sources Research), in weather modification (the Bureau of Reclamation), 

 and in coastal zone management (the Bureau of Land Management and 

 the Office of Territorial Affairs) . The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and 

 the U.S. Coast Guard also play very large roles in marine and coastal zone 

 management, regulation, and public works. Highly significant roles are 

 played by the Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency, 

 the Council on Environmental Quality, and, of course, NOAA. In marine 

 and atmospheric science, general-purpose engineering development, and 

 technical services we must include the Corps of Engineers, the Navy, the 

 Maritime Administration, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National 

 Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, 

 and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as Interior and NOAA. 



To deal with this proliferation it has been necessary to create manage- 

 ment devices such as coordinating committees, coordinators, and the like. 

 The major ones are the Interagency Committee on Marine Science and 

 Engineering (12 agencies represented), the Interdepartmental Committee 

 for Atmospheric Sciences and the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological 

 Services and Supporting Research (each with 13 agencies represented), 

 and the Interdepartmental Committee for Marine Environmental Predic- 

 tion (10 agencies represented). 



But coordination is never enough. Coordination usually means exchange 

 of information. Rarely does it involve table-pounding establishment of 

 priorities, guidelines, and new policies to meet new problems. Especially 

 when the budget gets tight, coordination is not by itself tough enough to 

 protect multiagency programs. What happens is not so nmch that things 

 get left out, though that happens, but that programs get distorted. Program 

 cutbacks in one agency have side effects on others which change the over- 

 all program balance and priority without anyone really being responsible 

 for what happened. 



The distortion of some interagency programs is one of the key impacts 

 of the FY '73, and FY '74 budget decisions in the affairs under NACOA 

 surveillance. The effect, as is true of policies which result in underinvest- 

 ment, is in the future, but it is nevertheless important. For example, the 

 Coast Guard has been forced to abandon three ocean stations (as of June 

 30, 1973) and will have abandoned three more by mid-1974. The only 

 remaining station will be Hotel, 200 miles off Delaware, which is occupied 

 eight months of the year. But the ocean stations function of synoptic off- 

 shore weather and ocean observation is becoming }7iore rather than less 

 important to seagoing activities. While instrumented satellites will help 

 with weather observations, it will be at least a year, and perhaps several, 

 before NOAA's ocean data buoy program can be deployed to even partially 

 fill the gap. Plans for additional buoys to fulfill this need have been in- 

 cluded in future budgets, but the funding is in serious doubt. What was a 



