PROVIDE A COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAM IN OCEANOGRAPHY 27 



10-year program of oceanographic research and surveys, to promote 

 commerce and navigation, to secure the national defense, to expand 

 ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources, to authorize the construc- 

 tion of research and survey ships and laboratory facilities, to expedite 

 oceanographic instrumentation, to assure systematic studies of effects 

 of radioactive materials in marine environments, to enhance the 

 public health and general welfare, and for other purposes, has been 

 assigned to this Department by the Secretary of Defense for the 

 preparation of a report thereon expressing the views of the Department 

 of Defense. 



The purpose of the proposed act is as stated in the title. 



The Department of Defense subscribes to the objectives of this 

 act and indeed recognizes the stimulating effect which congressional 

 inquiry into the state of the marine sciences has had in this area by 

 its emphasis on oceanography as a program vital to the national 

 interest. 



The bill proposes to establish a Division of Marine Sciences in the 

 National Science Foundation in which an interagency committee 

 would be formed to develop and encourage a continuing national 

 policy and program for the promotion of the marine science. There 

 is already in existence an Interagency Committee on Oceanography, 

 established in January 1960 by the Federal Council for Science and 

 Technology in recognition of the fact that oceanography is, indeed, 

 an area which requires emphasis and support at the highest level. 

 The Interagency Committee on Oceanography has effectively provided 

 the coordinating mechanism among Government agencies engaged in 

 oceanographic activities for the development of a meaningful national 

 program. Its mission is similar to that which the bill proposes for 

 the National Science Foundation Division and includes, additionally, 



the very vital function of coordinated budget planning so as to 

 recommend to the Council the level of funding required each year to 

 support the program. Basically, the Interagency Committee on 

 Oceanography develops an annual program incorporating its best 

 judgment as to balance and emphasis in terms of both long-range 

 scientific needs, requirements of Government agencies and fiscal 

 resources. 



The membership of the Committee comprises those Federal agencies 

 which have the major interests in Federal oceanographic programs. 

 Its working panels, organized to consider each of the areas highlighted 

 in the act, includes members from all of the Federal agencies engaged 

 in the marine sciences. In addition, the scientific community is 

 represented both within the Committee and in its several panels by 

 the National Academy of Sciences. 



Those aspects of S. 901 which relate to the specific delineation of 

 development items, shipbuilding tonnages, and money authorizations 

 emphasize areas which will see many modifications over the years. 

 Such specific delmeation may, in fact, be restrictive to a program 

 which fundamentally should be sufficiently flexible to accommodate 

 program reorientation resulting from changes in agency requirements 

 and technological advances as they occur and appear warranted. 



Section 21(e) of S. 901 would apparently require that title to all 

 patents on inventions arising out of research performed under the 

 authority of the act be vested in the Government. The broad ques- 

 tion of the proper disposition of patent rights in inventions made 

 under Federal contracts and grants is presently before the appropriate 



