NATIONAL MARINE SCIENCES PROGRAM 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1967 



House of Representatives, 

 Subcommittee on Oceanography of the 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 



Washington^ D.C. 



The subcommittee met at 10 :10 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 1334, 

 Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Alton Lennon (chairman of 

 the subcommittee) presiding. 



Mr. Lennon. The meeting will come to order. 



The purpose of the hearing we are having today, and for the next 

 several working days, scarcely needs any elaboration to the many who 

 have been following our efforts to collaborate with and help develop 

 the national oceano^raphic program under the direction of the Marine 

 Resources and Engmeering Development Act of last year, 1966. 



In mid-August this particular series of hearings was initiated on 

 the anniversary of the establishment of the National Oceanographic 

 Council. I recall it so well. It was August 17, which happened to be the 

 birthday of a member of the committee. The anniversary of the first 

 meeting of the National Council, which was August 17, 1966, so that 

 we tried to time our hearings 1 year later to begin our hearings on 

 August 17 of this year. 



Our objective then, gentlemen, as it still is, was to review the oper- 

 ations of the new Council, the new Commission, and all the constituent 

 Federal agencies who are in important ways involved in the national 

 oceanographic program. 



We felt that, even though the mechanism we had created would be 

 administered well by all involved, we should, to keep ourselves as 

 effective partners in the team, ask all to keep us periodically advised in 

 some detail as to the particular activities of each agency and its place 

 in the total picture. 



Back in August when we heard comprehensive testimony from the 

 Executive Secretary of the Council, Dr. Edward Wenk — and after 

 Labor Day when we heard from the Chairman of the Commission — 

 we had hopes of having a more or less uninterrupted series of hearings 

 which, within a few weeks, would have enaibled us to receive testimonial 

 reports from all the Government agencies subject to the Council's 

 guidance for the present and contributmg to the Commission's plans 

 for the future. 



We think we accomplished quite a bit. 



But neither Congress nor the executive can really make things come 

 out so neatly. Thus, either because of pressing legislative problems in 

 our other subcommittees, or the imavailability of important Govern- 

 ment witnesses who had conflicts with the dates when we had hoped 



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