44 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 oj 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 con- 

 cerned with the development of the natm'al resoiu'ces of the oceans. 

 Consequently, we desire that this form of reeearch and development- 

 proceed efliciently and effectively in the national interest. 



Described briefly, the bills before the committee are: 



H.R. 5884 establishes a commission for the exploration and develop- 

 ment of the resources of the Continental Shelf. The commission is 

 composed of five members, including the Secretary of the Interior. 

 The commission will have its own staff and wUl have specific functions, 

 including authority to make loans and grants. It has the authority 

 to utilize the capabilities of other Federal agencies in carrying out its 

 functions. It may also carry out these functions directly. H.R. 6009 

 is an identical bUl. 



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All of these biUs 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 is contiguous waters; 

 the relationships and interactions between ocean and atmosphere; 

 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 Interagency Committee on Oceanography 

 of the Federal Council for Science and Technology. Funds are ap- 

 propriated through the budgets of the individual cooperating agencies. 

 The large number of biUs 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 

 of the legislative branch of the Government that the present mechan- 

 ism for planning and review may not be adequate. The varying 

 nature of the individual solutions to the problems represented by these 

 biQs is a fair indication of the complexity of the problem. 



We believe that there is a growing need for a perspective in which 

 the oceanographic programs of the Federal Government can be more 

 clearly seen in relation to each other and in relation to the national 



