PROVIDE A COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAM IN OCEANOGRAPHY 29 



and use in considering the 1962 budget, a national program for 

 oceanography setting forth the responsibilities and requirements of 

 all participating Government agencies," the President, by letter of 

 March 29, presented his program to the Congress. The program 

 outlines the steps necessary to translate into concrete terms the desire 

 of the administration, stated in the natm^al resources message, "to 

 give concerted attention to our whole national effort in the basic and 

 applied research of oceanography." The proposal is predicated upon 

 the fact that sufficient basic authority already exists in the executive 

 branch to embark upon a national program for oceanography, al- 

 though existmg legislation is not limited in scope to oceanography 

 as such. 



For example, section 9 of the bill would authorize the Secretary 

 of Health, Education, and Welfare to award fellowships in ocean- 

 ography and the marine sciences. However, under title IV of the 

 National Defense Education Act of 1958, the Commissioner of Educa- 

 tion is now authorized to award 1,500 fellowships in fiscal 1962 for 

 graduate study in any field for periods of study not in excess of 3 

 academic years. The administration has requested that this authority 

 be increased to 5,000 fellowships and extended indefinitely. Section 

 4(f) of the bill would authorize an appropriation of $4,800,000 to the 

 National Science Foundation for a program of fellowships for students 

 not below the senior level of undergraduate school and continuing 

 through up to 4 years of graduate training in marine sciences, and 

 for fellowships and research apprenticeships to graduate students and 

 postdoctoral fellows training to become professional physical, bio- 

 logical, chemical, and geological oceanographers. The National 

 Science Foundation has at present two fellowship programs for graduate 

 students — graduate fellowships and cooperative graduate fellowships. 

 The program of graduate fellowships is designed to offer support to 

 unusually able students to enable them to complete their graduate 

 studies with the least possible delay. The cooperative graduate 

 fellowships differ from the graduate fellowships in that institutions 

 would, in effect, receive funds for fellowship support for individual 

 graduate students of science, mathematics, and engineering whom they 

 have recommended. The Foundation has offered, from fiscal year 

 1960 funds, about 1,200 fellowships under each of these 2 programs. 



The Foundation has broad authority to initiate and support basic 

 scientific research and programs to strengthen scientific research 

 potential. It can now award fellowships for oceanography as part of 

 its broad programs for granting fellowships in a variety of fields to 

 individuals possessing the greatest scientific talent. Moreover, the 

 Foundation can use its authority to make grants in support of basic 

 scientific research to give additional impetus to the development of 

 those sciences, such as oceanography, for which there is a critical 

 need. We understand that, prior to the President's message, the 

 Foundation, in recognition of the need for increased attention to the 

 support of research in oceanography, had added a full-time oceanog- 

 rapher to its program on earth sciences, and had taken other measures 

 to foster oceanographic research and the training of research workers. 



In view of the foregoing, the bill would not appear to create any 

 significant new authority in the executive branch to award fellow- 

 ships, and therefore these portions of it seem unnecessary. However, 

 with respect to the bill's desirability as a whole, we defer to the views 

 of the departments and agencies most closely affected by it. 



