20 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



U.S. Department of the Interior, 



Office of the Secretary, 

 Washington, D.C., July 29, 1965. 

 Hon. Herbert C. Bonner, 



Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 

 House of Representatives, Washington, D.C 



Dear Mr. Bonner: Your committee has requested our views and 

 recommendations on seven specific bills concerned with the problem 

 of planning, coordinating, and financing the national oceanographic 

 program. This Department, through the Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, the Bureau of 

 Mines, and the Geological Survey, is greatly interested in, and 

 directly concerned with, the science of oceanography. We are 

 primarily concerned with the development of the natural resources 

 of the oceans. Consequently, we desire that this form of research 

 and development proceed efficiently and effectively in the national 

 interest. 



Described briefly, the bills before the committee are : 



H.R. 2218 provides a declaration of policy concerning a long-range 

 national program in oceanography and lists specific duties of the 

 President in conformity with such policy. He is du'ected to utilize 

 such advisory arrangements as he deems necessary, including the 

 Office of Science and Technology. Departments and agencies having 

 problems or capabilities in oceanography are to be consulted in 

 planning a Federal program and non-Federal organizations having 

 such capability are to be consulted. The President is authorized to 

 appoint a seven-member Advisory Committee for Oceanography 

 from universities, non-Federal institutions, and industry to review 

 the national program of oceanography and make recommendations. 

 H.R. 2218 is identical to H.R. 6997, 88th Congress, which passed 

 the House but was not acted upon by the Senate. It is identical to 

 H.R. 3310 and H.R. 3352, introduced in the 89th Congress. 



All of these bills deal in various ways with the problem of planning, 

 coordinating and financing the national oceanographic program. 

 This is a large program of research and development which involves 

 several Federal Government departments and specialized agencies. 

 It is largely based on the recommendation of a committee of the 

 National Academy of Sciences, which in 1959 proposed that the 

 Federal Government embark on a 10-year program of expanded 

 research on the oceans. The program involves studies of the physics, 

 chemistry, geology, and biology of the ocean and its contiguous 

 waters; the relationships and interactions between ocean and atmos- 

 phere; and the living mineral, and fossil resources of the ocean waters 

 and seabed, and methods of conserving and harvesting these natural 

 resources. Since 1960 the program has been coordinated and its 

 budgets planned by the Interagencv Committee on Oceanography 

 of the Federal Council for Science and Teclmology. Funds are appro- 

 priated through the budgets of the individual cooperating agencies. 

 The large number of bUls which have been introduced in the Congress 

 in recent sessions proposing to alter this coordinating machinery or 

 to begin new studies of the ocean and its resources reflects the concern 



