136 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



It is obvious the Soviets mean business. They are probing the seas 

 for military and economic use. Their trawlers roam our coastal 

 waters in both the Atlantic and Pacific. 



If we can afford to spend billions to send rockets on one-way flights 

 into space, we can certainly afford to invest in a program that will 

 more than repay our funds and efforts in future benefits. 



What has been lacking, Mr. Chairman, is a real sense of need. We 

 have not received from the administration the push that has been 

 behind the multibillion dollar space program. It is up to us in Con- 

 gress to give oceanography the push that is needed. I believe the fii-st 

 significant step should be the establislunent of a Federal agency to 

 coordinate and direct the many projects and programs now bemg 

 worked on by the Federal agencies, private institutions and commer- 

 cial enterprises. 



I am generally not in favor of creating new Federal agencies. The 

 oceans, however, are clearly a Federal enclave. They are a national 

 responsibility and need a united, national approach to produce the 

 results the Nation should have. 



My bill would establish a National Oceanographic Agency roughly 

 patterned after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 

 I believe that when NASA was created in 1958 by the Eisenhower 

 administration, it was the breakthrough which projected us into the 

 lead in many space endeavors. 



NOA, as the agency I propose would undoubtedly be called, would 

 absorb related functions from many different agencies of the Federal 

 Government and give them a definition of purpose and concentration 

 of programs that would give us more work for a buck. 



Oceanography today is parceled out among 22 different bureaus 

 in nine departments or agencies. Space exploration was in the same 

 state prior to NASA. It is obvious that many of these agencies are 

 jealously guarding their tidal pools of oceanographic work. 



Many agencies objected to NASA. The military was loath to see 

 j)et projects transferred to a civilian agency. The Navy has voiced 

 objection to another agency taking over its oceanographic functions. 



All of these problems can be worked out by the simple process of 

 having an agency coordinate and parcel out work. Data can be shared. 

 Duplication can be avoided. Programs needing concentrated work 

 can be turned over to agencies that have the manpower, equipment, and 

 experience to make real gains. 



NOA would originate many projects. It would foresee the need 

 for new machinery, for new vessels, for undersea living quarters, for 

 means of discovering and extracting minerals — a host of programs. 

 Wliere space is an airless void, signifying to a great degree nothing, 

 the ocean is a bounteous treasury, willing to return tenfold the efforts 

 we make to tap the wealth stored in it through the centuries by 

 nature. 



Since the new agency would be a creature of the executive branch, 

 the President must be the enthusiastic sponsor of a departmental 

 reorganization plan involving oceanography. Overlapping authority 

 must be brought into order. This is the purpose of the legislation 

 I have mtroduced. 



Along with the active functions of this agency should go a signifi- 

 cant educational program. The American people have not had the 



