NOAA request seeks increased funds for Bush ocean plan

President Bush's fiscal 2008 request for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will allow the agency to continue its core mission even under the strict discretionary spending limits the White House has imposed, its administrator said Thursday.

NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher Jr., said the administration's request of $3.8 billion for his agency is 3.7 percent more than what the president requested for fiscal 2007. But Congress gave the agency $3.9 billion in both fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2006, as well as in the pending fiscal 2007 continuing resolution before the Senate.

Many of his agency's ongoing programs are "crucial to the nation's competitiveness," said Lautenbacher.

Among the highlights of the NOAA budget request are a $123 million increase in funding to support Bush's U.S. Ocean Action Plan, with $60 million of that dedicated to scientific research.

Another $38 million of that total will be used to protect and restore marine and coastal areas such as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, support Klamath River salmon recovery projects and restore nearly 1,000 miles of habitat for endangered Atlantic salmon and other fish species.

Also requested was $8.3 million to support operations of the Okeanos Explorer, NOAA's first dedicated ocean exploration ship, $5.5 million to support operations of a third Orion P-3 aircraft for weather research and $3 million to evaluate the use of unmanned aircraft to collect environmental data. Unmanned planes "go places we cannot go today," said Lautenbacher.

An increase of $25 million was sought to complete the acquisition of additional polar-orbiting weather satellites and install equipment on European satellites to further U.S. research.

To deal with major storms, NOAA's budget request also seeks $3 million to operate and maintain 15 hurricane data buoys in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, $2 million to improve forecasting of hurricane intensities and $1.7 million to deploy additional deep-ocean buoys to support the U.S. Tsunami Warning Program.

Legislatively, Lautenbacher said NOAA's primary goal is to secure the passage of the NOAA Organic Act, a charter for the agency's existence and mission. "We've gone as far as we can go without an Organic Act," he said.

Others include the Hydrologic Service Act, coastal zone management and the administration's proposed legislation to encourage the development of aquaculture, a concern Lautenbacher said is of personal interest to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.