Officers Under Siege

NOAA leaders may believe their organization is critical to addressing key ocean issues in the next century, but they and other Clinton administration officials think the agency can live without its 200-year-old corps of uniformed officers who conduct various oceanographic duties.

Currently, 263 officers serve in the little-known NOAA Corps. "We don't need a uniformed service for the kinds of things we do at NOAA," argues agency administrator D. James Baker. "You do have to have knowledgeable people running your ships, doing your program. That's essential." The agency has stopped hiring new officers and has proposed eliminating the corps altogether.

Members of Congress from coastal states beg to differ with the administration's reasoning. Last December, House Resources Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, wrote a letter to Commerce Secretary Richard Daley demanding that he "take immediate action to relieve the hiring freeze on the recruitment of new officers into the NOAA Corps." In a Senate hearing, chaired by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Senators Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, John Kerry, D-Mass., and John Breaux, D-La., also expressed displeasure with the administration's proposal.

Baker says he hopes Congress will approve a buyout plan that will allow the remaining uniformed officers to make the transition to civilian life.