933 
So then we came back after many years and brought into being the 
act which mandated the Commission. We didn’t say “find and recom- 
mend a Government structure.” We said: “If there is a need for a 
Government structure, will you tell us so, and if you make the deter- 
mination that there is a need for a Central Government structure, ind1- 
cate and tell us what type of Government structure. 
Now, why should we just continue as we have in the past having this 
lack of dialog with the administration? You perhaps don’t now 
it, Mr. Secretary, but Dr. White knows, that even when the act was 
passed and enacted into law creating the Commission, we felt the 
necessity at that time to create a national council because it was ob- 
vious to us from testimony that the Interagency Committee on Ocean- 
ography did not have the sufficient policy-level height necessary to be 
a determining factor in making these decisions related to the various 
Government agencies that were involved. 
We met the resistance of the administration on that, too, but we went 
ahead anyhow and said nothing can be lost and everything can be 
gained, and it was embraced by the administration when it came into 
being as the best thing that could ever happen. 
As early as February of this year the President called on the Vice 
President as the chairman of the National Council to make some gen- 
eral recommendations in this field, and the Vice President went to the 
agencies and departments for their comments. 
“But what I am concerned about is that the President called on the 
Ash Commission on May 19, on May 19 and today is September 23, 
and the Ash Commission is not even organized yet and doesn’t have a 
staff, and on the 11th of September of this year they so advised us that 
within the next month or two that they hoped to be able to launch 
this study, within the next month or two. 
Yet it was on the 19th of May of this year, and we have it in our file, 
and it is in the hearing record, that we had the President’s request to 
the Ash Commission. 
We assumed that they would be in position to give us some general 
ideas. We called them on September 10, and they responded the next 
day, and said, “We hope to launch a study within the next month or 
two. After we get into the problem, we will be in a better position to 
estimate how long it may take.” 
In other words, it will be 2 months before they get ready to start 
to begin to commence a study, and at that time perhaps they can esti- 
mate how many more months it would take them to review the Com- 
mission’s report and make their recommendations. 
Now, that in somewhat discouraging because that is the experience 
we have had in the past. 
Both Mr. Mosher and I were privileged to meet occasionally with the 
Commission, although we had no part in the decisions except to try to 
point out to them what was the congressional intent based on the hear- 
ings in this committee room and based on the statements made on the 
floor, and we participated to that extent. 
Appr opriately Dr. White refrained from participating in the de- 
cision of the Commission with respect to a Government structure. I 
don’t know what he might say if he disassociated himself with the 
administration as the Under Secretary of the Navy has done since 
