WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2001. NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION WITNESS SCOTT B. GUDES, ACTING UNDER SECRETARY AND ADMINISTRATOR Mr. WOLF. Welcome to the committee. And I have an opening statement which we will just submit for the record in the interest of time. We left off with the hearing on your budget, and as I recall, when Secretary Evans testified, it was 63 percent of the Department of Commerce budget. So we are anxious to hear from you. With that, I will just submit my statement, and I recognize Mr. Serrano. Mr. SERRANO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to welcome you, sir. And I can say there is no secret that I am a big fan of NOAA and the work you do and, I hope, the work you will do in the future, so I am eager to hear your testimony to see which way we can help. I must note that staff tells me that while you submitted 55 pages of testimony, you submitted detailed budget information pretty late, so you give friends like me a hard time trying to help you. Keep that in mind, because I am not going to read some 55 pages, but I will look at some numbers. Mr. WOLF. I will just state, for the record, I read the 55 pages. Mr. SERRANO. I read it too this time. Mr. WOLF. I know. Mr. SERRANO. I will give them a choice. Mr. GUDES. I have a short version, 5 minutes. Mr. WOLF. No. Whatever-it is important; you should take whatever time you feel-I don't think you should read the entire 55 pages, but I think you should, you know, take as much time as you feel comfortable with, and then the full statement will appear in the record. Mr. GUDES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I tried to cut it down pretty significantly last night, so I will run through it. I had provided some slides to the committee. I think I will probably do them a little out of order because I tried to cut them down. Mr. Chairman, Congressman Seranno, Congressman Cramer, members of the committee, on behalf of my boss, Don Evans, the Secretary of Commerce, and 12,500 men and women that we have working around the country, I want to thank you for this opportunity to come talk about the fiscal year 2002 budget for your National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, as we say. [The information follows:] |