20 



Dr. OsTENSO. Yes. We in the Administration are faced with the 

 same awesome task that you in the Legislative Branch are and 

 that is there are more important things to do than there are re- 

 sources available to do them all and do them as well as you would 

 like. It is true that under existing funding meritorious proposals 

 are going unfunded — that is a true statement — but that is true in 

 other parts of governmental endeavor too. 



Our management philosophy is to take what funds are available 

 and use them as effectively as possible. The design of the program 

 was purposely intended to allow the flexibility that comes with 

 change in research priorities in both a short and a longer term. Ac- 

 cordingly, over the years, we have, as appropriate, closed down op- 

 erations and started new ones and so forth. So aside from the total 

 availability of resources, which are scarce for everyone in every en- 

 deavor of life, is the issue that to the degree that funding is ear- 

 marked, it does erode upon the ability of the research community 

 to set its own priorities and of the administrative office of the 

 NURP Program to try and use the funds that are available as ef- 

 fectively as possible. 



Mr. Ortiz. Anybody else? 



Dr. WiCKLUND. Yes. 



Mr. Ortiz. Go ahead. Doctor. 



Dr. WiCKLUND. Your question was what the subcommittee could 

 do to help the deep submergence program and NURP in general. I 

 think the only way that the program is going to grow and reach 

 the point where we can actually start building deep submergence 

 systems is there has to be a joint effort between Congress and the 

 Administration, and I think the only way that is going to happen is 

 if we do get an authorization bill, I think that is going to go a long 

 way to help us with the Administration, with 0MB. I mean, that is 

 where the problem has been right along. Once the budget gets 

 down to OMB, they cut NURP Program money out, and there is 

 just not a high enough priority back in the Department of Com- 

 merce to put it back in. So even though an authorization bill is not 

 going to guarantee that we are going to get in the budget, it is cer- 

 tainly going to help a lot. Thank you. 



Dr. Earle. Hear; hear. 



Mr. Ortiz. Thank you. Anybody else? If not, I would like to yield 

 to my good friend, the ranking minority member, Mr. Weldon, for 

 questions that he might have. 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and let me thank all of 

 you for your testimony. For those of you who I missed, I apologize. 

 I did read your testimony and appreciate your comments. Mr. 

 Chairman, I have a number of questions I would like to submit for 

 the record, and if it is agreeable with you, I would like to ask you 

 all if you could respond to us because a lot of the data that we will 

 collect will be helpful to us as this debate proceeds throughout this 

 session of Congress. 



I do have some specific things I would like to discuss, and one of 

 them follows your lead, Mr. Chairman, about what we can do on 

 this committee. I spoke to the Council on Ocean Affairs several 

 weeks ago about how we can focus more attention on our marine 

 ecosystem and how we can provide more visibility on those issues 

 within Congress. That is what we are talking about. 



