50 MARINE SCIENCES AND RESEARCH ACT 
DEPARTMENT OF HeautH, EpucaTION, AND WELFARE, 
May 17, 1960. 
Hon. WarrEN G. MaGnuson, 
Chairman, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 
U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 
Dear Mr. CuarrMan: This letter is in response to your request for 
a report on S. 2692, a bill to advance the marine sciences, to establish 
a comprehensive 10-year program of oceanographic research and sur- 
veys; to promote commerce and navigation, to secure the national 
defense; to expand ocean resources; to authorize the construction of 
research and survey ships and facilities; to assure systematic studies 
of effects of radioactive materials in marine environments; to enhance 
the general welfare; and for other purposes. 
The bill seeks to carry out the policy expressed in Senate Resolu- 
tion 136, agreed to on July 15, 1959, which, inter alia, commended to 
the President and to interested agencies the report of the Committee 
on Oceanography of the National Academy of Sciences-National 
Research Council, and concurred in a number of recommendations 
of that Committee which would result in the expansion of basic and 
applied oceanographic research (in part through the construction of 
shore facilities), the training of additional oceanographic scientists, 
the conduct of certain ocean surveys, a revamping and expansion of 
the Nation’s oceanographic research fleet, an investigation of the ef- 
fects of radioactivity in oceans, and numerous related programs. 
With respect to the desirability of the bill as a whole, we defer to 
the views of the departments and agencies most closely affected by it. 
The following discussion concerns itself only with those portions of 
the bill that most closely affect the program interests of this De- 
partment. 
Section 4(f) of the bill would authorize an appropriation of $3 
million to the National Science Foundation for a 10-year program of 
fellowships for graduate students training to become professional 
oceanographers. 
It should be noted that, under title IV of the National Defense 
Education Act of 1958, the Commissioner of Education is authorized 
to award 1,000 fellowships during fiscal year 1959, and 1,500 during 
each of the 3 succeeding years. These fellowships can be awarded for 
graduate study in any field for periods of study not in excess of 3 
academic years. 
The National Science Foundation has at present two fellowship 
programs for graduate students—predoctoral fellowships and coopera- 
tive graduate fellowships. The program of predoctoral fellowships 
is designed to offer support to unusually able students to enable them 
to complete their graduate studies with the least possible delay. The 
cooperative graduate fellowship program differs from the predoctoral 
fellowship program in that institutions would, in effect, receive funds 
for fellowship support for individual graduate students of science, 
mathematics, and engineering whom they have recommended. The 
Foundation has offered from fiscal year 1959 funds, about 1,000 fellow- 
ships under each of these two programs. 
The Foundation has broad authority to initiate and support basic 
scientific research and programs to strengthen scientific research 
potential. It can now award fellowships for oceanography as part of 
its broad programs for granting fellowships in a variety of fields to 
