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Committee. This guidance does not replace the need for regular legislative clear- 
ance as set forth in Bureau of the Budget Circular A-19. The Council Secretariat 
is available for any further discussion as mentioned in my letter of May 14. 
EDWARD WENK, Jr. 
Mr. Lennon. Now, will you proceed, sir. 
Dr. Wenn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That letter, of course, sets 
forth explicitly the recommendations by the Vice President. . 
Mr. Lennon. Yes. My purpose was to get in there the date of 
February 17, the date that the President requested the Vice President 
and the members of the National Council to review the recommenda- 
tions of the Commission. 
Thank you, sir. 
Dr. Wenk. Subsequently, the President issued two directives on 
May 19. The first was to Vice President Agnew, requesting the Na- 
tional Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Development 
to continue to review the Commission’s recommendations and to en- 
courage further improvement in the coordination of Federal activities. 
STUDY BY THE ASH COUNCIL 
He also agreed that agencies be requested to take the Commission’s 
recommendations into account in considering their programs and pri- 
orities in fiscal year 1971 and beyond and so directed them. He further 
stated that he had asked his newly established Advisory Council on 
Executive Organization to place the commissioned organizational pro- 
posal—high on its agenda of matters to be studied.” On the same 
day he wrote to Mr. Roy Ash, chairman of his Advisory Council on 
Executive Organization, asking him to conduct that study. 
Mr. Lennon. May I interrupt you at this point ¢ 
IT ask unanimous consent to have inserted in the record at this point 
a letter or a memorandum from the White House, dated May 19, 1969, 
signed by the Honorable Richard M. Nixon, entitled “Memorandum 
for Mr, Ash.” 
Is there any objection, gentlemen ? 
Hearing none, it is So ordered. 
(The memorandum follows :) 
THE WHITE HOUSE, 
Washington, May 19, 1969. 
MEMORANDUM FOR MR. ASH 
The Commission on Marine Science, Engineering, and Resources has recently 
completed a comprehensive review of our Nation’s stake in the oceans, which 
are set forth in the report, Our Nation and the Sea. I have asked the National 
Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Development to review the Com- 
mission’s recommendations for marine science programs, together with my 
Science Adviser, and to encourage further improvements in Federal activities. 
One of the principal recommendations was the creation of a new independent 
agency drawing together agencies and programs from five existing departments 
and agencies. This proposal needs to be examined carefully in the context of 
broader Federal organizational requirements. Your review should particularly 
consider related environmental and natural resource problems. Within this con- 
text, the Commission’s proposals should be compared with alternative ways of 
coordination and advancing national development of the marine sciences. 
RICHARD M. NIXON. 
