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CORE, for the Interagency Partnership Initiative. The idea was to 

 lay the groundwork for carrjdng out the challenges of the NRC re- 

 port where integration within the ocean science community can add 

 value to all connected partners and increase mission effectiveness 

 and efficiencies of the agencies. 



This approach does not interfere at all with the pursuit of unique 

 missions and programs of the individual federal agencies. 



The result of this exercise is the report, "Oceans 2000" — I'll steal 

 Dr. Frosch's copy — that I sent to the members of these committees 

 up here before this testimony. It's called "Oceans 2000: Bridging 

 the Millennia — Partnerships for Stakeholders in the Oceans." And 

 the report identifies a broad realm of research opportxuiities em- 

 bedded in the themes of quality of life, economic development, edu- 

 cation/communications and national security. 



The ultimate conclusion of the report is a set of recommendations 

 in three general area — a set of partnership opportunities where 

 cross-decking of research information is essential, a management 

 blueprint to carry that out, and the encouragement of the direct in- 

 volvement of Congress as key partners. 



Specific partnership areas were defined, including data collection, 

 declassification, quality control, sharing of community resources in- 

 cluding people, laboratories, research platforms and computing ca- 

 pabilities. And partnerships in formal classroom education, using 

 the oceans to integrate teaching of classical scientific disciplines, 

 and informal education raising the awareness in the general public 

 of the importance of oceans to our nation. 



The management blueprint provides a mechanism for integrating 

 the federal agencies and nonfederal agencies to help provide the de- 

 sired level of effectiveness and cost efficiency in the execution of 

 federally-funded ocean science and technology programs. 



We've taken lessons learned from the excessively top-heavy and 

 cumbersome structure that caused the early demise of the prior 

 councils of the '50s and '60s. 



Toda/s hearing proves that our proposed simplistic three-tiered 

 structure can work as it has done for the past two years in bring- 

 ing this report to fruition. Invoking the partnership principle of 

 high-level involvement, there needs only to be the kind of oversight 

 body of the principal operational federal agencies, with ex-officio 

 membership fi'om the federal administration, academic, industrial, 

 and other nonfederal sectors that you see here today. 



So, basically, we're running a pilot program today for what we've 

 recommended in our Oceans 2000 report. 



The critical nature and high visibility required of the partnership 

 activities dictates continued involvement by this level of represen- 

 tation. And we've called this body, basically what you see here 

 today, with those other five agencies that could not be present be- 

 cause of size today, we've called this body the National Ocean 

 Leadership Council. And while informal in nature, we believe it 

 should be a chartered organization by the Congress. 



Finally, Congress has a direct role to play in this effort. First, we 

 recommend establishment of a Congressional Task Force, very 

 much like you've done here today. 



The nine federal agencies with ocean-related missions and fund- 

 ing needs operate under the direction of more than 40 authoriza- 



