national oceanographic program legislation 5 



General Counsel of the 

 Department of Commerce, 

 Washington, D.C., July 28, 1965. 

 Hon. Herbert C. Bonner, 



Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 

 House oj Representatives, Washington, D.C. 



Dear Mr. Chairman: This letter is in reply to your request for 

 the views of this Department with respect to H.R. 921, a bill to 

 establish the National Oceanographic Agency. 



This bill would establish an idependent agency to be known as the 

 National Oceanographic Agency. The Agency would be charged 

 with establishing a coordinated program for oceanography and related 

 sciences including meteorology. All functions relating to oceanog- 

 raphy and related sciences vested in other Government offices would 

 be transferred to the Agency unless the President determined that in 

 the interest of national security a function should not be transferred. 



The Department of Commerce is opposed to the enactment of 

 H.R. 921. 



An independent agency having jurisdiction over the total national 

 program in oceanography would not serve the best interest of the 

 Nation's scientific missions or of other missions which operationally 

 utilize oceanography for support. Oceanography as a science is an 

 interdisciplinary science drawing expertise from geology, marine 

 biology, marine zoology, chemistry, and physics. While it is con- 

 ceivable that an agency could have a narrow mission related to oceanog- 

 raphy, the Agency contemplated by the bOl would have very broad 

 jurisdiction based on a restricted scientific discipline. 



Sections 3 and 4 of the bill would "establish a coordinated national 

 program for oceanography and related sciences." It is difficult to 

 know what such a program is intended to accomplish. Putting the 

 "related sciences" under the proposed agency would be most impracti- 

 cal, as the related sciences involved are more basic and of greater 

 scientific significance than oceanography. It appears that the intent 

 is indeed to bring such other scientific endeavors under the jurisdiction 

 of the proposed oceanographic agency. Section 3 enumerates meteor- 

 ology as one of the "related sciences." Meteorology is in no way 

 subordinate to oceanography. The science of meteorology is, in fact, 

 much broader in scope than oceanography. The two are related only 

 under the broad classification of "atmospheric sciences." 



Meteorology is the core scientific discipline utilized by the Weather 

 Bureau, which is now part of the Environmental Science Services 

 Administration (ESSA), in the performance of its weather mission. 

 This mission includes the issuance of storm warnings, display of 

 weather and flood signals, distribution of meteorology information 

 and forecasts in the interest of agriculture, commerce, aviation and 

 the general public. Is it a purpose of this bill to place all of meteor- 

 ology under an agency ostensibly devoted to the study of the oceans? 

 The weather mission of ESSA is obviously too unique and important 

 to subordinate it in an agency devoted to such a narrow interest. 

 Meteorology as an independent area of scientific endeavor was deemed 

 to be of sufficient importance that the Bureau of the Budget in its 

 Circular No. A-62, November 13, 1963, created a meteorological 

 coordinating authority within the Department of Commerce. 



