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Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House Transmitting Report "Research and Development on Natural Resources."

June 22, 1963

[ Released June 22, 1963. Dated June 21, 1963 ]

Dear Mr._______________:

I am pleased to transmit herewith a report on natural resources research in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. This report was prepared by the Federal Council for Science and Technology with the assistance of its Committee on Natural Resources. Nearly 100 representatives from a score of Federal agencies participated in the preparation of the report.

This study on natural resources is directly related to the study of coordinated water resources research which was also prepared by the Federal Council and transmitted to you on February 18, 1963. As indicated in my Special Messages to the Congress on Natural Resources and Conservation in 1961 and 1962, the comprehensive review of which these studies are a part is being undertaken at my direction to strengthen and unify the total governmental research in the natural resources field.

The current study provides the first comprehensive inventory of existing natural resources research programs in the Executive Branch and indicates numerous opportunities for new research that would aid in assuring adequate supplies of raw materials, conservation of resources and preservation of a healthful and pleasing environment. In preparing it, the Federal Council took into consideration the recent report and recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences, made at my request, to evaluate the opportunities for science to contribute to conservation, development and use of natural resources.

In transmitting the report to me, Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner, Chairman of the Federal Council for Science and Technology, has pointed out that this inventory of activities on natural resources research should help prevent inadvertent duplication of effort and overlap of functions, and should indicate opportunities for mutually supporting activities in the future. It is an essential step in Government-wide planning.

The importance of coordination is implicit in the size of the Federal expenditure for resources research and development as assessed in the report. Budget requests for this purpose for fiscal year 1964 total $1.5 billion, of which more than $1 billion is for energy related research.

The Federal Council for Science and Technology will continue to provide policy level oversight and coordination in scientific and technical programs devoted to natural resources.

Sincerely yours,

JOHN F. KENNEDY

Note: This is the text of identical letters addressed to the Honorable Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the Senate, and to the Honorable John W. McCormack, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The 172-page report, dated May 1963, was released together with a White House summary. For letter of February 18, 1963, transmitting the Council's earlier report on water resources, see Item 70.

John F. Kennedy, Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House Transmitting Report "Research and Development on Natural Resources." Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236734

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