185 



Mr. ROEMER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I ask my ques- 

 tion, I have one final unanimous consent request, that the Ranking 

 Member of the entire Science Committee, Mr. Brown's statement 

 be entered into the record. 



Mr. Weldon. Absolutely, without objection. And that would in- 

 clude other m.embers as well. 



Mr. RoEMER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



My final question would be, in light of what we've talked about 

 in terms of cooperation, in terms of sharing resources, in terms of 

 coordinating services, one issue as a member of the subcommittee 

 of NASA comes to mind where, on the TOPEX foUow-on mission to 

 do a joint satellite on global ocean circulation, NASA decided to go 

 with the French rather than with the Navy. 



I guess one of my concerns might be how might we prevent this 

 from happening in the future so that we get this kind of coopera- 

 tion and sharing of resources and information, whether they be- 

 come declassified eventually, whether they become information 

 that goes to our business community. 



Admiral, if you can share with us any frustrations that you 

 might have with that final decision and ways by which you might 

 recommend to us on this Committee, which has oversight of both 

 NASA and parts of this, where we might discourage that or try to 

 steer our two agencies together to do that in the future. 



Admiral Boorda. I answer that question really with mixed emo- 

 tions. 



In some cases, we want to do, and it makes sense financially and 

 allows us to free up dollars to do other things. We want to collabo- 

 rate with other nations. That was one we in the Navy would have 

 liked to have done. 



But I don't think we want to make it so hard that when it makes 

 sense to do so, we can't. 



That means we have to talk a lot more so that you don't write 

 us into an American-our-agencies-only box, where we can't cooper- 

 ate when it makes sense. 



We in the Navy, for example, do a great deal of cooperation in 

 the ocean environment with other nations, and we don't want to 

 stop doing that. So it's a two-edged sword that we're talking about 

 here. The one that you're talking about did not make me happy. 

 There are others that we're doing that do. 



I'd be glad to take that for the record and come back and talk 

 about both sides of that issue. 



(See Appendix for the information supplied by Admiral Boorda.) 



Mr. Roemer. Okay. I certainly agree with you. Admiral, that we 

 need to cooperate with other nations and enhance our ability to 

 learn and share knowledge with other nations as well, especially in 

 science. 



But when it behooves our country to do one together and to see 

 that cooperation benefit our taxpayer and our oversight agencies 

 and our Navy and NASA, please let us know of your frustrations 

 ahead of time so that we can trj' to be helpful where we can be, 

 when the joint venture really is in our best interests. 



Admiral BoORDA. You bet. Thank you. 



Mr. Roemer. Thank you, sir. n -.. 



