951 
pared to work with other agencies, and indeed have been doing so for 
years, to insure maximum use of environmental and technical skills. 
And finally a word about funding. In chapter 8 of the report the 
Commission has estimated that the national budget for marine affairs 
should approximately double in 10 years, making due allowance for 
changes in the value of the dollar. We believe that environmental 
problems, including problems of the marine environment, require 
prompt attention. 
We recognize, however, that the executive and legislative branches 
will have to consider these requirements in relation to other important 
programs that need to be carried out and which are competing for 
Federal funds. 
That completes my prepared statement, Mr. Chairman. 
Mr. Lennon. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I want to say it is my judg- 
ment that the Department of the Interior has perhaps responded more 
to the creation of the Commission and its recommendations than any 
other agency or department of the Federal Government. The Depart- 
ment of the Interior has attempted to move. 
T think that was, in some degree, due to the fact that they had on the 
Commission a gentleman who was privy to the information and the 
studies that the Commission made and who must have carried back 
to the Department of the Interior the suggestion that “We ought 
to start. moving in this direction,” because the Department of the Inte- 
rior has moved in this direction. 
They have shown a great deal more interest in the marine sciences 
in the Department of the Interior in the last 18 months or last 12 
months than there has been in the several years that I have been 
around this Congress. I think it has stimulated a number of the Gov- 
ernment agencies, particularly the Department of the Interior, to get 
involved. 
I won’t say what motivated it, because you had that responsibility 
all the time, as you have indicated, but I think it is an indication of the 
feeling on the part of the people in the Department of the Interior 
that “This is a good way tio show what we are capable of in the event 
the Congress should move in that direction.” 
Mr. Mosher? 
Mr. Mosuer. Mr. Secretary, on page 4 of your statement you indi- 
cate that it is wise and necessary to consider whether a new agency 
is really warranted. That certainly is true. In fact, I assume that that 
is what this committee is attempting to do. 
Now, in your letter to Chairman Garmatz dated September 23 you 
recommend that H.R. 13247 not be enacted. Is that recommendation 
based on your decision or a decision in your Department that a new 
agency is not necessary ? 
In other words, is that recommendation an indication that you 
are now decisively opposed to any such new agency, or is this recom- 
mendation that the bill not be enacted based on merely a matter of 
timing? Are you saying definitely right now that we should not create 
anew agency or are you merely saying that we should postpone this 
decision ? 
Mr. Tratn. The final position of the Department for or against 
NOAA on the merits would, of course, require close coordination with 
all the other agencies of the Federal Government and the Bureau of 
