BUDGET REQUEST

Mr. Slack. The total request for fiscal year 1977 is $565,377,000, an increase of $51,154,000 over the appropriations for fiscal year 1976. The request is contained in three separate appropriations. It proposes a merger of the "Construction" appropriation with the "Operations, research and facilities" appropriation.

Operations, Research, And Facilities

The first appropriation to which we shall refer is entitled "Operations, research, and facilities," which is found on page 86 of the Committee Print.

We shall insert at this point in the record NOAA-9 through NOAA—174 of the justifications.

[The justification pages referred to follow:]