384 



Don't you think that we could rely on, No. 1, the Commission's report 

 and recommendation in this particular regard; don't you think we 

 could rely to a considerable degree upon the recommendation of — well, 

 let us see who they will be, the Vice President, Secretary of State, 

 Secretary of the Navy, 'Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Com- 

 merce, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Director of 

 the National Science Foundation, the Secretary of Health, Education, 

 and Welfare, and the Secretary of the Treasury ? 



Now, that is about as strong a policymaking body as you can possibly 

 get at the executive level. 



If they make the determination that this is the way we should go, in 

 other words, if they give their OK to the Commission's report, in my 

 own mind I think it will do a lot to make these agencies recognize that 

 they ought to come in and give their cooperation in spite of the fact 

 that one or two of them who are not members of the Council at the 

 Cabinet level, one in particular, has expressed his opposition, which 

 is human nature, of course, that a certain native component of his 

 Department of Transportation be transferred to this new Federal 

 agency known as NOAA. 



That is what we are confronted with. We have been frustrated now 

 for years in trying to get this thing started. We had difficulty in 1966 

 persuading the administration to permit us to establish this National 

 Council. They insisted that the Ad Hoc or Interagency Committee on 

 Oceanography was doing a job ; in fact, it was doing the best it could 

 with the authority and policy level at which it operated. 



Would you speak to that, please, sir ? 



Here we are soliciting your support for what we are trying to do, 

 the way we are trying to move. 



Mr. Pierce, I cannot speak with much authority on legislative reor- 

 ganization. However, from purely an administrative standpoint, my 

 counsel is to go slow in attaching a lot of agencies to a new agency 

 such as this until it has been determined that they really fit in the 

 program. 



Mr. Lennon. Right at this point now, you create NOAA, the Presi- 

 dent appoints an administrator and authorizes staffing. 



Are you going to have any more expertise in that administrator and 

 his staff. 



The chances are he will associate himself with people who have been 

 staff members of one or two places, either the National Council or the 

 former iCommission. Are they going to have any more expertise in 

 making a determination of what agency should come in there than the 

 agency or council which has been involved in this thing in depth since 

 1966? 



How long do you think it will take these people to do again what we 

 have been trying to get them to do and they have done now since 1966 ? 



Mr. Pierce. It is my opinion that it could be done in a considerably 

 shorter period than that time. I think the programs recommended by 

 the Commission would probably form the basis or major nucleus of the 

 program to be handled by the administrator and that the recommenda- 

 tions on which agencies the administrator and his staff thought fit very 

 well could be made very quickly. Let us say 6 months from the time 

 the agency is formed and they have had a chance to review the Com- 



