NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 435 



ordinate international governmental activities related to ocean use for the reason 

 tbat its own national governmental institutions are also land oriented, with the 

 ocean function fragmented among 22 bureaus and offices in 5 departments and 

 3 independent agencies at home. Accordingly the proliferation of bureaus, offices, 

 and agencies ineffectively dealing with ocean problems in the international com- 

 munity is worse, if anything, than it is in the U.S. Government. 



This problem is perhaps most stnmgly exemplified by the protein malnutrition 

 problem in the developing world. There is no more urgent or serious health, 

 social, economic or diplomatic problem than this in the world. The United States 

 has a great many bureaus and offices involved in its worldwide solution, begin- 

 ning with the Food for Peace Office in the White House, and running through 

 USAID, the National Institute of Health, Department of Agriculture, etc., etc. 



The ocean is producing annually the amount of protein required to keep 10 

 times the present human population of the world in health and vigor. In several 

 instances this production is heaviest otf coasts where the most serious and urgent 

 protein malnutrition problems exist. The techniques of getting this protein out 

 of the ocean to the people that need it are known. The institutions of interna- 

 tional and domestic government are so poorly suited to applying science and 

 technology to the successful use of these ocean resources that most of the protein 

 ■dies and goes back in the web of life in the ocean each year unused by man. 



The United States spends very large sums of money annually through over 20 

 international institutions working on aspects of this ocean-oriented problem. 

 Not only is there little correlation of this considerable eifort internationally, but 

 there is the most modest and imperfect correlating of expenditures by the United 

 States through its own institutions on the same problems in the same areas of the 

 world. 



The essential reason is the organizational mess of ocean-oriented activities in 

 the U.S. Government, and the international mess cannot be put in better order 

 until the domestic mess is tidied up. 



9. Ocean-oriented activities are conducted in the U.S. Government by 22 bu- 

 reaus and offices located in 5 departments and 3 independent agencies. They 

 report to about 32 substantive and appropriations subcommittees and committees 

 of the Congress. 



That is the crux of the reason why we are not developing the weapons, tools, 

 ideas, and institutions that would enable us successfully to occupy and use the 

 new environment of the ocean with sufficient rapidity to meet our strategic needs. 

 "We cannot do the latter until this organizational mess of ocean activities in the 

 United States is tidied up considerably. 



In the executive branch such correlation as exists is through the Interagency 

 Committee on Oceanography of the Federal Council for Science and Technology 

 of the White House. Tliis apparatus does not have a broad enough statutory 

 base to handle the ocean-use problems successfully and it is not desirable to alter 

 that statutory base so it could because that apparatus, as it is, is too valuable for 

 its own primary responsibility, the policy supervision of research and develop- 

 ment. 



A new institution- is required in the executive with which to handle these ocean- 

 use problems. For reasons noted below it is impractical to put these functions 

 all within one entity, at least at the present state of development or such as can 

 be foreseen in the near future. 



The normal institutional way to handle such a problem in the U.S. Govern- 

 ment is to form a council at Cabinet level among the concerned departments and 

 independent agencies. Examples are provided by the National Security Council, 

 the National Aeronautics and Space Council, and the National Water Council. 

 Such a National Ocean Council is urgently needed as a first step in improving 

 our posture in respect of the conquest for use of the ocean environment. 



The institutional disarray on this problem is no worse, and no more in need of 

 correction, in the executive than it is in the legislative branch of the Govern- 

 ment. The normal way of handling such a problem in the legislative branch of 

 the U.S. Government is to establish a joint congressional committee for that par- 

 ticular subject composed of members from the principally affected substantive 

 committees of both Houses. Examples are numerous and include the Joint Com- 

 mittee on Atomic Energy, the Joint Committee on Immigration and Nationality 

 Policy, the Joint Committee on Defense Production, etc. A Joint Congressional 

 Committee on National Ocean Policy is badly and quickly needed. 



10. The change in budget practices to cost-effective accounting in the U.S. 

 Government is having a ponderable effect on our ability to successfully occupy 



