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degree of cooperation and coordination be maintained with all ongoing efforts in 
this area including those of the military services. It would certainly be the inten- 
tion of the Department of Defense to continue to work with any new agency 
established, just as actively as has been done in the past. 
The proposed transfer of the National Oceanographic Data Center to the 
National Oceanic Agency by the bill is noted. The National Oceanographic Data 
Center is currently under the administrative management of the Naval Oceano- 
graphic Office and is supported by funds from 10 departments and agencies. Its 
technical programs and policies are established and reviewed by an interagency 
advisory board consisting of ‘the representatives of these sponsoring agencies. 
The Data Center serves as a central repository for the nation’s unclassified 
oceanographic data. In addition to its chartered mission, the Data Center is also 
designated as an oceanographic information and analysis center for the Depart- 
ment of Defense to provide service to users within the Department of Defense. 
The importance of the Data Center as an adjunct to the military mission is evi- 
denced by the major role Navy has played to support the Center, and by the fact 
that Navy and Navy contractors are the major users. The Department of Defense 
would not object to the transfer of the Data Center if the new organizational 
arrangement was supportive of its national charter. We believe the Data Center 
would be expected to continue to provide data services to all users, government 
and private, civilian and military, in keeping with its basic mandate as a national 
data repository. 
With regard to the National Advisory Committee for Oceans and Atmosphere 
proposed by the bill, there are two features concerning which the Department 
of Defense has serious reservations. The first is that the mechanism suggested for 
the Advisory Committee would appear to put the proposed operating agency, the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and its advisory group, the Advisory 
Committee for Oceans and Atmosphere, in an effectively controlling position over 
other operating agencies with their own special mission requirements. This ap- 
pears likely to generate conflicts that would tend to give the Advisory Committee 
an unwarranted amount of bias toward the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Agency as opposed to the equally vital interests of other federal agencies. Second, 
the bill provides for participation by federal agency representatives on the Ad- 
visory Committee only by relegating them to observer status. The Department 
of Defense believes that such an arrangement could severely jeopardize the Ad- 
visory Committee’s effectiveness as the principal governmental advisory group 
for the nation’s marine and atmospheric activities. 
It is noted that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency would function 
in the conduct of mapping and charting, encompassing the world oceans. The 
Department of the Navy has statutory responsibility for the provision of ac- 
curate charts, sailing directions and manuals for the use of all vessels of the 
United States and for the benefit and use of all navigators generally, although its 
primary concern is with defense requirements and in the deep oceans around the 
world. The U.S. Army Engineer District, Lake Survey, has a generally similar 
role on the Great Lakes. The Environmental Science Services Administration, a 
proposed component of the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, would 
be concerned primarily with civil mapping and charting activities which are 
confined largely to the U.S. territorial waters and the continental shelf areas. 
Care should be exercised to insure that mapping and charting responsibilities 
are clear in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort. 
Also, care should be exercised to insure that the lines of responsibility or 
function between the proposed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and 
the Department of Defense would be clearly delineated. 
H.R. 13247 proposes further that the testing and calibration of instruments are 
functions assigned to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric ‘Agency. This would 
appear to duplicate work being done by the Navy’s National Oceanographic 
Instrumentation Center. The ‘Center is under the administrative control of the 
Commander, Naval Oceanographic Office and guided by an advisory board repre- 
senting fifteen interested agencies. The Center’s mission is to serve as the na- 
tional focal point for knowledge of technology related to testing, evaluation, and 
calibration of sensing systems for ocean use, to enhance the quality of such 
systems by the dissemination of operational results and technical information, in 
order to serve the national oceanographic community. However, broader national 
benefits might result from incorporation of this Center into the proposed Na- 
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency. 
