affect the Outer Continental Shelf or its development 
would be required to report such action to the Secre- 
tary of the Interior, who makes amendatory recom- 
mendations to the Council for final determination. 
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Outer 
Continental Shelf Matters would also serve as 
clearing-house and focus for liaison with State and 
local governments through a Division of State and 
Local Liaison. 
To a limited extent, the infrastructure proposed in 
the bill (H.R. 15527) is responsive to the need for 
an ocean management capability in the Federal 
Government to regulate the growing use of offshore 
areas and resolve use conflicts. 
Need for Long-Range Resource Planning 
Comprehensive resource management requires 
continued future planning. Functional management 
within the departments and agencies often fails to 
provide the integrated long-range planning necessary 
to promote wise resource use. H.R. 2332 of the 
Seiting Priorities: 
While congressional authorizations, in a sense, 
determine the “qualitative” characteristics and con- 
tent of Federal programs, it is the budget process 
and appropriations that determine the ‘‘quantitative” 
aspects of such programs. Priorities of Government 
are set by the budget process. In a real sense, the 
budget process is also a major determinant in estab- 
_ lishing ocean policy. Budget decisions not only serve 
to ajlocate funds among major governmental activi- 
ties, but decisions must also be made among alterna- 
tive programs within each major budget category. 
The outcome of such decisions influences the mag- 
“nitude and direction of the Federal programs, hence 
the impact of functional policy. The budget process 
also plays a significant role in coordinating and re- 
solving key issues that filter through the agencies into 
the Office of Management and Budget via the budget 
process. Balance may thus be maintained among 
competing agencies; and duplication and overlap 
can be controlled. 
The Office cf Management and Budget (OMB), 
created pursuant to Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 
1570, superseded the old Bureau of the Budget. 
OMB?’s functions embrace a broad set of activities 
dealing with budget formulation, policy planning, 
policy assessment, and policy coordination. As part 
of the Executive Office of the President, it is con- 
sidered to be an extension of the President himself, 
and therefore is protected by executive privilege, 
although the Director of OMB must now be con- 
firmed by the Senate. 
The budget process is not wholly internal to 
OMB. Departmental review of agency budget pro- 
posals during the budget process involves a series of 
budgetary decisions on programs and directions as 
the proposals pass from agency submission to final 
secretarial approval. Offices compete actively to 
“sell” their programs in the budget process. Whether 
policy decisions are consciously part of the depart- 
94th Congress proposed the creation of an “Agency 
for Economic and Natural Resources Planning” 
within the Executive Branch. The responsibility for 
resource and economic planning would be divided 
between two Assistant Administrators. 
The Budget Process 
mental review process depends on the department’s 
operating procedures. Nevertheless, policy decisions 
are made in the process of budget review from pro- 
posal to final submission of the President’s budget to 
the Congress aud the process does not stop there. 
Congress imposes its set of priorities through the 
budget resolution-authorization-appropriation pro- 
cess. 
The politics of the budget in the Executive Branch 
are similar to the politics of appropriations in the 
legislative branch. Enactment of the Congressional 
Budget Control and Impoundment Act of 1974, 
which requires the Congress to set a congressional 
ceiling on Government spending just as the Presi- 
dent must do, has made the congressional budget 
process even more similar to the executive budget 
process.°* 
The organization of OMB for budget purposes 
reflects a modified functional breakdown of govern- 
mental activities. Ocean affairs are fragmented 
among eight divisions: International Affairs; Energy 
and Food; Economics and Government; Natural Re- 
sources; National Security; Human Resources; Sci- 
ence, Space and Energy Technology; and Community 
and Veterans Affairs. On the surface of the OMB 
budget organization there is even less consolidation 
in dealing with ocean-related budget items than there 
is in the overall organization of ocean programs in 
the agencies. The OMB budget organization is, in 
part, dictated by the organization of the President’s 
budget document and, in part, by the jurisdictions of 
the appropriations subcommittee in the Congress. 
While the divisional organization of OMB parallels 
a logical functional! breakdown, ocean programs are 
assigned among the budget divisions according to the 
organization in which they reside. Thus, while 
NOAA, MarAd, and the U.S. Coast Guard pro- 
grams are reviewed by the Economics and Govern- 
~ © Public Law 93-344; 88 Stat. 297. 
IX—34 
