OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 139 



(4) to request and obtain cooperation from and cooperate with other 

 governmental departments and agencies having a direct interest in the 

 preservation, study, and classification of marine organisms, and to cooi>erate 

 w^ith the several States, educational institutions, laboratories, museums, and 

 other public and private organizations and persons who may be of assistance 

 in this field of marine science, 

 (b) There is authorized to be appropriated to the Smithsonian Institution 

 such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act. 



Sec. 10. Each expenditure in excess of $50,000 made by the United States in 

 any fiscal year in carrying out a purpose of this Act (whether by grant, con- 

 tract, or otherwise) shall be subject to examination and audit by the Comptroller 

 General of the United States (including but not limited to all books, records, 

 papers, and other documents of the person to or on behalf of whom such ex- 

 penditure is made) . 



(The departmental reports follow:) 



The Secbetaby op Commeece, 

 Washington, D.C., May 29, 1961. 

 Hon. Herbert C. Bonnee, 



Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 

 House of Representatives, Washington, D.G. 



Dear Me. Chairman : This is in response to your letter of February 15, 1961, 

 requesting the views of this Department on H.R. 4276, a bill to expand and develop 

 the aquatic resources of the United States including the oceans, estuaries, and 

 rivers, the Great Lakes and other inland waters, to enhance the general welfare, 

 and for other purposes. 



This bill would establish the National Oceanographic Council, composed of 

 the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the 

 Interior, the Secretary of Commerce, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Com- 

 mission and the Director of the National Science Foundation. The Council 

 would be required to develop long-range plans for research, development, studies, 

 and surveys of the aquatic environment, and coordinate the efforts of all Gov- 

 ernment agencies in the field of oceanography. The Council would be directed 

 to establish a National Oceanographic Data Center, whose functions would be to 

 (1) acquire, assemble, process, and disseminate all scientific and technological 

 oceanographic and related environmental data ; (2) conduct research and other 

 projects within the fields of its activities for any department, agency, or instru- 

 mentality of the United States on a cost reimbursable basis; and (3) exchange 

 or sell, on a cost reimbursable basis, such data, publications, or other informa- 

 tion of the center as the Council deems to be in the public interest. 



The Department of Commerce does not favor enactment of H.R. 4276. 



The President has recommended a coordinated national program for oceanog- 

 raphy to the Congress, which contemplates a virtual doubling of the fiscal year 

 1961 program. The expanded activities of the various Government agencies 

 under this program can and will be adequately coordinated by the Interagency 

 Committee on Oceanography, a subcommittee of the Federal Council for Science 

 and Technology, which is already performing most of the functions that would 

 be exercised by the proposed National Oceanographic Council. 



The National Oceanographic Data Center, located in the Navy Hydrographic 

 OflBce and supported by agencies which have oceanographic programs, will begin 

 its first full year of operation in 1962. This data center is presently collecting 

 and utilizing information similar to that which would be acquired and studied 

 by the data center provided for in the bill. Under the President's program, the 

 amount recommended for activities of the National Oceanographic Data Center 

 for fiscal year 1962 is almost double that of the fiscal year 1961 program. 



For the above reasons, this Department believes that enactment of legislation 

 along the lines of H.R. 4276 is unnecessary at the present time. 



The Bureau of the Budget advises there is no objection to the submission of 

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

 Sincerely yours, 



Edward Gitoeman, 

 Under Secretary of Commerce. 



