management services for their assigned functions. 
Although chartered by the Federal Government, no 
Federal funds are appropriated directly for the oper- 
ation of the academies. The principal funding source 
is through negotiated contracts with Federal agencies. 
Within the National Research Council there are 
four permanent entities which deal with ocean- 
related science and technology: the (1) Marine 
Board, (2) the Maritime Transportation Research 
Board, (3) the Ocean Policy Committee, and (4) the 
Ocean Sciences Board. These organizations and their 
predecessors have significantly influenced the devel- 
opment of ocean policy since the late 1950s and 
earlier. Three 1972 studies by the academies, 
“Oceanography 1960-1970,” “Oceanography 1966: 
Achievements and Opportunities,’ and “Toward 
Fulfillment of a National Commitment” were land- 
marks in evaluating the status of marine science and 
technology. Much of the work of the NAS/NAE 
panels, however, is targeted at specific problems or 
narrow mission areas in response to studies commis- 
sioned by executive agencies or, occasionally, con- 
gressional committees. The close alliance between 
NAS/NAE activities and the Federal agencies which 
are their primary customers has caused congressional 
caution with regard to accepting the conclusions of 
Academy studies. 
Organization of Federal Ocean Programs 
Organization of the Executive Branch to execute 
the policies developed in the legislative process has 
provided fertile grounds for debate among students 
of public administration and political science. 
The 5 original departments which were created 
under the Constitution have since grown to 12 
Cabinet-level departments; 58 agencies, commissions, 
independent regulatory agencies, administrations, 
authorities, corporations, boards or services; and 3 
quasi-Federal agencies. The expansion has come as 
a result of temporal need: The Department of the 
Interior was established in 1849 to deal with the 
disposition of Federal lands in the West; the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture was established in the 19th 
century at a time when the overwhelming majority 
of the population was involved in agriculture; the 
Department of Commerce and Labor was estab- 
lished in the early 20th century as a result of rapid 
industrial growth, but by 1913 the Department of 
Labor was made a separate entity in response to 
the labor movement. More recently, the Department 
of Housing and Urban Development was established 
in response to national trends toward urbanization 
and away from rural areas. Increased use of the 
family automobile and the consequential decline in 
the use of conventional mass transit modes led to 
establishment of the Department of Transportation. 
The Department of Energy was created in 1977 in 
response to a major national problem having serious 
implications for the socioeconomic values of the 
Nation. 2 
The large number of non-Cabinet agencies is a 
relatively recent phenomenon that reflects the in- 
creased complexity and technical nature of current 
problems. Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s with 
the creation of the initial independent regulatory 
agencies—the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the 
Federal Power Commission (FPC)—there has been 
an accelerating trend toward creating more independ- 
ent agencies with specific missions, such as the 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and 
the two energy-oriented agencies, Federal Energy 
Administration (FEA) and the Energy Research and 
Development Administration (ERDA) which have 
recently been incorporated into the new Department 
of Energy. 
Although some programs in separate agencies or 
departments complement and support one another, 
these organizational trends tend to diffuse responsi- 
bility, introduce redundancy and overlap, and im- 
pair lines of communication. Such problems are not 
unique to government organizations. They are more 
a function of the size of organizations and may be 
expected in any large enterprise. Similar deficiencies 
exist in many large corporations. 
Fragmentation of responsibility is blamed for a 
number of governmental dysfunctions. The Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB), reporting on the 
findings of the Ash Council, identified some of the 
problems: ** 
e It is difficult to solve complex problems when 
responsibilities for related programs are located 
in different departments or agencies. 
e Problems are defined to fit the jurisdiction of an 
agency rather than the solutions being sought. 
e Results are sometimes gauged on the degree of 
activity within each program, rather than on the 
overall impact of all related activities. 
© A department’s role can be skewed and com- 
promised by the way its mission is described. 
33U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Papers Relating to 
the President’s Departmental Reorganization Program: A Refer- 
ence Compilation. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Of- 
fice, 1971, p. 7. 
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