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Mr. Brown. We hope that it will continue, that complementarity. 



Chairman WALKER. I thank the gentleman. The Chair now in- 

 tends to call people in the order that they came into the room. 



The first person on the Chair's list is Mr. Weldon of Pennsylva- 

 nia. 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have read your testi- 

 mony and I appreciate you all being here today. 



I did want to start out by mentioning an initiative that was not 

 given much attention in the report that was issued, an issue that 

 is of extreme importance to me and one that I plan to pursue as 

 chairman of the Military Research and Development Subcommittee 

 this year. 



And that's the issue of oceanographic research and oceanography. 



I think there was one mention in the entire report that I saw, 

 and that mention was that we should be encouraging partnerships 

 to a great extent. And in fact, I believe you did a report back in 

 1992, or a report was done in 1992 by the National Research Coun- 

 cil, I believe, on Oceanography in the Next Decade. 



We have been holding a series of hearings, first of all, a joint 

 hearing between the R&D subcommittee, Mr. Rohrabacher's sub- 

 committee from this Committee, and Mr. Saxton's subcommittee of 

 the Natural Resources Committee, looking at dual-use opportuni- 

 ties and focusing on oceanography in this session of the Congress. 



We had one major hearing on the Hill where we had the seven 

 major agency heads in testifying before us. We've held two field 

 hearings, one in Rhode Island and we just held one out on the west 

 coast with Mr. Rohrabacher in Santa Barbara with Ms. Seastrand. 



We're going to pursue this issue aggressively. I, as the chairman 

 of the R&D committee for the military, realize a lot of the money 

 that we're expending right now in the Navy could perhaps be more 

 fully utilized for environmental activities and for pure science ac- 

 tivities, as opposed to just military application. 



And obviously, this Committee has got to play a major role in 

 that because of our oversight responsibility and function. 



I guess my question gets to why there wasn't more focus placed 

 on oceanography as a priority in this booklet. And while I'm a 

 strong supporter of outer space research and activities, and will 

 continue to support that with my vote, I think that, to some extent, 

 we have not given the appropriate level of support and commit- 

 ment to undersea research and to understand the ocean ecosystem 

 and to force, where possible, the development of partnerships, such 

 as the one we're seeing up in Rhode Island with Woods Hole and 

 the other entities around there, and such as we're seeing out in the 

 bay area of California, where they are coming together. 



So my question gets to the heart of how we can, using the report 

 that you've issued, how we can foster more partnerships in this 

 area and what can we do to more fully enhance the focus of this 

 country on the ocean as a resource. 



And perhaps you could comment on why it was given so little at- 

 tention in this document. As you know, there's a major effort un- 

 derway right now chaired by Admiral Watkins, who was the sec- 

 retary of energy in the Bush administration, who was a leader of 

 the core group on oceanographic research. 



What can we do to help promote that initiative? 



