MARINE SCIENCES AND RESEARCH ACT LT 
There remained the problem of what instrument or group, respon- 
sive to Congress, should be given the responsibility of policy and 
program planning, coordination and evaluation of the national en- 
deavor, during the 10-year period of expansion authorized in the bill. 
This was a problem that had perplexed the Committee on Oceanog- 
raphy throughout its studies and which was left unresolved in its 
report. 
The question was raised again by Chairman Magnuson during hear- 
ings on the bill with Dr. Harrison Brown, Chairman of the Committee 
on Oceanography, appearing as a witness. Dr. Brown replied as 
follows: 
We found in our survey of the oceanographic situation that 
this is perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of improving 
the status of oceanography, particularly within the Govern- 
ment. This is a field which, as you know, completely cuts 
across numerous Government agencies. Almost every 
agency in one way or another has oceanographic interests and 
the problem is how should this be coordinated. 
Our own Committee discussed this at length. There were 
some of us who at one time felt that perhaps some kind of a 
central agency should be established. There were others 
who felt we ought to attempt to maintain independent de- 
velopment within individual agencies as much as possible 
_ and after thrashing this out we came to the conclusion that 
we favored a compromise between the central agency and 
the independent development approach. 
Now I believe that the decision that your committee 
makes in this legislation far transcends oceanography itself. 
I believe that it will get at the core of the very basic funda- 
mental problem of decision making, concerning science and 
technology in Government. 
In selecting the National Science Foundation as the agency in which 
these responsibilities should be vested there were these considerations: 
1. The National Science Foundation is concerned exclusively with 
science and with the education and training of scientists. 
2. It operates under a broad mandate of the National Foundation 
Act of 1950 to ‘‘develop and encourage the pursuit of a national policy 
for the promotion of basic research and education in the sciences.”’ 
3. Its statutory duties include bringing about ‘“‘the effective coor- 
dination of the various scientific information activities within the 
Federal Government,” and fostering ‘the interchange of scientific 
information among scientists in the United States and foreign coun- 
tries.” 
4. A major purpose under the act is to— 
evaluate scientific research programs undertaken by agencies 
of the Federal Government, and to correlate the Foundation’s 
scientific research programs with those undertaken by indi- 
viduals and by public and private research groups. 
5. It reports annually to Congress and to the President. 
6. The National Science Foundation is administered by a Director 
and a Board of 24 members who must be eminent in fields of science, 
S. Rept. 1525, 86—2——_3 
