OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 153 



Even within these terms, the interdepartmental committee should not be 

 considered a panacea for interagency ills. In many cases, informal liaison 

 wiU be a more effective and less costly way of fixing policy or administering or 

 reviewing programs. In other cases, the remedy for diffusion of authority may 

 lie in the concentration of authority in a single agency, rather than in institu- 

 tionalizing relations between agencies of divided authority by establishment of a 

 committee. 



* * * 4> * * « 



There are probably several hundi'ed interdepartmental committees 

 of one kind or another now functioning within the Federal Govern- 

 ment, and with such numbers, considerable variability may be ex- 

 pected in their effectiveness. Writing on this topic, F. M. Marx noted 

 that — 



* * * it cannot be said that there is a comprehensively interlocking committee 

 system, built upon objective standards of need. Nor should one expect too much 

 from it if there were such a committee system. In the nature of things, inter- 

 departmental committees seldom feel a directing push from above. They func- 

 tion on condition of agreement, and may deteriorate into trading posts" where 

 stubborn parties bicker for their own advantages. Apparently, such committees 

 work best on the basis of specific terms of knowledge to ease mutual commit- 

 ment, and under alert and vigorous leadership. When these conditions prevail, 

 interdepartmental committees may repay many times the administrative effort 

 invested in them.*^ 



An outstanding example of effective interdepartmental coordination 

 through committee operation is the Interdepartment Radio Advisory 

 Committee which coordinates telecommunications policies and stand- 

 ards, and assigns frequencies for use of all radio transmitters in eleven 

 departments of the executive branch which comprise the primary 

 Federal users of the radio spectrum. In this regard, the IRAC is 

 essentially a Government agenc}^ which parallels the Federal Commun- 

 ications Commission in having authority over Federal transmitters 

 while the FCC has authority over all non-Federal radio operations.^* 



Apart from representing a means for interagency coordination, the 

 resemblance between ICO and IRAC disappears. 



A number of alternative methods for interdepartmental coordination 

 are Hsted in the following, including the presently established com- 

 mittee plan: 



(1) Interdepartmental committee, with representation at senior 

 levels of management from the agencies most concerned with oceanic 

 research — 



(a) Established by new legislation 



(6) Established by Executive order (as is the case with the 

 ICO) 



(2) Formation of a new, special coordinating agency (such as the 

 Office of War Mobihzation, instituted in 1943 to unify activities of 

 numerous agencies concerned with production, procurement, and dis- 

 tribution of military and civilian goods). 



(a) Established by new legislation 

 (6) Established by Executive order 



(3) Assignment of the coordinating function to a single Department 

 having existing jurisdiction over a major segment of oceanic research, 

 with program and budget planning established through an inter- 



9' "Elements of Public Administration" Fritz Morstein Marx, 2d edition, Prentice-Hall, 1959, p. 180. 



" IRAC is located in the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization and acts for the OCDM in the matter 

 lof Federal telecommunications in accordance with the National Security Act, sec. 103(c), as amended, and 

 B plem ented by Executive Order 10460 of June 16, 1953. 



