228 



of a national policy and comprehensive national program for the man- 

 agement, beneficial use, protection, and development of the land and 

 water resources of the Nation's estuarine and coastal zone." 



We have no special information as to the advantages or disadvan- 

 tages of the proposed legislation and, therefore, make no comments as 

 to its merit. However, we have the following suggestions concerning 

 specific provisions of the bill. 



At page 3, lines 7 to 10, the term "coastal State," is defined as includ- 

 ing Puerto Kico and the Virgin Islands. We assume it is not intended 

 to include the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. 



At page 8, line 21, regarding Federal approval of coastal State man- 

 agement plans, including State provision for conducting relevant re- 

 search incident to such plans, the committee may wish to specify 

 whether the research is to be basic, or applied research, or both. Also, 

 regarding such State research supported by Federal funds and carried 

 out in accordance with the grant program, the committee may wish to 

 include provision for free Federal and State access to, and use of, items 

 patented by the coastal States as the result of the development of new 

 processes and techniques in the general area of water protection and 

 pollution control. 

 At page 9, line 6, we suggest the following change : 



(B) No grant funds shall be used for the acquisitions of 

 real property, or any interest therein. 

 Also, page 13, line 12, apparently is erroneous and should be cor- 

 rected to provide as follows : 



(3) The Secretary or the head of any other Federal 

 agency concerned, * * * 

 Sincerely yours, 



Egbert F. KIeller, 

 Assistant Comptroller General of the United States. 



U.S. Department of the Interior, 



Office of the Secretary, 

 Washington, D.C., April 23, 1970. 

 Hon. Warren G. Magnuson, 

 Chairman, Co-irutnittee on Comnrierce, 

 U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 



Dear Mr. Chairman : Your committee has requested the comments 

 of this Department on S. 3460, a bill "To establish a national policy for 

 the coastal zone resource, to encourage a systematic approach to coastal 

 zone planning and development, and to assist the States in establishing 

 coastal zone management programs." 



Recently, the Department transmitted to the President of the Senate 

 and the Speaker of the House a proposed bill "To provide for the 

 establishment of a national policy and comprehensive national pro- 

 gram for the management, beneficial use, protection, and development 

 of the land and water resources of the Nation's estuarine and coastal 

 zone." The proposed bill was transmitted with, and would implement, 

 the report of the national estuarine pollution study. We recom- 

 mend the enactment of our proposed bill, which is pending in the 

 Senate as S. 3183, in lieu of S. 3460. 



