126 EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 



Mr. Bauer. Thank you. One more question: With respect to the 

 budget message that is the President's plan for oceanography, are you 

 referring to the breakdown in this appendix to the budget giving the 

 breakdown by departments and the agencies concerned with respect 

 to say, research, and so on and so forth? Is that the plan that you 

 are talking about? 



Mr. Abel. Yes, sir. We can submit this for the record. 



Mr. Bauer. Thank you. 



Mr. Dingell. Counsel? 



Mr. Drewry. Mr. Abel, the Coordinating Committee on Oceanog- 

 raphy has been in existence for quite some time, has it not? 



Mr. Abel. In one form or another, it has, sir; and I should em- 

 phasize in this connection that there is no legal association of the CCO 

 with the ICO. They are two different bodies. 



Mr. Drewry. I will state what my feeling is, and you can tell me 

 whether I am right or wrong. 



At the time that this committee was established, back in early 

 1959, I think it had been just established, there was then a group of, 

 as you say, middle-management representatives of a number of agen- 

 cies that for some time had been meeting periodically together, rotat- 

 ing chairmanships, and calling in various people or asking various 

 people if they would like to drop by; and then asking them questions 

 when they came. 



Right after our committee was called into existence, I was invited 

 to come down and sit with the group, and to explain what I know 

 about where we were trying to go with the subcommittee. 



As I understood it, it was strictly a voluntary group of individuals 

 in middle-management positions concerned with various aspects of 

 things which go to make up the broad, general discipline of ocea- 

 nography. 



Mr. Abel. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Drewry. Is that the nature of it? That it did not exist by 

 any Executive order or statute; but just as a voluntary association of 

 people concerned with the problem of dissemination of information 

 and to do the best that they could to carry out on a coordinated basis, 

 at least through the exchange of information, a program which they 

 felt should be coordinated? 



Mr. Abel. Yes, sir; that is correct. 



Mr. Drewry. Now you say it is tenuously affiliated with ICO, it 

 is extremely tenuous anyway, and its effectiveness has been the good 

 will and the desire of the people who are involved in it? 



Mr. Abel. Yes, sir; and these are powerful factors. 



Mr. Drewry. I think it is. I always have thought so. But it 

 does not have any stature; it cannot ask for appropriations for itself, 

 for instance. 



Mr. Abel. No, sir; it cannot. 



Mr. Drewry. It does not have any established working staff, that 

 is, any job positions set up as secretary, or legman, or anything, for 

 the Coordinating Committee on Oceanography? 



Mr. Abel. I am not exactly sure of that, sir. I believe that a 

 secretary in Dr. Maxwell's office does have some assignment for duties 

 connected with this. I could not be sure, and this is something I think 

 Dr. Maxwell may be able to answer better later. 



Mr. Drewry. Well, I would be glad if somebody can tell me, but I 

 mean, does the Secretary of the Interior, for instance, take on official 



