these new responsibilities so that they can be adequately discharged. Some 
missions obviously suffer during the buildup phases, as the available re- 
sources are reassigned to the higher priority missions. 
NACOA recommends that a better balance between assigned responsi- 
bilities of the Coast Guard and the resources to fulfill them be achieved by 
some combination of increased funding and greater statutory flexibility in 
enforcement. 
RESEARCH WITHIN THE NAVY 
NACOA is concerned with the diminished vitality of the ocean science 
program within the Navy, particularly in basic oceanographic research. The 
basic oceanographic research program has proven over the years to be in- 
valuable to the Navy and to the Nation at large. Now, under the general 
pressure to justify research funds on the basis of application to current 
needs, the formerly steadfast support for basic oceanographic research is 
weakening here as elsewhere in Government. 
The Office of Naval Research, established under P.L. 79-588, has long 
been a focus for basic oceanographic research. Over the past few years 
funding for basic oceanographic research has remained essentially constant. 
At the same time, support has been diverted from it in what can be con- 
strued as an overreaction to the Mansfield Amendment, which directed the 
Department of Defense to make sure that its research programs were di- 
rectly relevant to defense activities. For example, a planned diversion of 
some 20% of the basic oceanographic research budget into support of 
underwater acoustics is causing great disruption in a well-planned and di- 
rected long term ocean research program of fundamental importance to 
the Navy. 
This planning, NACOA feels, is shortsighted because while it may pro- 
duce a marginal gain in one area already relatively well supported, it cer- 
tainly will cause devastation in the much smaller oceanographic research 
effort. NACOA realizes the difficulty in defending long term basic research 
against more easily justified programs. Nonetheless, it is the responsibility 
of Navy management to recognize that both research programs are essen- 
tial. One cannot be sacrificed at the expense of the other if the Nation’s 
future is to be fully safeguarded. 
Therefore, NACOA recommends that the Navy review its diversion of 
funds from basic oceanographic research. Further, it recommends that basic 
ocean research be maintained at a strength sufficient to insure the Navy is 
able to fulfill its future requirements to the Nation. From NACOA’s per- 
spective this cannot be a level-funded or decreasing budget. 
39 
