17 



Coordinate scientific and technical requirements and recommendations in 

 support of foreign policy objectives. 



Serve marine industry and the marine interest of the American people. 



NOAA would be composed of organizational elements concerned primarily 

 with scientific, technical and service functions necessary for expanding the planned 

 use of the sea and its resources and for monitoring, predicting, and potentially 

 modifying the air and sea environments. It should include the Coast Guard, the 

 Environmental Science Services Administration, the Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries (augmented by the marine and anadromous fisheries functions of the 

 Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife), the National Sea Grant Program, the 

 U.S. Lake Survey, and the National Oceanographic Data Center. Important 

 new functions would also be vested in the agency. Transfer of the Antarctic pro- 

 gram and the National Center for Atmospheric Research to NOAA might be 

 accomplished later. 



The size and scope of the program recommended by the Commission require 

 that NOAA, at least initially, be an independent agency reporting directly to the 

 President. In getting a major and diverse effort underway, the case for independent 

 status is compelling. An independent agency can bring freshness of outlook and 

 provide freedom of action, and its public visibility would draw public interest and 

 support. Moreover, no existing department has sufficiently broad responsibilities 

 to embrace the full scope of functions proposed for NOAA. However, future basic 

 reorganizations of the executive branch might permit transfer of NOAA to a 

 favorable location. 



A truly national effort in the oceans requires organizational arrangements for 

 obtaining information and advice from the broad marine community. The Com- 

 mission has therefore recommended establishment of a Presidentially appointed 

 National Advisory Committee for the Oceans (NACO) to advise the head of 

 NOAA in carrying out his functions and to report periodically to the President 

 and the Congress on progress in achieving national objectives. Members would be 

 drawn from outside the Federal Government and be broadly representative of 

 the Nation's marine and atmospheric interests; Federal agency representatives 

 would participate as observers in the work of the committee. 



The Commission's organizational proposals would permit the President to 

 delegate planning and coordination responsibilities to an operating agency which 

 has a strong base of teclmical expertise. However, until decisions are reached on 

 its organization plan, the Commission believes it important to continue the 

 National Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Development. 



Estimated costs 



To mount the national effort recommended by the Commission will require 

 a build-up over the years of qualified personnel and suitable facilities. The 

 Commission feels strongly that the build-up should take place at a rate which 

 can be sustained. 



The funding problem for the marine program is quite different from that 

 which accompanied the launching of the space program. The National Aero- 

 nautics and Space Administration was entrusted with the organization of a new 

 program which had very few antecedents and which was placed on a time table 

 requiring a very rapid build-up of scientific and engineering effort. The objective 

 of the Commission's proposal, in contrast, is to emphasize and rationalize pro- 

 grams which, for the most part, are already in existence and which are already 

 returning benefits to our people. 



Programs recommended by the Commission are estimated to involve an annual 

 expenditure growing by 1980 to roughly $1 billion per year over and above 

 current program levels. This approximate doubling of present efforts could be 

 achieved by maintaining a 7 to 10 per cent rate of growth over the 10-year period. 

 The details of the Commission's cost estimates are tabulated in Attachment 2. 



Expanding expenditures for civil marine programs wiU need to be accompanied 

 by increasing support for mihtary programs. Because the Navy now has an active 

 program and extensive capital facilities, funding for such activities may not need 

 to increase in percentage terms as rapidly as on the civil side, where the ciu"rent 

 level of activity is lower in reference to current needs. But it is obvious that the 

 Defense Department's requirements for marine and atmospheric science, tech- 

 nology, and services wiU have to keep pace with the increasing sophistication of 

 military systems operating on, under, and over the seas. 



Developing cost estimates was among the most diflScult aspects of the Com- 

 mission's analysis. In spite of the uncertainties attendant on these estimates. 



