152 



Dr. Baker. You mentioned that. This is an area that has been 

 very important. It has allowed us to do new things on the ocean 

 we simply couldn't do before. 



We have close ties between NOAA and NASA, but also between 

 NOAA and the Navy because the Navy does operational satellites 

 and has done some wonderful things. This latest popular science 

 has some pictures in it of the GEOSAT satellite and the data that 

 the Navy released. 



NOAA has been working with the Navy on making those maps. 



We have a new program which is allowing us to leverage the as- 

 sets that other countries are flying. One of the points that you 

 made to me was can't you leverage the assets that other countries 

 are using? 



We have a small program, a very small percentage of our total 

 budget that allows us to leverage ocean satellites flown by other 

 countries so we can get that data out to private industry and to the 

 academic community, and it's working great. 



So we appreciate your help on that. 



Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you, Mr. Baker. Admiral, I imagine 

 you agree with that. 



Admiral BOORDA. Well, there's not a lot to add to that, except to 

 say that when we went from 12 ships to eight, and we were actu- 

 ally lower, that was done based on affordability and on our view 

 of the mission and how it fit with other things we have to do in 

 the Navy. 



In the end, our charter is combat-readiness, the ability to under- 

 stand the oceans and the environment, in our view, is primarily re- 

 lated to being able to project power and do the things we need to 

 do. 



And as we do that, the cooperation with NOAA and with the 

 other agencies is a very good thing for us to do and makes us bet- 

 ter at what we do. 



Taking a mission that is not inherently a national defense mis- 

 sion and trying to do it in a way that we do business would prob- 

 ably make it more expensive, would make us grow and have you 

 begin to think about putting appreciably more money into our 

 budget in that area, and would require us to hire an awful lot of 

 people right at the time when we're trying to downsize. 



So I think a cooperation between the two of us is much pref- 

 erable to a hostile take-over between the two of us. 



[Laughter.] 



Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair- 

 man. 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Mr. Rohrabacher. I might just add, 

 during the budget deliberations of last year, when the question 

 came up of the down-sizing of the NOAA fleet and some of the mis- 

 sions there, we asked the oceanographer for the Navy to give us 

 a written response because some in this Congress are under the 

 impression that we can elimmate am agency and the mission just 

 goes away, when in fact what happens, it gets shifted to somebody 

 else. 



And so, it's not just a dollar savings in that one agency because, 

 in effect, you're putting new responsibilities on somebody else. 



