the Vice President and composed of the heads of certain executive departments and agencies. The Council would employ a staff headed by an Executive Director. The chief responsibility of the Council would be to coordinate the work in oceanography being carried out by the various departments and agencies of the Federal Government. The bill is clearly intended to advance the national program in oceanography. The Department is in full sympathy with that objective; however, it questions whether the proposed bill offers the most effective method of achieving the desired purpose. At the present time, coordination is achieved by the Interagency Committee on Oceanography formed by the Federal Council for Science and Technology. The Department believes this basic approach should be continued and is opposed to the creation of another office or agency with independent authority and responsibility in the field. The latter would result in duplication of effort and organization in oceanography as well as derogate from the authority and responsibility of existing agencies in this field. The Department has stated its support of H.R. 2218 as a constructive measure for assuring coordination of the efforts of the various Government agencies in the area of oceanography. For the reasons given above, the Department believes that the establishment of a new administrative organization, as outlined in the proposed bill, will not achieve that result in as desirable a manner. Accordingly, the Treasury Department is opposed to the enactment of H.R. 5654. The Department has been advised by the Bureau of the Budget that there is no objection from the standpoint of the administration's program to the submission of this report to your committee. Sincerely yours, FRED B. SMITH, Acting General Counsel. [H.R. 5884, H.R. 6009, 89th Cong., 1st sess.] BILLS To provide a program of marine exploration and development of the resources of the Continental Shelf Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SHORT TITLE SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the “Marine Exploration and Development Act". DECLARATION OF POLICY SEC. 2. The Congress finds and declares that The United States acquired under international law on June 10, 1964, sovereign rights to the exploration and development of resources of the Continental Shelf under the Convention on the Continental Shelf adopted at the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. Pursuant to the internationally recognized and exclusive rights so secured, the United States assumes the responsibility of executing an accelerated program of exploration and development of the physical, chemical, geological, and biological resources of the Continental Shelf. It is the policy of the United States to encourage private investment in the economic utilization of the marine resources of the Continental Shelf; to determine the benefits from use of these marine resources for increased investment and economic growth; to make available discoveries and information which may have value to United States industries and to Federal and State agencies concerned with missions on the Continental Shelf; to develop an engineering capability for operating on the Continental Shelf and to fashion and operate vehicles and equipment for use in the waters above the Continental Shelf. SEC. 3. As used in this Act- DEFINITIONS (1) The term "Continental Shelf" means the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas adjacent to (a) the coast of continental United States to a depth of two hundred meters or, beyond that limit, to where the depth of the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of the natural resources of such areas, or (b) the seabed and subsoil of similar submarine areas adjacent to the coasts of islands which comprise United States territory. (2) The term "Commission" means the Marine Exploration and Development Commission established under section 4. COMMISSION ESTABLISHED SEC. 4. (a) There is hereby established a Marine Exploration and Development Commission to be composed of five members as follows (1) two members to be appointed from private life by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; (2) the Secretary of Defense; (3) the Secretary of the Interior; and (4) the Secretary of Commerce. One of the members appointed under clause (1) shall be designated by the President at the time of appointment as Chairman of the Commission. Each member specified in clause (2), (3), or (4) may designate another officer of his department to serve on the Commission in his absence. (b) Members of the Commission appointed under subsection (a)(1) shall receive compensation at the rate of $100 per diem while engaged in the business of the Commission, and while away from their homes or regular places of business they may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law for persons in the service of the Federal Government who are employed intermittently. Members specified in subsection (a) (2), (3), and (4), including persons designated to serve in their absence, shall not receive compensation in addition to that to which they are otherwise entitled as officers or employees of the Government but shall be reimbursed for travel or other expenses incurred in carrying out the business of the Commission. (c) The Commission shall have an Executive Director, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Executive Director shall serve at the pleasure of the President and shall receive compensation at the rate prescribed for level IV of the Federal Executive Salary Schedule established by the Federal Executive Salary Act of 1964. Subject to the general supervision of the Commission, the Executive Director shall perform such of the functions conferred upon the Commission under this Act as the Commission shall prescribe. (d) The Commission shall appoint and fix the compensation of such other officers and employees as may be necessary to enable it to carry out its functions. However, the Commission shall utilize the capacity of existing governmental agencies to the maximum extent consistent with the purposes of this Act. The Commission may also procure, without regard to the civil service laws and the Classification Act of 1949, temporary and intermittent services to the same extent as is authorized for the departments by section 15 of the Act of August 2, 1946, but at rates not exceeding $75 per diem for the individuals. FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMISSION SEC. 5. It shall be the function of the Commission to formulate and carry out programs for purposes of exploration and development of the marine resources of th Continental Shelf and waters above the Continental Shelf. Such programs shall include but shall not be limited to the following: (1) Marine exploration, expeditions, and surveys necessay to describe the topography and to identify, locate, and economically develop physical, chemical, geological, and biological resources of the Continental Shelf; (2) Cooperative expeditions for these purposes with other Federal agencies having missions on the Continental Shelf; (3) Development of an engineering capability that will permit exploration and development of the Continental Shelf and superjacent waters; (4) Fostering participation in marine exploration and economic development by scientific institutions and industry, through grants, loans, and cost-sharing arrangements; and (5) Providing for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning marine discoveries, development of instrumentation, equipment, and facilities, and other information as the Commission may deem appropriate. POWERS OF COMMISSION SEC. 6. In carrying out its functions under section 5, the Commission is authorized (1) to enter into agreements with other Government agencies for the carying out by such agencies of any activities authorized by this Act, and for the reimbursement from appropriations made pursuant to section 8(a) of expenses incurred by such agencies in carrying out such activities; (2) to enter into agreements with public or private scientific institutions, or with private enterprises or individuals, for the carrying out of any activities authorized by this Act, and for the payment from appropriations made pursuant to section 8(a) of all or any portion of the expenses incurred by such institutions, enterprises, or individuals in carrying out such activities; and (3) to make loans, grants, or other cost-sharing arrangements from the fund established under section 7 to public or private scientific institutions. or to business enterprises or individuals, for the purpose of enabling them to carry out activities to further the programs of the Commission. MARINE EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT FUND SEC. 7. There is hereby established on the books of the Treasury a Marine Exploration and Development Fund which shall be available to the Commission for making loans, grants, or other cost-sharing arrangements authorized by section 6(3). The fund shall consist of amounts appropriated thereto pursuant to section 8 together with amounts received as repayments of principal and payments of interest on such loans. In establishing terms for loans, grants, or other cost-sharing arrangements made from such fund, the Commission shall give due weight to the benefits inuring to the Government from the activities carried out with the proceeds of such loans. FINANCING SEC. 8. (a) There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums, not to exceed $50,000,000 for any fiscal year, as may be necessary to enable the Commission to carry out its functions under this Act. (b) In addition to appropriations authorized by subsection (a), there is hereby authorized to be appropriated to the fund established by section 7 of the sum of $100,000,000 to remain available until expended. DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION SEC. 9. The Commission shall make available to other interested Government agencies and, to the extent consistent with national security, to public and private institutions, business enterprises, and individuals any information obtained by the Commission in carrying out its functions under this Act. REPORTS TO CONGRESS SEC. 10. The Commssion shall transmit to the Congress, at the beginning of each regular session of the Congress, an annual report of its activities under this Act, together with such legislative recommendations as it may deem desirable. Hon. HERBERT C. BONNER, U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION, Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives. DEAR MR. BONNER: The Atomic Energy Commission is pleased to comment on H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009, identical bills to provide a program of marine exploration and development of the resources of the Continental Shelf. H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009 (hereinafter referred to as "the bill") would establish a Marine Exploration and Development Commission composed of two members appointed from private life by the President, as well as the Secretaries of the Departments of Defense, Interior, and Commerce. The function of this Commission would be to formulate and carry out programs for purposes of exploration and development of the marine resources of the Continental Shelf and the waters above the Continental Shelf. Among the specifically described programs are those for marine exploration necessary to describe the topography and to identify, locate and economically develop physical, chemical, geological, and biological resources of the Continental Shelf and for fostering participation in marine exploration and economic development by scientific institutions and industry. Marine exploration of the Continental Shelf is one segment of the study of oceanography. As you know, the Atomic Energy Commission was one of the four Federal agencies that first suggested and participated in efforts to coordinate the national program in oceanography. The Federal Council for Science and Technology (FCST) created by Executive Order No. 10807 on March 13, 1959, established the permanent Interagency Committee on Oceanography (ICO) by letter dated March 3, 1960, from George Kistiakowsky, Chairman of the FCST, to the Honorable James H. Wakelin, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research and Development. A primary function of the ICO has been to coordinate the activities of various agencies having an interest in oceanography and related marine sciences. These activities include exploration of the Continental Shelf as well as research involving the physical, chemical, geological, and biological processes of the marine environment. The Commission considers that appropriate efforts for the accumulation of knowledge respecting the Continental Shelf are currently being exerted by those Federal agencies carrying out activities of exploration and research with respect to the Continental Shelf under the coordination of the ICO, and that the institution of a program of economic development of the resources of the Continental Shelf, which would be a primary function of the Marine Exploration and Development Commission under the bill, would be premature at this time. For example, agencies participating in the ICO are currently conducting a program to develop a comprehensive understanding of the distribution, ecology, physiology, behavior, response to environmental changes and interrelationships of marine organisms in order to permit proper planning for the greater use of the sea, including the waters of the Continental Shelf, as a source of food. Intensive commercial development at the present time could adversely affect the satisfactory conduct of this program. In addition, exploration of the Continental Shelf has been under way for a considerable period of time; the results of such efforts will be invaluable when our knowledge is sufficiently developed to permit extensive economic exploitation. At the present time, however, the creation of a new commission to carry out such activities is likely to result in an unnecessary duplication of effort between the Marine Exploration and Development Commission and the ICO and its member agencies; moreover, it could result in a premature commercial exploitation of vital resources and the loss of the opportunity to study and develop such resources systematically to the best advantage of the Nation. The Bureau of the Budget has advised that there is no objection to the presentation of this report from the standpoint of the administration's program. Sincerely yours, JOHN V. VINCIGUERRA (For General Manager). EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, Hon. HERBERT C. BONNER, Washington, D.C., July 27, 1965. Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This is in reply to your letter of March 19, 1965, requesting the views of the Bureau of the Budget on H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009, identical bills to provide a program of marine exploration and development of the resources of the Continental Shelf. The bills would establish a new agency to carry out programs for exploring and developing the marine resources of the Continental Shelf and its overlying waters. The agency would be headed by a Marine Exploration and Development Commission, composed of five members: the Secretaries of Defense, Commerce, and the Interior, and two members appointed from private life. The agency would carry out programs with its own staff, cooperatively with other agencies, and through grants, loans, and cost-sharing arrangements with private organizations. As explained in our letter to your committee of March 11, 1965, on H.R. 921, Federal oceanographic activities are being conducted by a number of agencies in support of their respective basic missions. This is the traditional way in which science has been organized in the Government, with operational requirements guiding the direction and pace of scientific programs. Additionally, there is close interagency coordination through the Federal Council for Science and Technology to assure that an integrated program is developed to meet broad national objectives in oceanograhy. Establishment of the proposed commission would deviate from this organizational pattern. With the creation of the commission, the Department of the Interior would have to look to another agency to develop certain resources for which that Department is now responsible. Such resources would often be the same as those existing in areas other than the Continental Shelf, thereby dividing program responsibility between two agencies on a geographic basis. Creation of the commission would make even more difficult than at present the achievement of balance programs for developing the scarce resources of our country. In addition, establishment of a new agency would |