934 
being a member of the Commission, and he now wholeheartedly en- 
dorses the concept. 
Of course the Navy is not involved. I realize that. There again you 
have the human element. 
I do appreciate your testimony. I agree with the gentleman from 
Minnesota that you have given us some encouragement, and I am so 
grateful for the very incisive way that you were examined by the gen- 
tleman from Oregon to develop these things. 
I am much more encouraged than I was by the testimony of the 
distinguished Under Secretary of the Department of Transportation. 
But there again the Coast Guard is the biggest part of the Department 
of Transportation, I guess, when it comes to manpower, and budgetary 
funding, too. We can expect that. We do appreciate it. 
The gentleman from Massachusetts. I am so glad you are back. You 
may proceed. 
Mr. Kerrn. [ was ona provincial mission. 
Mr. Lennon. Do you want to give us a report? 
Mr. Kerrn. Jimmy Burke said that there were 22 members of the 
Ways and Means Committee that had shoe manufacturing establish- 
ments in their districts. 
Mr. Lennon. I though you were going to tell us that you had been 
down there to talk about this. 
Mr. Keirn. That will come at a later date. I am sorry that I couldn’t 
be here, but I have a case in point which underlines the philosophy 
expressed by the chairman. 
In what agency is the national buoy program now ? 
Dr. Trisus. Dr. White will respond to that. 
Dr. Wuire. The Coast Guard is responsible for the development 
of the national buoy program. 
Mr. Kerru. In what agency does the Weather Bureau function ? 
Dr. Wuite. The Department of Commerce. 
Mr. Kerrn. If NOAA was in existence, would not this be a means 
of liaison? Would this not be much more effective than to have these 
responsibilities dispersed ? 
Dr. Wurrte. I would not want to leave the impression, Mr. Keith, 
that we do not have very good coordination on the buoy program with 
the Coast Guard today. It is excellent. They are responsive to all the 
requirements of all the Government agencies. 
On the other hand, I also could not honestly say that if they were 
in the same agency such coordination wouldn’t be very much simplified. 
Mr. Kerrn. We had, as you know, a hurricane a couple of weeks ago 
which prompted, once again, please on the part of Members of Con- 
gress for a weather ship which would keep track of these storms. They 
cause millions ofdellars of loss from what you might call false alerts, 
people closing their stores and so forth because the hurricane was lost, 
because we lost track of it. 
It is the opinion of a great many people at the Weather Bureau that 
a weather ship would make this job much easier, that is, keeping track 
of the hurricane and the forecasting of the weather in that area. 
Now there is a buoy program that has an ability to function to a 
large degree in the same way as the weather ship. Are you familiar 
with that buoy program ? 
Dr. Wuire. Yes, I am, sir. 
