180 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — ^PHASE 3 



how much else in its library of scientific material, permanent status — 

 if for no other reason than it will cost you people in the Bureau of 

 the Budget a lot of money to move this stuff around ? 



Mr. Hughes. That is true, whether or not it is on a statutory basis. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Obviously it will be a permanent organization, I am 

 sure. 



Then going on down, the data center will have certain functions, 

 but I see nothing in the bill limiting it to these functions only. Obvi- 

 ously that is not a loss of flexibility. Am I correct in that? The 

 Executive can assign additional functions or can handle, manage, or 

 limit the functions in reasonably intelligent budgetary fashion. That 

 would follow from line 14 on page 2 to line 6 on page 3. 



Mr. Hughes. I think the description of functions is quite general 

 in terms. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Yes, and it is reasonably flexible. 



Do you see anything that is not desirable in the functions that we 

 have assigned to this organization, or do you think of any other func- 

 tions that we should give it ? 



Mr. Hughes. I think the point was made by Dr. Wakelin that the 

 Council's advisory function to the President was not specifically men- 

 tioned here, which is a problem of sorts. 



Mr. DiNGELL. This is the acquisition and retention of data by the 

 Oceanographic Data Centers. Have you any objections to the func- 

 tions assigned to the data center ? 



Mr. Hughes. In section 3, 1 have not. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Coming down to section 4 on page 3, line 7, it says : 



The Council shall establish primary standards of oceanographic measurements, 

 and such standards shall be the official standards of the United States. 



That certainly is not objectionable. 



Mr. Hughes. There is some question of overlap here with Com- 

 merce and the Bureau of Standards. 



Mr. Dingell. I was not aware that the Bureau of Standards func- 

 tioned outside the United States. 



Mr.VANiK. Within the 3-mile limit. 



Mr. Hughes. These would be measurement standards of the United 

 States. 



Mr. Dingell. This could be worked out very comfortably, because 

 the Secretary of Conunerce is going to have a representative on the 

 Board. 



Mr. Hughes. Undoubtedly it could be resolved. It is a question 

 whether the structure here is desirable. 



Mr. Dingell. Actually, you will have that problem whether we 

 set up the data centers and we give them this function or not. It is 

 just a question of whether we will ^ive this to the Department of 

 Commerce, or have it reside actually in the hands of the people who 

 are skilled in this area and who have devoted their attention to ocean- 

 ographic matters. Am I correct, sir? 



Mr. Hughes. Yes. I think the question is whether you would wish 

 to fragment or split off this part of the standards-setting function and 

 separate it from the Bureau of Standards. 



Mr. Dingell. In order to be perfectly fair to you, would you like 

 to look at this particular section and perhaps give us some comments 

 on it? 



