97 



regard to doing a little bit of surgery or restructuring within the House 

 itself to bring, for instance, ESSA to have one place to report to in- 

 stead of, as at present, to presumably have to report to three places? 



Mr. Anderson. Well, I think I mentioned in my statement that per- 

 haps the recommendations of the Stratton Commission for an inde- 

 pendent agency would stimulate some conflict because bureaucratic 

 preserves are always very jealously guarded. This is true not only of 

 the executive branch but of the legislative branch as well. 



I have another cause that is as near and dear to my heart as this 

 cause. It is one of promoting legislative reorganization within the 

 Congress. As you know the committee of which I am a rnember, the 

 Eules Committee has recently appointed a subcommittee in an effort 

 to draft a legislative reorganization bill and whether or not that sub- 

 committee will feel that it can go into this question of trying to refine 

 existing committee jurisdiction and make some of the changes that 

 would introduce a little more rationality into the oversight function 

 of Congress in the sense that you mentioned of having some of these 

 agencies reporting to the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee 

 rather than some other committee, I don't know. 



Any judgment or projection that I might make in that regard would 

 be premature at this point. I recognize the problem and I think it is 

 true that we could well look at ourselves and look to some reorganiza- 

 tion of the committee system of the Congress in an effort to adopt a 

 better approach here, a more rational approach. 



Mr. Drewry. I think the growth in the understanding of looking at 

 this from an environmental standpoint has probably got a lot to do 

 with this. 



About a year ago a bill having to do with the Commissioned Officer 

 Corps of ESSA, which really was just an extension of the Commis- 

 sioned Officer Corps of the Coast and Geodetic Survey was sent to the 

 Hill and interestingly enough wound up in its initial referral with the 

 Post Office and Civil Service Committee which has jurisdiction over 

 none of the three constituent elements of ESSA, nor has the Post Of- 

 fice Committee ever dealt with any uniformed service at all. 



I just wanted to raise the question because I think it is one that prob- 

 ably we who work in the Congress have to consider as well as our 

 enthusiasm for reorganizing the executive branch. 



Mr. Anderson. I think we on the Rules Committee might well mind 

 the admonition of the gentleman. 



Mr. Drewrt. Thank you. 



Mr. Lennon. Thank you very much, Mr. Anderson. I hope you have 

 the opportunity to read Captain Bauer's statement and we would like 

 to have you comment sometime in the future at your convenience. 



Mr. Anderson. I certainly will. 



(The comment follows :) 



House of Representatives, 

 Washington, D.C., May 9, 1969. 

 Hon. Altok Lennon, 



Chairman, Subcommittee on Oceanography, Merchant Marine and Fisheries 

 Committee, Longworth House Office Building, Washington, B.C. 



Dear Mr. Lennon : I again wish to tliank you and your distinguished Sub- 

 committee for giving me the opportunity to testify before you on the Stratton 

 Commission report. As you may recall, at the time of my appearance I was asked 

 to comment on the testimony of Captain Paul S. Bauer. Not having seen an ad- 

 vance copy of his testimony, I vras unable to do so at that time. But I have now 



