NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM 
PART 1: SUMMARY 
FISCAL YEAR 1965 
Interagency Committee on Oceanography 
Federal Council for Science and Technology 
MARCH 1964 
FOREWORD 
This summary of the National Oceanographic 
Program for FY 1965 has been prepared particu- 
larly for the U.S. Congress, as a background for 
their consideration of the President’s budget trans- 
mitted to the Congress January 21, 1964. An ac- 
count is given of the diverse ways in which the 
oceans contribute to the Nation’s security and 
welfare, and an outline is presented of specific 
plans and the associated funding required to ad- 
vance our understanding of the sea and to exploit 
this understanding. Also, details are provided of 
the steps being taken under Federal leadership to 
strengthen and coordinate this program with due 
regard for thrift in the use of both manpower and 
appropriations. 
The National Oceanographic Program involves 
participation of scientists, engineers, technicians, 
and administrative officers from numerous univer- 
sities, government agencies, and industry. But it 
is the Federal Government that has had to assume 
leadership and responsibility for funding a pro- 
gram which both the Executive and Legislative 
Branches have specifically endorsed to meet our 
national needs. 
From FY 1958 to FY 1964, Federal support has 
grown from around $35 million to $124 million. 
Support for the FY 1965 program, now before the 
Congress, is projected to come to $138 million. 
These funds are contained in the budgets of eight 
major departments and independent agencies, a 
distribution which illustrates the diverse ways in 
which knowledge of the sea underpins accomplish- 
ment of a variety of important statutory missions. 
Yet, these components are fundamentally linked 
together because all agencies must draw on the 
same pool of scientific results. We have learned 
that research conducted for one purpose will often 
simultaneously serve for other practical ends; in 
order to provide for coordination and for mutual 
use of the results of research, there is an increasing 
use of the “delegated agent’’ concept by which one 
agency with specialized interests and competence 
undertakes responsibility to support a critical ele- 
ment of the program on which all other agencies 
depend. Accomplishment of the government-wide 
objectives thus depends significantly on support 
for all parts of the program. 
The President, in implementing this articulated 
program, has sought to coordinate its varied parts 
through the Office of Science and Technology 
(OST) and the Federal Council for Science and 
Technology (FCST). The Council’s Interagency 
Committee on Oceanography (ICO) is called upon 
to identify collective goals, to coordinate plans for 
their achievement, and to make recommendations 
for government-wide programs. 
Carefully reviewed by the Council and OST, 
these recommendations are then employed as guide- 
lines by the participating agencies and the Execu- 
tive Office of the President when making choices 
as to priorities out of the entire spectrum of com- 
peting needs for all fields of science and for all 
functions of government. The product of this 
process for FY 1965 has been integrated in the 
President’s Budget for FY 1965 and is abstracted 
in Special Analysis H. 
Further details as to objectives, plans, and co- 
ordination, together with an outline of emerging 
issues that may influence the future development 
of a vigorous program in oceanography are set 
forth in this report. 
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