13 



For instance, what kind of user fees is NOAA contemplating; 

 what privatization options are you considering or are available for 

 consideration; and specifically, are you considering privatizing the 

 NOAA corps, the function of the NOAA Corps; and what are you 

 doing to address the concepts of ecosystem management, which was 

 specifically outlined in Vice President Gore's proposal? 



Ms. JosEPHSON. There are three specific items which apply to 

 NOAA in the Vice President's proposal. One has to do with con- 

 ducting a private-public competition in the fleet modernization, 

 and we are looking at that right now. It will not be reflected in the 

 Plan, which is due this month, but it will be reflected in next 

 year's Plan; and obviously, we will keep you and the staff informed 

 as we go through the discussions and development of our action 

 plan. 



Another element in the Vice President's review is the effort 

 which is ongoing with this Committee at the moment, looking at 

 how we might fund some of the fishery management activities, and 

 as this is a joint Administration-congressional-industry activity, 

 which started about 6 weeks ago, and hopefully will be reflected in 

 the reauthorization of the Magnuson Act sometime next spring. So 

 both those activities are under way. 



As far as the more general activities of reinventing government 

 such as changes in the personnel system, the administrative side of 

 government — we already are receiving some changed direction in 

 the personnel area, a delegation of authority down to ourselves and 

 to our managers. I believe that over time this will result in our 

 being able to reduce the number of people who are involved in 

 these administrative systems and hopefully free up resources that 

 can be applied to the program, which I think is going to be a rnajor 

 advantage in light of the budget reduction and budget deficit situa- 

 tion we find ourselves in. 



Within NOAA itself, we have established four teams to look at 

 reinventing government issues, personnel being one of them, every- 

 thing to do with people; other processes, like procurement and so 

 on; looking at organizational issues; and also how we might go 

 about identifying additional resources. So we do have our own in- 

 house NOAA effort looking at these issues. 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you. 



Along that line, with using the 1994 appropriations baseline as a 

 start, what do you anticipate being the need, in terms of NOAA's 

 budget, to implement your strategic plan over the next 10 years? 

 What kind of increase are we talking about? Do you have any idea? 



Ms. JosEPHSON. We have not costed it for 2005. We did some pre- 

 liminary estimates for the first five years, which, obviously, are 

 large. Now we are at the stage in our budget discussions with OMB 

 where I cannot talk specifically about figures, and obviously, it 

 would appear in light of the constraints on the Federal Govern- 

 ment — we have identified where we would like to be in 2005, but 

 whether we get the resources that will enable us to be there at 

 that time is an open question. We are going to have to deal with it 

 year by year. 



So when we get our fiscal year 1995 budget allocation from OMB 

 later this fall, we will look at it and then we will reiterate the Stra- 



75-822 0-94-2 



