 

 we take into account there is about a $38 million reduction and $88 

 million in new fees. The chairman has already remarked about 

 that. 



One of the problems about the fees is that, even if we gave you 

 the authority to put them into effect, I doubt seriously you could 

 be collecting those fees by the close of fiscal year 1995. So, I think 

 we have a strain on the budget to start with. We have to think 

 about where that cut is going to fall. 



You have eliminated from the budget a series of small items that 

 really pertain to my State of Alaska. These include the Beluga 

 Whale Program and some of the programs that deal with the Fish- 

 ing Vessel Obligation Guarantee Program. That eliminated $459 

 million. And the National Undersea Research Program has been 

 cut rather severely, as a matter of fact. 



So, there is some readjustment, and as a new director you have 

 the obligation to try to readjust your money. I want to work with 

 you to the maximum extent possible to do that. 



But let me just ask a couple of direct questions. We established 

 an observer training center in Anchorage because of the cost to 

 Alaska's young people to go down to Washington State to get the 

 training for being a fishery observer. I was able to get the city of 

 Anchorage to provide the facility for that center free of charge. We 

 got the University of Alaska at Anchorage to provide financial sup- 

 port for that training program. If you look at the cost of the pro- 

 gram training observers in Alaska, it was about $150,000. 



That program has been eliminated and those same people are 

 going to have to be trained down in Seattle. It is going to cost at 

 least twice as much. I do not understand the sense of that kind of 

 a change, frankly, and I urge you to take a look at it. 



We worked long and hard to set up that training program. If our 

 young people from Alaska go down to Seattle, they have to find a 

 place to live. Most of them live somewhere around in the south 

 central area part of Alaska or have friends there they can stay with 

 while they are going to school to get their training. They can't do 

 that in Washington. 



I think it makes a lot of sense to try and save as much money 

 as possible on that Observer Training Program. I would hope you 

 would consider funding that training center in Anchorage. 



In terms of the Oil Spill Recovery Institute coming out of the 

 Exxon Valdez disaster, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 authorized $23 

 million to establish an institute to continue the baseline studies to 

 see what if any permanent harm was caused to the Prince William 

 Sound by the oilspill. 



Again, this budget does not provide any money that is authorized 

 for that activity, but there are funds in the Oil Spill Liability Fund 

 that could be transferred to carry out the authorization in OPA to 

 establish this institute. This is not bricks and mortar, Dr. Baker. 

 It allows a group of highly capable experts in many disciplines to 

 continue the work to determine what the long-term impact was of 

 that spill. 



I urge you, if you cannot get the money through this budget and 

 it is obvious that you cannot, to join us in trying to see if we can 



