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local, and Federal partners eventually increase that number to 

 16,000 permanently-marked survey monuments. 



The Plan devotes considerable attention to fleet modernization, a 

 subject that I addressed recently before this Subcommittee. 

 Because of the time spent discussing the topic at that hearing I 

 will not go into more detail on the subject other than to let you 

 know that NOAA's vision for 2005 is for a modern fleet to support 

 NOAA missions. 



INFRASTRUCTURE PORTFOLIO 



The Plan devotes serious attention to the need for infrastructure 

 improvements. Among these are bringing NOAA's 443 staffed 

 facilities, when necessary, into environmental compliance. NOAA 

 has more than 1,000 buildings at its facilities, including 

 laboratories, office buildings, and forecast offices. 



The Plan, of course, also devotes considerable attention to the 

 "dry side" of NOAA's programs. These include environmental 

 assessment and prediction such as advanced short-term warning and 

 forecast services, implementing seasonal to interannual climate 

 forecasts, assessing and predicting decadal-to-centennial 

 changes. In addition, ocean color and surface winds from the 

 Japanese satellite ADEOS will be made available in support of 

 ocean science and operations. NOAA CoastWatch directly supports 



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