164 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 



Center, to be located within the U.S. Navy Hydrographic OflBce, and the creation 

 of a National Oceanographic Data Center Advisory Board. The Advisory Board 

 consists of one member from each of the following agencies : Navy Hydrographic 

 Office, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, National 

 Science Foundation, Weather Bureau, Office of Naval Research, and the Atomic 

 Energy Commission. The agreement states that the National Academy of 

 Sciences will be invited to name two nonvoting members to sit in with the Ad- 

 visory Board. This interagency Data Center will, pursuant to the agreement, 

 (a) receive, compile, process, and preserve oceanographic data submitted to it; 

 (&) acquire oceanographic data from domestic and foreign sources; (c) estab- 

 lish procedures for assuring the accuracy and quality of the data in its reposi- 

 tory meets the criteria established by the Advisory Board; (d) prepare data 

 summaries and tabulations, and indexes, and other information; and (e) per- 

 form certain other useful functions in regard to oceanographic data. The 

 Center's activities will not duplicate those of the Weather Bureau, Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, Smithsonian Institutions, or other agencies. In the Commis- 

 sion's opinion, the Data Center and the companion Advisory Board, recently in- 

 augurated under the interagency agreement, are well organized and are capable 

 of effectuating the basic purposes of the bill ; the Commission helieves they 

 should not be replaced by the Council and Center the bill would establish. 



In addition to the preceding general observations, the Commission would like 

 to make these specific remarks : The provision in section 2 of the bill that the 

 members shall be Secretaries of the named departments, the Chairman of the 

 Atomic Energy Commission, and the Director of the National Science Foundation 

 seems to us to be out of proportion to the fact that these oceanographic activities 

 are, though important, but a relatively small part of the respective programs of 

 each of these agencies ; also, we think the chairmanship should rotate and that 

 the Presidential appointment feature is unnecessary. In regard to section 3, con- 

 duct of research is not, in our opinion, an appropriate function of the Data 

 Center. The interagency Center will not conduct research. The function speci- 

 fied in section 4, namely, the establishment of primary standards of oceanogra- 

 phic measurements, is also unnecessary in our opinion because the U.S. Bureau 

 of Standards now develops satisfactory standards in this area. Nor do we con- 

 sider the separate test and calibration center, provided for in section 5, to be 

 needed ; the si)ecified testing, calibration, and evaluation work should, in our 

 view, be performed by the National Bureau of Standards. 



The Bureau of the Budget has advised that there is no objection to the pre- 

 sentation of this report from the standpoint of the administration's program. 

 Sincerely yours, 



R. E. HOLLINGSWOETH, 



Deputy General Manager. 



Mr. Drewsy. Mr, Secretary, early in your presentation you men- 

 tioned the TENOC program and you have presented a copy for Mr. 

 Miller and Mr. Bonner. Do we understand from that, that it is no 

 longer classified ? 



Mr. Wakelin. This is for official use only. The reason why it is for 

 official use only is that it refers specifically to programs within in- 

 stitutions other than those in the Government structure and proposes 

 to put a dollar figure on the sponsorship of programs in the whole 

 field of oceanography. I think for this reason I would suggest it be 

 held closely because there are data of a fiscal nature that might be 

 prejudicial to future budget hearings. 



Mr. Drewky. We just wanted to clear up that point. 



Mr. Miller. And get it in the record so the committee can take cog- 

 nizance of the Secretary's statement. 



Mr. Drewry. In line with Mr. Bauer's questions concerning the 

 Atomic Energy Commisison, what oceanographic activity does the 

 Atomic Energy Commission engage in, just generally? Is it largely 

 with waste disposal, or does it go well beyond that into creative and 

 constructive as well as defensive and protective activities. 



