506 
Mr. Lennon. Thank you, Mr. Mosher. 
Mr. Rogers. 
Mr. Rogers. Of course, I am delighted to see our good friend and 
colleague from the other side here. Your leadership in this field has 
certainly contributed greatly to the entire advancement of our move- 
ment into the sea. 
I share your concern about the lack of interest that we have seen 
develop in many areas. I am concerned ‘about the lack of the capture 
of the vision of what we could do, I think, by the administration and 
I realize it is still early, but I am concerned that this has not really 
been grasped. It is a great potential for development and it has not 
gone as far as the administration. 
I know my colleagues on this side are doing ‘all that they can to try 
to encourage this because I think they see the potential of it and have 
since the beginning. 
I think it is a first step. I wonder if you share this view that we 
should form this organization, but as a first step don’t you think it is 
important for the Congress to go ahead and move without waiting for 
the executive in the organization of the ocean-related agencies into a 
single agency ? 
Senator Petit. I would agree with you. I think far more than we 
realize actions are taken as a result of congressional initiative. In the 
bill that you and I initiated, the sea grant college bill, we had, as 
you may recall, zero encouragement from the executive branch of 
Government and now it is one of the pearls in the diadem, a small 
pearl, a tiny pearl, of the past administration. 
I would agree with you, ‘and I think also by moving ahead we force 
the executive to focus on these problems themselves, and this is, I 
think, the basic point here. 
If they do not come up with a decision, we must. I read with great 
interest the priorities that the Vice President as Chairman of the 
Marine Council enunciated, I think, in your district. They are excel- 
lent priorities, and I think we should keep going in those directions 
and, if it takes the Hill to implement those recommendations, then 
we must move. 
Mr. Roesrs. This is my feeling. I think the Congress must. go ahead 
with the initiative here and try to hold this together. I think that is 
what the intention of this committee is, as the chairman has said. 
Senator Prt. There is a basic jurisdictional problem here as we are 
all aware because the subject impinges on different committes. In our 
body, the Interior and the Foreign Relations and Defense and Com- 
merce are interested. That is what you have here. 
_ Mr. Roesrs. Yes. That is why I think we need to go ahead and move 
it and get it organized. I think that what you are doing in focusing on 
the international field is important. Here again there has been no real 
initiative, I think, from the Executive, not only in this administration 
but in prior administrations, and here again I think the development 
of the idea and the position this Nation must take ought to be initiated 
by the Congress again. The comments that you have made and the line 
of direction, I think is encouraging in setting certain criteria for a be- 
ginning of the development of the Continental Shelf and an interna- 
tional organization. 
