NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 497 



culty in establishing priorities or making reviews in depth of pro- 

 grams and planning. 



The ICO budget is a conglomeration, as has been pointed out by- 

 several people testifying before this committee, of budgets of depart- 

 ments, independent agencies, bureaus, and offices which are listed in 

 my statement. 



Although these budgets are considered as a unit within ICO they 

 pass through normal channels within the executive and legislative 

 branches of Government as part of the budgets of individual depart- 

 ments and agencies. 



These individual requests are reviewed by different examiners in 

 the Bureau of the Budget and by many appropriations committees 

 of the Congress. 



It is my view, Mr. Chairman, that the ICO, imperfect though it 

 has been, has so improved communications and coordination within the 

 Federal Government, between the Federal Government and university 

 researchers, and 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 improve- 

 ments, however. 



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

 merit in that they propose to correct certain of the difficulties that 

 I have described above. 



On the other hand, most of these bills also would create new problems 

 equally as difficult. 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 review than ICO or any other group has 

 been able to pro^dde to date. 



It would take time to make such a review, but its results would well 

 justify the time and expense involved. 



This would not create undue delay in the progress of a national 

 oceanographic program for, as I mentioned before, the present system 

 of coordination under ICO and the Federal Council for Science and 

 Technology, although admittedly imperfect, is by no means ineffective. 



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- 

 problem of the responsibility for scientific research and development 

 which cuts across all existing lines of administration and communi- 

 cation. 



It is generally agreed that the national oceanographic program has 

 been the most successful example to date of coordination of science 

 in Government. 



This successful technique should not be cast off lightly without very 

 careful study. The results of such a study made by qualified people 

 whose only task is to concentrate on recommending the best possible 

 arrangement for conducting and coordinating oceanographic and at- 

 mospheric research and development would have important implica- 

 tions not only for these important national responsibilities but also for 



