180 



the direction that we all agree that the President was for at this time 

 last year. 



It will just be a mistake, in my judgment, regardless of what politi- 

 cal spectrum you are in, to disappoint these States. 



Now, it takes a long time for them finally to reach an agreement 

 and a consensus, and they have finally. 



And now to be told, after the President encouraged them b}'' saying, 

 "We have other legislation which would implement what you all have 

 in mind," the administration wants to change its position and wait. 



Do you want to comment on that ? 



]\Ir. QuARLES. I would be glad to. I think that there is no question 

 about the serise of moving toward enactment of a much needed pro- 

 gram. I do remember that symposium. I made a presentation to it, if 

 you are referring to the symposium held in the fall of 1969. 



Mr. Lennox. Yes, that is right. 



Mr. QuARLES. The question, though, is. How much can be done at this 

 time, speaking broadly, and what is going to be the most effective way 

 to do it ? 



Very likely, the legislation that gets passed sets patterns, and those 

 patterns frequently go on for much longer than they are expected to. 



Right now, there is a great amount of momentum for establishing 

 intelligent systems of land management. Much of the momentum is 

 focused on the coastal zone bills. It is not limited to that, however. 



I suppose that if the coastal zone management bills were to be 

 passed, many of those laboring for achievement in this area might feel 

 that the job was done, and they could relax and go back; whereas, if 

 the effort can be kept up for a little bit longer, it is quite probable that 

 a better achievement can be realized, both in terms of the coverage of 

 the bills and also in terms of the administrative arrangements for 

 the assignment of responsibilities for carrying out these programs. 



I grant you, it is a difficult question, and I do not say that the 

 answer is entirely clear. But I think that the position of the admin- 

 istration is one we are perfectly glad for you to convey to others. It 

 is a position that I believe is the right position : that the time is here 

 now to just press on a little farther until we come to a complete 

 package. 



Mr. Lennon. I would like your comments on this, too, sir, at this 

 time. 



You will recall that in the consideration of the so-called Marine 

 Protection Act, widely known as the Ocean Dumping bill, after 

 public hearings that were rather extensive and which covered many 

 areas, the total economy and society and environmentalists and ecolo- 

 gists and everything else, we sat down here and had hearings — I mean 

 conferences and executive sessions. We had here sitting over on this 

 side EPA and their counsel, or assistant counsel. Over on this side 

 we had the Corps of Engineers and their counsel. 



We were trying to reach areas of agreement, and we did. 



Now, what has happened ? 



We find that the Department of the Interior is saying, "You are 

 leaving us out of the picture. We want to be involved in these de- 

 cisions. We want to make the decisions." 



They are overlooking the fact that the authors of proposed amend- 

 ments to that bill — and I am opposing them ; so is Mr. Dingell, the 



