316 



^lany have come before you during your hearings on this report, endorsing the 

 Commission's recommendation for establishing a National Oceanic and Atmos- 

 pheric Agency to coordinate and direct our national marine policy in the years 

 ahead. I wish to add my wholehearted endorsement to that proposal also. 



Although I was the first to introduce legislation five years ago calling for the 

 establishment of a single federal oceanographic agency, commonly referred to 

 as a "wet-NASA," I am still of the opinion that the only way we can get a NOAA 

 into being is for the President himself to push for it through a reorganization 

 plan. When I introduced my bill to set up NOA in 1964, I asked the various de- 

 partments involved for reports on the proposal. I got 15 of the saddest letters you 

 ever saw in your life. All were negative : each agency or department argued that 

 its oceanographic effort was the most important function of its own agency. They 

 couldn't possibly give up that responsibility to some independent agency, they 

 reported. Simply put. they would rather fight than switch. Their opposition to 

 such a proposal would hamper any legislative effort to create a single ocean- 

 ographic effort. We are never going to win approval of this kind of legislation 

 until the President champions the cause by seeking Congressional approval of a 

 reorganization plan that would establish NOAA. 



As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I watched what happened 

 when the Administration at that time pu.shed the proposal for setting up the 

 space agency, NASA. Oh. we heard the cries of anguish from the Air Force 

 and the Navy because they had missile programs that were the most important 

 things they were doing, and a NASA concept would completely emasculate and 

 devastate those particular departments if it took any of their missile functions 

 away from them. Yet only because we had the foresight through the reorganiza- 

 tion procedure to set up a space agency were we able to accomplish a well-coordi- 

 nated space effort 



The Commission's report, however, overlooks an important point. It does not 

 deal with the question of what committees in Congress should oversee the new 

 NOAA once it is established. I would recall that when NASA was created, a con- 

 current reorganization of the House committee structure took place with the 

 creation of the Committee on Science and Astronautics. Likewise, I believe that 

 any establishment of a Federal oceanographic agency must be accompanied with 

 the designation of a House committee to oversee the new agency and its various 

 efforts. This could be done by changing the name of the Merchant Marine and 

 Fisheries Committee to the Oceanographic Committee and giving it the responsi- 

 bility of authorizing the new agency's programs. Right now, our oceanographic 

 effort — .scattered among 22 agencies — is parceled out to numerous committees 

 for review. When departments that deal in oceanography come to Congress to 

 testify on thir budget requests, Congress, in effect, is looking at our oceano- 

 graphic effort in bits and pieces with no attention given to the program, as a 

 whole or to how each piece relates to the other. 



The Commission recommends that NOAA should be comprised of the U.S. 

 Coast Guard, the Environmental Science Services Administration, the Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries, the U.S. Lake Survey, the National Sea Granr Program, 

 the National Oc-ea no graphic Data Center, certain programs of the Bureau of 

 Six>rr Fisheries and possibly the National Center for Atmospheric Eeseardi. This 

 reorganization would shift about 55.000 federal employees under the roof of 

 NOAA as well as control of 320 seagoing ves-sels. 



This shifting of agencies, of course, will trigger controversies among those de- 

 partments that jealously protect their bureaucratic preserves. But all of us must 

 put these petty jealousies aside and tackle the real issue here whi<A is the 

 nation's interest. 



I am hopeful this Administration will propose the creation of NOAA_ Pre.sident 

 NiX(-'n .spoke ahout the need for such an agency during the campaign. Vice Pre.^- 

 denr Agnew. who is fT^m a coastal state involved in oceanography, is very en- 

 thusiastic at»out the possitdlity of NOAA. and has advised the Pneadent and his 

 ass<-»ciates that a unified oceanographic program should have high priority in 

 the Nixon Administrati<"'n. 



Mr. Chairman, I conirratnlate your Subcommittee for holding these hearings 

 and again tnrning the national sj>otlight on the importance of investing in the 

 oceans so that one day we can reap its many resources. 



Mr. Wilson. Thar-k voii. 



This is my third apjjearanee l^efore this suhc-ommitT-ee on this sub- 

 ject, and I want to commend the subcommittee and the committee for 



