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the most pressing needs for such understanding are those relating to 
improved weather forecasting. Such an understanding may also cul- 
minate in an ability to abate or diminish some of the natural catas- 
trophes which are so costly in human life and our national wealth. 
The cost to the Nation of Hurricane Betsy alone was over a billion 
dollars and we have not yet reckoned the costs of Camille. We can ill 
afford to suffer such losses. 
As our coastal zone becomes more and more heavily populated and 
industrial activities proliferate, the potential for loss becomes even 
greater. Improved weather forecasting is also a matter of great con- 
cern to the various transportation modes, and the Federal Aviation 
Administration and the Coast Guard cooperate very closely with the 
Environmental Sciences Services Administration. 
While these areas of endeavor would be high on any priority list of 
the Department’s, we recognize that a different perspective might 
result in a different ranking. The point, however, is that some ranking 
is essential if we are to move forward with the resources and organiza- 
tion necessary to the achievement of national oceanic and atmospheric 
objectives. 
I would now like to discuss some of the direct effects of the Com- 
mission’s organizational recommendations, and H.R. 13247, on our 
Department. 
The Department of Transportation was created in 1966, with strong 
support in the Congress, and the Secretary of Transportation assumed 
his full responsibilities under the Department of Transportation Act 
on April 1,11967. This legislation for the first time brought into being 
an executive department concerned with fostering safety and efficiency 
in a field of national activity involving more than one-fifth of the gross 
national product of the country. 
The Department is still very young, and the benefits of consolidating 
the bulk of the Nation’s transportation functions under a single Cabi- 
net Secretary are only beginning to emerge. The Nation now has, how- 
ever, the organizational framework for developing a balanced, healthy, 
efficient, and safe national transportation system. 
The safe ad efficient movement of people and goods was the single 
most important objective of the Department of Transportation Act, 
and it placed under the Secretary most Government functions neces- 
sary to achieve that objective. The entire Federal Aviation Agency, 
previously independent, became an integral part of the Department 
as did the Coast Guard which, for many years, had been a part of the 
Department of the Treasury. 
In addition to these elements, all responsibility relating to auto- 
mobile safety standards, highway safety, safety of motor carriers, 
railroad safety, and pipeline safety were lodged in the Department. 
Placing these functions under a single official enables us to deal 
effectively with the intermodal characteristics of providing naviga- 
tion aids, conducting search and rescue, handling of hazardous mate- 
rials, conducting investigatory and regulatory processes, and so forth. 
The Secretary of Transportation can now bring consistency and 
strength into the Government’s transportation safety programs re- 
gardless of the mode of transportation involved. One relationship 
which has become particularly apparent is the similarity between 
the roles of the Coast Guard and the FAA, which perform analogous 
