92 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



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 bUls before the committee are: 



H.R.. 9064 provides for a national commission composed of 15 

 members appointed by the President. This would include five 

 representatives from Government, five from industry, and five from 

 universities or laboratories engaged in oceanographic pursuits. 



The Commission would make a comprehensive investigation and 

 study of all aspects of oceanography with the objective of devising a 

 plan for an adequate national program to meet present and future 

 national needs. It would review known and contemplated require- 

 ments for natm'al resources from the oceans, determine what pro- 

 grams are needed to obtain these resources, review existing national 

 research programs to insure adequate support, review existing 

 Government and industrial oceanographic and ocean engineering 

 programs, including education and technical training, to determine 

 what is required and what now is not adequately supported, analyze 

 these findings and recommend an overall plan to meet present and 

 future national needs, including an organizational plan and budget. 



The Commission would have the power to appoint and fix the com- 

 pensation of such personnel as it deems advisable, and obtain tempo- 

 rary and immediate services to the same extent as is authorized for 

 the departments and agencies of the Government. The Commissior 

 would submit a report within 2 years after its creation and would 

 cease to exist 30 days after it submitted the report. Identical bills 

 are H.R. 9483, H.R. 9617, and H.R. 9667. 



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 sev- 

 eral Federal Government departments and specialized agencies. It 

 is largely based on the recommendation of a committee of the Na- 

 tional 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 rela- 

 tionships 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 Coun- 

 cil for Science and Technology. Funds are appropriated through the 

 budgets of the individual cooperating agencies. The large number of 

 bills 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 mechanism for planning 

 and review may not be adequate. The varying nature of the indi- 

 vidual solutions to the problem represented by these bills is a fair 

 indication of the complexity of the problem. 



