36 



Further strengthening of the healthy base of scientific research which char- 

 acterizes our marine science programs ; 



Consideration of the optimum Federal organization for developing and imple- 

 menting marine science policies and programs, including analysis of the recom- 

 mendations of the Commission * * *. 



It sounds to me that the Council has just decided to take over the 

 Commission. Would you comment ? 



Dr. Wenk. I would be pleased to comment on this, 



I would like to come back again to the point that the purposes 

 of the act itself are the guidelines, the mandate for the President and, 

 in turn, for the Council. If I may refer to the legislation itself, section 

 4(a) states: 



In conformity with the provisions of Section 2 of the Act, it shall be the duty 

 of the President, with the advice and assistance of the Council, to do the fol- 

 lowing things : 



Section 2 of the act, which sets forth the purposes, implicitly and 

 explicitly, goes into all of the tasks which are assigned to the President : 



The accelerated development of the resources of the marine environ- 

 ment ; the expansion of human knowledge ; the encouragement of pri- 

 vate development enterprise; the preservation of the role of the 

 United States as a leader in marine science and resource development ; 

 the advancement of education and training; the effective utilization 

 of scientific and engineering resources ; the cooperation of the United 

 States with other nations, and so on. 



In other words, the broad goals which the Congress set for the en- 

 tire enterprise became the responsibility of the President. Our role 

 here is to assist him in this regard so that we are necessarily looking 

 at these points mentioned in the President's report, in concert with the 

 Commission. 



The Commission, however, has a completely independent authority 

 and opportunity. We are pointed to the same targets but approaching 

 this independently and possibly quite differently. 



Mr. Reinecke. The reason I get into this question, Mr. Wenk, is 

 that — and I am very much impressed by the conscientiousness between 

 all members of the Council and the Commission, particularly, as at 

 the dinner the other night — if you are aware of the legislative history 

 of this particular piece of legislation, you will know that a number of 

 us were quite concerned over the fact that if we set up a council, it was 

 a continuation of the same stalemate experienced over the years. 



The Congress wanted to do something. Mr. Rogers suggested that 

 the Commission was the real breath of hope of the legislation. I think 

 the Council was included because the President would have vetoed the 

 bill otherwise. This was a way to get the Commission through and es- 

 establish a long-range picture as to how the Government could develop 

 to give us the proper governmental structure, recognizing all of the in- 

 terrelating problems. 



Mr. Pelly. Will the gentleman yield ? 



Mr. Reinegke. Just a moment, please. I think what I am really con- 

 cerned about here is that the Council in accepting the President's 

 definitions or charges in that respect is moving in strongly to the area 

 of the Commission and, even if the Commission does report itself, my 

 personal feeling is that we may have difficulty in trying to dissolve 

 the Council even though it is done by statute. 



