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I was thinking while you were concluding your statement of the 

 hearing which the Fish and Wil'diife Subcommittee held yesterday on 

 legislation to provide the President with a Council on Environmental 

 Quality to advise him somewhat the way he receives economic advice 

 from a committee of economic advisers. This Council would 'advise him 

 on the overall matters that plague us due to overpopulation and in- 

 dustrialization ; the very thing that the speech you made on the floor of 

 the House addressed itself to. I have become convinced that such coun- 

 cil would be very helpful to the President. 



I think, the administration possibly is opposed to this and supports 

 the idea that you can have an intergovernmental group composed of 

 the Cabinet members do this type of work. I think they are too busy. 



I do not see you very often these days, I might say, and I am asking 

 you now that I have caught up with you, to look into that matter and 

 possibly if you have a chance help in solving your own problems on 

 Chesapeake Bay on a national basis by lending your support to such 

 legislation. 



Mr. Morton. I appreciate the remarks of the gentleman from Wash- 

 ington. I would like to say this : I think the President has acted wisely 

 in asking Dr. DuBridge, his principal scientific adviser, to bring to- 

 gether this Council. I think there is a recognition everywhere, in the 

 State governments, in local governments, and certainly in the Federal 

 establishment, that we are not staying ahead of the fact as far as en- 

 vironmental management is concerned. As the civilization and society 

 becomes more sophisticated, the consumption of the environment takes 

 on awesome proportions and the waste products of our industrial ef- 

 fort, of our agricultural effort, and of man himself have not been man- 

 aged through the years in a way that prevents certain resources, namely 

 the air and the water and others, from being consumed rather badly. 



So I think as a first step to advise the President and as a focal point 

 for recognition of the problem, the Council on the Environment is very 

 appropriate. 



I have great faith in Dr. DuBridge. In fact, I am going to meet 

 with him this afternoon to discuss this very thing. I heard him speak 

 recently on this topic, and his great understanding of it is so clear 

 that I hope to have some of it rub off on me. 



One of the things that has not been mentioned is the necessity for 

 a concerted congressional approach to environmental matters. We all 

 know that nearly every standing committee in the Congress, deals with 

 some facet of environment management — ^housing, transportation, this 

 committee, the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. I am not so 

 sure that as a first step, in the form of the congressional patterns them- 

 selves, that there should not be some coming together in the form of a 

 joint committee, or a select committee dealing with the environment. 



Mr. Pelly. I think that has been suggested and possibly even legis- 

 lation introduced, but my fear is that in the executive branch the differ- 

 ent departments will avoid treading on other departments' toes, and 

 that, if you are going to try to correct the terrible situation in the 

 country due to the pollution of our environment, that you are going 

 to have to have some overall group and not just count on the Cabinet 

 members or departments of government to work together. 



I received, and I think every member of this committee received, a 

 most elaborate brochure from the Department of the Interior on marine 



