NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 495 



Saline Water, have an interest in the ocean. Even within our own Department 

 we find it difficult to coordinate these interests to the satisfaction of everyone. 

 The problem is considerably more difficult when the diverse missions of several 

 departments and specialized agencies are involved. 



Oceanographic research is an important activity of the Federal Government 

 which accounts for an annual budget of more than $140 million, not including 

 certain oceanographic programs of the Navy. Many Government departments 

 and agencies are interested in oceanography, and the present budget includes 

 sizable programs in the Departments of Defense ; Commerce ; Interior ; Health, 

 Education, and Welfare ; Treasury ; and State ; and in the National Science 

 Foundation, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Smithsonian Institution. 



To coordinate this complex series of programs, which cuts across the normal 

 lines of governmental organizations, the Federal Council for Science and Tech- 

 nology established the Interagency Committee on Oceanography (ICO) which 

 was formed to help coordinate the diverse functions of these 6 departments and 

 3 independent agencies, which include the activities of 22 operating bureaus and 

 offices. Although it is composed of competent people, and utilizes the services of 

 expert panels drawn from the participating agencies, ICO faces many difficulties. 



None of the members of the ICO is the policy head of the department which he 

 represents. Decisions of ICO are subject to separate policy review by several 

 department beads. Within the departments having interests in oceanography, 

 decisions may be subject to review by several bureau or office heads. In some 

 of these bureaus or offices, oceanography may be a minor part of the total respon- 

 sibility, as it may be also within most departments. 



ICO members do not devote the major part of their time to ICO responsibilities. 

 They meet at infrequent intervals, and devote only a few hours each months to 

 this coordinating function. 



The staff of ICO is loaned and receives budget support from various agencies. 

 It, therefore, has difficulty in establishing priorities, or in making reviews in 

 depth of programs and planning. 



The ICO budget is a conglomeration of the budgets of the departments, inde- 

 pendent agencies, bureaus, and offices listed above. Although these budgets are 

 considered as a unit within ICO, they pass through normal channels within the 

 executive and legislative branches of Government, as parts of the budgets of the 

 individual departments and agencies. These individual requests are reviewed 

 by different examiners in the Bureau of the Budget, and by many substantive and 

 appropriation committees of the Congress. 



The ICO, imperfect though it has been, has so improved communication and 

 coordination within the Federal Government, between the Federal Government 

 and university researchers, and even internationally, that I am sure none of us 

 would want to go back to the pre-ICO days. We applaud Congress in its serious 

 attempts to bring about improvements, however. 



In our opinion all of the bills which have been introduced have merit, in that 

 they propose to correct certain of the difficulties described above. On the 

 other hand, most of these bills also would create new problems equally as dif- 

 ficult. It may be that there is no perfect solution to these very difficult problems. 

 However, if the present method of coordination is to be discarded in favor of 

 another method, we should be reasonably confident that the new method is 

 clearly superior to the old. The decision requires deeper and more detailed re- 

 view than ICO or any other group has been able to provide to date. It would 

 take time to make such a review, but the results should well justify the time 

 and expense involved. This would not create undue delay in the progress of 

 the national oceanographic program, for, as I mentioned before, the present sys- 

 tem of coordination under ICO and the Federal Council for Science and Tech- 

 nology, although admittedly Imperfect, is by no means ineffecetive. The progress 

 of the work would suffer far more if by hasty action one imperfect system were 

 to be substituted for another. 



It should be remembered also that the ICO mechanism was one of the first 

 such attempts by the Federal Government to deal with the rapidly growing prob- 

 lem of a resiKtnsibility for scientific research and development which ciit across 

 all existing lines of administration and communication. It is generally agreed 

 that the national oceanographic program has been the most successful exam^ile 

 to date of coordination of science in Government. This successful technique 

 should not be cast oft" lightly without very careful study. 



The results of such a study, made by qualified people whose only task would 

 be to concentrate on recommending the best possible arrangement for conducting 

 and coordinating oceanographic and atmospheric research and development, 



