I am sorry, but when someone else arrives I will have to leave 

 because I am a conferee on DOD. 



Welcome back, and you can begin your statement at any time. 



STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE DIANE H. JOSEPHSON, DEPUTY 

 UNDER SECRETARY FOR OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE, NATION- 

 AL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DE- 

 PARTMENT OF COMMERCE 



Ms. JosEPHSON. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to 

 appear before the Subcommittee to discuss the reauthorization of 

 the environmental stewardship programs of NOAA. 



Before I begin, I wish to thank the Chairman and Members of 

 the Subcommittee for their continuing support and patience as we 

 build a new senior management team and reshape NOAA's struc- 

 ture to reflect the Administration's priorities. 



The Administration believes that a healthy economy and a 

 healthy environment go hand in hand. The new team at NOAA is 

 working extremely hard to reach the goal of achieving a healthy 

 environment through research, management and services efforts 

 associated with its marine fisheries, protected species and coastal 

 zone management missions. 



I would like to take this opportunity to share our vision for 

 NOAA's programs under the Committee's jurisdiction. These are 

 programs which will take us well into the first decade of the 21st 

 century. 



On July 15, 1993, NOAA released its Strategic Plan for 1995 to 

 2005. From the start, we involved our top managers and their staffs 

 in developing the Plan. In all, 15 teams totalling 400 people from 

 across NOAA were involved in developing the Plan. 



Team members continue to meet to refine implementation strate- 

 gies and to improve the Plan. We view the Plan as dynamic and 

 have invited comments by the end of November from all constitu- 

 ents, including the Congress, our Federal and State partners, aca- 

 demia, industry, conservation groups and the general public. We 

 intend to review and revise the Strategic Plan as needed, at least 

 on an annual basis, and we are using it to guide our budget devel- 

 opment. 



The Plan recognizes two equally-important missions for NOAA: 

 environmental stewardship and environmental prediction and as- 

 sessment. I would like to focus my remarks on our environmental 

 stewardship programs which will be of greatest interest to Mem- 

 bers of the Subcommittee. 



The Plan highlights the importance of environmental steward- 

 ship through four program elements: the building of sustainable 

 fisheries, recovering protected species, improving the health of 

 coastal ecosystems and modernizing navigation and positioning 

 services. I will discuss each of these in turn. 



I will start with building sustainable fisheries. The problems 

 facing the multibillion dollar commercial fishing industry and tens 

 of millions of marine anglers are increasingly highlighted in the 

 national press. Uncontrolled participation, overfishing and over- 

 capitalization have resulted in the overutilization of 43 percent of 

 the Nation's assessed fishery resources. Just recently, for example. 



