NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 453 



is being studied in the administration, and the President's Science Ad- 

 visoiT^ Committee has a panel which is looking closely into this field. 

 Our feeling is that we ought to wait and see what they come out with 

 before pushing specific legislation which would set up a detailed ar- 

 rangement for large studies or for overall management. 



Therefore, in our comments on the individual bills we have come to 

 the general position that we support the bill H.R. 2218 which does 

 encourage emphasis on oceanography, that the admmistration study 

 these problems carefully and report to the CongTess. We are not sup- 

 porting other legislation at this time, although we may find ourselves 

 later on, when some of these studies are completed, being in support of 

 other bills. 



These are my comments on the legislation in general. 



"We have a special problem that we want to present to the commit- 

 tee concerning the security clauses in some of the bills that set up a 

 council. With your permission, I would like to read the testimony on 

 that point. 



In its detailed comments on H.R. 5654, H.R. 6457, and H.R. 7849, the 

 Atomic Energy Commission has suggested certain changes relating 

 to access to restricted data in the event any of these bills should be 

 considered for x^assage. The same comments w^ould apply to S. 944, 

 which was passed by the Senate on August 5. All of these bills have 

 provisions patterned on section 304b of the National Aeronautics and 

 Space Act under which officers or employees of the Council created by 

 the bill could have access to restricted data relating to oceanography 

 and the marine sciences upon certain determinations made by the 

 Comicil or its designee. Only two agencies, the Department of Defense 

 and the ISrational Aeronautics and Space Administration, have been 

 provided this authority. Both of those agencies have a large complex 

 of employees and contractors who require access to restricted data. 

 We do not visualize that the Council which may be created by the 

 bills mentioned above would have the need for access to the quantity 

 and types of restricted data which the Department of Defense and 

 NASA require, nor would the number of individuals requiring access 

 be large. 



The Atomic Energy Act was amended in 1961 to provide a mecha- 

 nism, not available when NASA was created, for granting access in 

 situations such as that presented by the bills mentioned above. Under 

 that mechanism, the Atomic Energy Commission may accept as the 

 basis for granting access to restricted data an investigation and report 

 on an individual made by another Government agency which conducts 

 personnel security investigations provided that a security clearance 

 has been granted to the individual by another Government agency 

 based on the investigation and report. Under this procedure, the 

 Commission has been able to authorize the necessary access to restricted 

 data by officers and employees of various agencies such as the State 

 Department, Coast Guard, and the Central Intelligence Agency. In 

 this connection, our comments on the bills mentioned above also sug- 

 gested providing the Council, if it is created, the authority to arrange 

 ^vith the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the necessary investiga- 

 tion of its officers, employees, and consultants. With this authority, 

 the Council would be in a position to take advantage of the expedited 

 clearance procedures now available under the Atomic Energy Act and 

 which were not available at the time NASA was established. 



