16 FEDERAL LEGISLATION FOR OCEANOGRAPHY, 1956-6 5 



With this legislative base, the Congress would have access to scientific 

 advice at the level of the President that had previously been denied 

 the Congress when such advisory apparatus operating both as the 

 FCST and the President's Science Advisory Committee was chaired 

 by the President's Science Adviser and thus protected by Executive 

 privilege. 



Note 14. H.R. 12601 took note of the need for a strengthened 

 program of oceanographic research, the interagency character of 

 Federal programs, the objections raised by the executive branch to 

 other proposed legislation and the recent establishment of the Office 

 of Science and Technology for the explicit piu-pose of developing and 

 coordinating programs that cross agency lines — and the need for a 

 legislative base for an annual congressional review of Government- 

 wide program and budgets previously lacking because the FCST had 

 no legislative base. 



The Committee report includes objections of the executive branch 

 concerning H.R. 4276, and noting these objections, considered H.R. 

 12601 as a clean bill to supersede H.R. 4276. Detailed analysis of 

 needs for a national policy and for coordmation in oceanography are 

 set forth in Reference 14. 



Note 15. No explanation for the pocket veto of H.R. 12601 was 

 released by the White House. From subsequent reports, hearings, 

 etc., two major objections have been identified: First, that to give 

 OST operating responsibility over other agencies violated the prin- 

 ciples that it should only advise the President and not be interposed 

 in lines of authority between the heads of other departments and the 

 President. Second, the bill would also provide for a special staff m 

 one field of science that could lead to a proliferation of such positions 

 in OST for special fields of science. (See also House Report 621 

 accompan3^ing H.R. 6997.) 



Note 16. The report "Oceanography: The Ten Years Ahead" 

 embodies for the first time a statement by the executive branch of a 

 national goal in oceanography: "To comprehend the world ocean, its 

 boundaries, its properties, and its processes, and to exploit this com- 

 prehension in the public interest, in enhancement of our security, 

 our culture, our international posture, and our economic growth." 

 The report also lists the coordinated plans for the decade 1963-72 of 

 the 20 Federal agencies which conduct and sponsor oceanographic 

 research. Included are a statement of research objectives and pro- 

 jections of the funds, facilities, and manpower needed for their accom- 

 plishment, categorized by agency, by function, and by subordinate 

 goals of "strengthening basic science, improving national defense, 

 managing resources in the world ocean, managing resources in domestic 

 waters, protecting life and property, insuring the safety of operations 

 at sea." 



