NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 79 



Executive Office of the President, 



Office of Science and Technology, 



Washington, June 24, 1965. 

 Hon. Herbert C. Bonner, 



Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 

 House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 



Dear Mr. Chairman: I am pleased to have the opportunit}' to 

 comment on H.R. 7849, a bill to provide for economic development 

 of the Continental Shelf and for expanded research in the oceans and 

 the Great Lakes, to establish a National Oceanographic Council, and 

 for other purposes. 



Though fully concurring with the stated objectives of the bill, to 

 sustain leadership for the United States in marine science and tech- 

 nology and theh economic, military, and social applications, I regret 

 that I cannot recommend enactment of H.R. 7849. Because my 

 reasons differ for the two central provisions of the bill, they will be 

 discussed separately. 



In regard to the provisions relating to the Continental Shelf, the 

 extent to which industry is prepared to invest private funds in the 

 extraction of wealth from the Continental SheK is not clear at this 

 time. For this reason, it is not clear that the provision of funds to 

 industry, as provided by the bill, is the necessary or proper direction 

 of Federal activity. The primary need may well be for guidance and 

 consultation at this stage and further clarification of the legal status of 

 resource exploitation. 



Furthermore, the addition of commissions, counsels, boards, com- 

 mittees, and similar groups reporting directly to the President is 

 generating a situation which tends to make an existing difficult situa- 

 tion nearly impossible. For this reason, if any of the functions 

 proposed in the bill are estabhshed in law, serious consideration 

 should be given to placing them under the general jurisdiction of an 

 existing major agency or department. 



In sum, my reservations with respect to this portion of the bill 

 relate not to the eventual economic significance of the Continental 

 Shelf but, rather, to the wisdom of enacting a law which would 

 estabhsh functions and allocate responsibilities and funds, when 

 it is not clear that the approach taken in the biQ is the one which 

 would be adopted if all of the alternatives had been thoroughly 

 explored. 



In regard to the fimctions to be performed by the proposed Xational 

 Oceanographic Council, these essentially dupHcate those now being 

 performed by the Interagency Committee on Oceanography (ICO), 

 a committee consisting of senior officials with technical and policy 

 responsibihties established under the Federal Council for Science 

 and Technology to plan and coordinate Federal programs relaxing 

 to oceanography. The ICO, through the Federal Council for Science 

 and Technology and its Chanman, the Special Assistant to the Presi- 

 dent, has been a highly effective link between the President and the 

 Federal departments and agencies in matters relating to marine 

 science and technology. "Whether this link would be strengthened 

 by the proposed Coimcil and substantially greater effectiveness 



