among the first

to capitalize on public support for the federal services. There has been a good case for years for spinning off this service-really a subsidy to a segment of business--to private meteorology, but the citrus growers have had enough political support to prevent that. Now it may be even harder to change this situation.

And there are others.

An Opportunity

Reagan Administration policies have exposed the basic weakness of NOAA's position. Some individuals feared when NOAA was created in 1970 that a large science-based agency within a business-oriented department inevitably would encounter serious problems. In 1983 those individuals appear to have been remarkably prescient. NOAA responsibilities are numerous but poorly defined. Its critical role as flagship of the nation's effort to understand the natural

environment

has been

overlooked or ignored within the Department of Commerce and the White

House.

The scientific and professional communities have reacted to these events in new ways. Policy issues are now seen by increasing

numbers

as vital, even interesting, and worth fighting about. NOAA's problems also are appreciated more widely by the public than ever before. These new perspectives may provide the opportunity to secure the legislative base which NOAA needs to carry out its role as flagship of the national effort to understand the natural environment. Reports of hearings and workshops held by the House Committee on Science and Technology and NACOA in 1978 and 1979 and the resulting draft NOAA Organic Act provide a good basis for new Congress should define clearly

legislation.

NOAA's mission and should clarify its unique role, viz a viz, other agencies having related missions. It should complete the work begun by the Stratton Commission by establishing NOAA as an independent agency.

References

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy, June, 1981: R and D and the New National Agenda, Colloquium and Proceedings, AAAS, Washington, D.C., 25-26.

Commission on Marine Science, Engineering

Nation and the Sea, U.S.
D.C., 305 pp.

and Resources, 1969: Our Government Printing Office, Washington,

1977:

National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council (NAS-NRC),
The Quality of NOAA's Ocean Research and Development Program An
Evaluation, NAS, Washington, D.C., 144 PP.

NAS-NRC, 1980: The Atmospheric Sciences:

National Objective for

the

1980's, NAS, Washington, D.C., 130 pp.

(NACOA),

National Advisory Commission on the Oceans and the Atmosphere
1979: Reorganizing the Federal Effort in Oceanic and Atmospheric
Affairs, 1, 2, A Special Report to the President and the Congress,
NACOA, Washington, D.C., 319 pp.

NACOA, 1981: A Review of Atmospheric
NACOA, Washington, D.C., 25+ pp.

Science Research

Facilities,

NACOA, 1982:

Services,

The Future of the Nation's Weather
Report to the President and the Congress, U.S.
Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 72 pp.