40 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



time; the results of such efforts will be invaluable when our knowledge 

 is sufficiently developed to permit extensive economic exploitation. 

 At the present time, however, the creation of a new commission to 

 carry out such activities is likely to result in an unnecessary duplica- 

 tion of effort between the Marine Exploration and Development 

 Commission and the ICO and its member agencies; moreover, it could 

 result in a premature commercial exploitation of vital resources and 

 the loss of the opportunity to study and develop such resources 

 systematically to the best advantage of the Nation. 



The Bureau of the Budget has advised that there is no objection 

 to the presentation of this report from the standpoint of the adminis- 

 tration's program. 



Sincerely yours, 



John V. Vinciguerra 

 (For General Manager) . 



Executive Office of the President, 



Bureau of the Budget, 

 Washington, B.C., July 27, 1966. 

 Hon. Herbert C. Bonner, 



Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 

 House oj Representatives, Washington, D.C. 



Dear Mr. Chairman: This is in reply to your letter of March 19, 

 1965, requesting the views of the Bureau of the Budget on H.R. 

 5884 and H.R. 6009, identical bills to provide a program of marine 

 exploration and development of the resources of the Continental Shelf. 



The bills would establish a new agency to carry out programs for 

 exploring and developing the marine resources of the Continental 

 Shelf and its overlying waters. The agency would be headed by a 

 Marine Exploration and Development Commission, composed of five 

 members: the Secretaries of Defense, Commerce, and the Interior, 

 and two members appointed from private life. The agency would 

 carry out programs with its own staff, cooperatively with other 

 agencies, and through grants, loans, and cost-sharing arrangements 

 with private organizations. 



As explained m oiu* letter to yoiu committee of March 11, 1965, on 

 H.R. 921, Federal oceanographic activities are being conducted by a 

 number of agencies in support of then" respective basic missions. 

 This is the traditional way in which science has been organized in 

 the Government, with operational requirements guiding the direction 

 and pace of scientific programs. Additionally, there is close inter- 

 agency coordination through the Federal Council for Science and 

 Technology to assure that an integrated program is developed to 

 meet broad national objectives in oceanograhy. 



EstabHshment of the proposed commission would deviate from this 

 organizational pattern. With the creation of the commission, the 

 Department of the Interior would have to look to another agency to 

 develop certain resources for which that Department is now responsi- 

 ble. Such resources would often be the same as those existing in areas 

 other than the Continental SheK, thereby dividing prograni responsi- 

 bility between two agencies on a geographic basis. Creation of the 

 commission would make even more difficult than at present the 

 achievement of balance programs for developing the scarce resources 

 of our country. In addition, establishment of a new agency would 



