NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION, Hon. HERBERT C. BONNER, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR, Washington, D.C., July 29, 1965. Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This is in further reply to your letter of March 19, 1965, requesting the comments of the National Science Foundation on H.R. 5884 and an identical bill, H.R. 6009, to provide a program of marine exploration and development of the resources of the Continental Shelf. The bills in question would establish a Marine Exploration and Development Commission, consisting of two members appointed from private life, one of whom would be Chairman, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Commerce. It would be the responsibility of the Commission to formulate and carry out programs for exploration and development of the marine resources of the Continental Shelf and waters above the Continental Shelf. Such programs would include, among others, marine exploration, expeditions and surveys, and the making of grants, loans, or costsharing arrangements for marine exploration, and economic development activities by scientific institutions and industry. We consider the aims of these bills highly worthwhile. In our view, however, the problems involved in the exploration and development of the Continental Shelf are still largely undefined. Information is not yet available regarding the kinds of programs that should be undertaken or the amounts of money which might be necessary to carry out such activities. We believe that the administrative mechanism for carrying out such activities should be considered in the light of the programs to be conducted. In this connection, the President's Science Advisory Committee has established a Panel on Oceanography, which will be considering recommendations regarding national policies with respect to oceanography, including matters such as those with which these bills are concerned. In view of the above considerations, we recommend against enactment of H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009. The Bureau of the Budget has advised us it has no objection to the submission of this report from the standpoint of the administration's program. Sincerely yours, BOWEN C. DEES, Acting Director. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE President, Hon. HERBERT C. BONNER, Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, DEAR MR. BONNER: This is in response to your request for comments on H.R. 5884 and H. R. 6009, identical bills to provide a program of marine exploration and development of the Continental Shelf. The recent acquisition by the United States of sovereign rights to the natural resources of the Continental Shelf offers economic oppor tunities which may add substantially to the wealth of this country. As the bills point out, efforts to exploit this source of wealth are called for. Nevertheless, in my opinion, it would be premature for several reasons to enact H.R. 5884 or H.R. 6009. At this time, the extent to which industry is prepared to invest private funds in the extraction of wealth from the Continental Shelf is not clear. For this reason, it is not clear that the provision of funds to industry, as provided by the bills, is the necessary or proper direction of Federal activity. The primary need may well be for guidance and consultation at this stage and further clarification of the legal status of resource exploitation. Furthermore, I have some reservations with respect to the proposed administrative provisions. The addition of councils, commissions, boards, committees, and similar groups reporting directly to the President is generating a situation which tends to make an existing difficult situation almost impossible. For this reason, if any of the functions proposed in the bills are established in law, serious consideration should be given to placing them under the general jurisdiction of an existing major agency or department. My reservations with respect to the bills relate not to the significance of the subject with which they deal, but rather with the wisdom of enacting a law which would establish functions and allocate responsibilities and funds when it is not clear that the approach taken in the bills is the one which would be adopted if all of the alternatives had been thoroughly explored. At this time, I think that a thorough and detailed review of the enormous potentialities of the Continental Shelf, and of priorities among surveys, research, and development of tools and instruments in the context of the entire set of problems, needs, and opportunities should take precedence over the enactment at this time of a statute of the kind proposed in H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009. Sincerely yours, DONALD F. HORNIG, Director. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Hon. HERBERT C. BONNER, Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Your letter of March 19, 1965, requested the Department's comments on H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009, bills to provide a program of marine exploration and development of the resources of the Continental Shelf. The following comments and suggestions are made for your consideration. The Department would interpose no objection to the enactment of the bills from the standpoint of foreign relations. In fact, the Department believes that the bills might prove most useful in the development of oceanic capability and use which would not only provide a source of raw material for our economy, as the bills contemplate, but forestall domination of the ocean by forces inimical to our welfare. The following specific comments would apply if the Congress decides to take action on the bills. The Department questions the relationship between the proposed Commission and the rest of the American oceanographic community, particularly that within the U.S. Government. The functions of the Commission, as given in section 5, overlap to a greater or lesser extent with several existing agencies. While the Department is not in a position to question whether it might be worthwhile having these functions, as they apply to the Continental Shelf, performed by a single body, the Department does believe that coordination of the oceanic activities of the various agencies is important. The Department notes that several other bills are now pending before the Congress on this subject, such as H.R. 6457, H.R. 5654, and S. 944 to establish a National Oceanographic Council to coordinate U.S. activities in oceanography. It might be useful in H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009 to establish the relationship between the proposed Commission and the proposed Council if it should be created. Better yet, it might be useful to combine the two proposals, and especially to combine the proposed Commission and the proposed Council. It is suggested that the first paragraph of section 2 of the bill be redrafted to read somewhat as follows: "SEC. 2. The Congress finds and declares that "The Convention on the Continental Shelf adopted at the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea at Geneva in 1958 provides that the coastal State exercises over the Continental Shelf sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources. This Convention which has been ratified by the United States entered into force on June 10, 1964. Pursuant to the rights of the United States under the Convention the responsibility is assumed for providing an accelerated program of exploration and development of the physical, chemical, geographical and biological resources of the Continental Shelf." Section 3 of the bill defines the term "Continental Shelf" in a way different from the way the term is defined in the Convention on the Continental Shelf referred to above. Since the rights of the United States derive from the convention, it is our view that any implementing or supporting legislation should conform substantially to the convention. As defined in the convention the term "Continental Shelf" includes only areas "outside the area of the territorial sea" where the specified depth or exploitability criteria exist. The term as defined in the bill does not exclude the area of the territorial sea but, on the contrary, would include the territorial sea at least where the depth and exploitability factors are present. The territorial sea including its seabed and subsoil, as well as the superjacent airspace, is a part of the sovereign territory of the coastal State and rests on different principles of law than those applicable to the Continental Shelf. In the case of the shelf the sovereign rights of the coastal State are confined to the subsoil and seabed, the superjacent waters remaining high seas in which the customary freedom of the seas exists. The superjacent airspace also remains free. Finally, not only is the definition of "Continental Shelf" in the bill inconsistent with the definition in the Convention on the Continental Shelf but also with existing U.S. legislation, i.e., the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (Public Law 212, 83d Cong.; 67 Stat. 462). If, as the Department believes, the provisions of the bill should be extended to the territorial sea, it is suggested that this be done by specific mention of the territorial sea and that the definition of the term "Continental Shelf" conform to the definition in article 1 of the Convention on the Continental Shelf. However, in this connection, it is suggested that consideration be given to the question whether the inclusion of the territorial sea in the coverage of the proposed legislation would be consistent with the rights of the States under the Submerged Lands Act (Public Law 31, 83d Cong.; 67 Stat. 29), and maybe other laws also. Section 5(3) of the bill provides as one of the functions of the Commission to be set up by the proposed legislation the development of an engineering capability that will permit exploitation and development of the Continental Shelf "and superjacent waters." As pointed out above, the waters superjacent to the Continental Shelf are high seas and while the provision in question is not necessarily inconsistent with that situation, nevertheless, it should be clear that the rights of the coastal State in such waters are not exclusive. The Bureau of the Budget advises that from the standpoint of the administration's program there is no objection to the submission of this report. Sincerely yours, DOUGLAS MACARTHUR II, Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations. Hon. HERBERT C. BONNER, GENERAL COUNSEL OF THE TREASURY, Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This is in reply to your request for the views of this Department 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. This bill would create a Marine Exploration and Development Commission composed of five members, two members from private life appointed by the President, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Commerce. This Commission would be charged with the function of formulating and carrying out programs for the purpose of exploration and development of the marine resources of the Continental Shelf. These programs would include, but not be limited to, such matters as marine explorations, expeditions and surveys; the identification, location and economical devolpment of physical, chemical, geological, and biological resources of the Continental Shelf; and cooperative expeditions for these purposes with other Federal agencies. The Department is in favor of the purpose of the bill which is to advance the national interest in the exploration and development of the resources of the Continental Shelf. However, it is believed that the functions of the proposed Commission would overlap the duties. and responsibilities currently vested in other offices and agencies with respect to oceanography. The field of oceanography cannot be defined in clear-cut terms of reference. It covers basic disciplines of science and engineering and contains within its spectrum such things as marine biology, geology, physics, chemistry, fisheries, and ocean forecasting. From this partial listing, it can be seen that functions of the proposed Commission would include many of the phases of oceanography currently within the scope of the Interagency Committee on Oceanography formed by the Federal Council for Science and Technology. 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 agency, as outlined in the proposed bill, will not achieve that result in as desirable a manner. Accordingly, the Treasury Department opposes the enactment of H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009. 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. 6457, 89th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To provide for a comprehensive, long-range, and coordinated national program in oceanography, and for other purposes 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 "National Oceanographic Act of 1965". SEC. 2. The oceanographic and marine activities of the United States should be conducted so as to contribute to the following objectives: (1) The exploitation of the oceans, in terms of recovery of living and mineral resources, safer waste disposal, improved recreation, expanded commerce, and extended weather prediction. (2) The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in and related to the oceans, the marine environment, and the Great Lakes, their boundaries and contents. (3) The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in oceanographic and marine science and technology. (4) The enhancement of the culture, general welfare, and security of the United States. (5) The advancement of education and training in marine science and technology. (6) The development and improvement of the capabilities, performance, and efficiency of vehicles, equipment, and instruments for use in exploration, research, surveys, the recovery of resources, and the transmission of energy in the marine environment. (7) The coordination of activities of the various agencies concerned with the marine sciences, and the collection, storing, and distribution of significant data acquired as a result of these activities. (8) The establishment of long-range studies of the potential benefits to the United States economy, security, culture, health, and welfare to be gained from the opportunities for, and the problems involved in, utilization of scientific marine and Great Lakes research and surveys. (9) The effective utilization of the scientific and engineering resources of the United States, with close cooperation among all interested agencies of the United States, in order to avoid unnecessary duplictaion of effort, facilities and equipment, or waste. |