§ 311. — Omitted.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 15USC311]
TITLE 15--COMMERCE AND TRADE
CHAPTER 9--NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
Sec. 311. Omitted
Codification
Section, act Oct. 1, 1890, ch. 1266, Sec. 1, 26 Stat. 653, as
amended, relating to the establishment of a Weather Bureau in the
Department of Commerce, was omitted because the Weather Bureau was
consolidated with the Coast and Geodetic Survey to form a new agency in
the Department to be known as the Environmental Science Services
Administration, and the office of Chief of the Weather Bureau was
abolished, by Reorg. Plan No. 2 of 1965, eff. July 13, 1965, 30 F.R.
8819, 79 Stat. 1318, set out as a note below. The Reorg. Plan also
transferred to the Secretary of Commerce all functions of the Bureau and
the Chief of the Bureau.
Reorg. Plan No. 4 of 1970, eff. Oct. 3, 1970, 35 F.R. 15627, 84
Stat. 2090, set out as a note under section 1511 of this title,
abolished the Environmental Science Services Administration, including
the offices of Administrator and Deputy Administrator, and established
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the
Department of Commerce. By Department Organization Order 25-5A,
republished 39 F.R. 27486, July 29, 1974, the Secretary of Commerce
delegated to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a
number of functions vested in him, including his functions under this
chapter of the Code. By order of the Acting Associate Administrator, 35
F.R. 19249, Dec. 19, 1970, the following organizational names appearing
in chapter IX of subtitle B of Title 15, Code of Federal Regulations,
relating to the Administration, were changed: Environmental Science
Services Administration to National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (ESSA to NOAA); Coast and Geodetic Survey to National
Ocean Survey, and Weather Bureau to National Weather Service.
Prior to Oct. 1, 1890, the functions of the Weather Bureau were
exercised by the Signal Corps of the Army. Act October 1, 1890, created
the present Bureau in the Department of Agriculture. By Reorg. Plan No.
IV of 1940, Sec. 8, eff. June 30, 1940, 5 F.R. 2421, 54 Stat. 1236, the
Bureau and its functions were transferred to the Department of Commerce,
``Provided, That the Department of Agriculture may continue to make snow
surveys and to conduct research concerning: (a) relationships between
weather and crops, (b) long-range weather forecasting, and (c)
relationships between weather and soil erosion.''
Short Title of 2002 Amendment
Pub. L. 107-253, Sec. 1, Oct. 29, 2002, 116 Stat. 1731, provided
that: ``This Act [enacting section 313c of this title and provisions set
out as notes under section 313c of this title] may be cited as the
`Inland Flood Forecasting and Warning System Act of 2002'.''
Weather Modification Program
Act Aug. 13, 1953, ch. 426, 67 Stat. 559, as amended by act July 9,
1956, ch. 522, 70 Stat. 509, related to research and experimentation in
the field of weather modification and created the Advisory Committee on
Weather Control. Pub. L. 85-170, ch. II, Sec. 201, Aug. 28, 1957, 71
Stat. 427, provided in part that the Advisory Committee on Weather
Control shall complete its report and terminate its activities by Dec.
31, 1957.
REORGANIZATION PLAN NO. 2 OF 1965
Eff. July 13, 1965, 30 F.R. 8819, 79 Stat. 1318, as amended Pub.
L. 90-83, Sec. 10(c), Sept. 11, 1967, 81 Stat. 224
Prepared by the President and transmitted to the Senate and the House of
Representatives in Congress assembled, May 13, 1965, pursuant to the
provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949, 63 Stat. 203, as
amended [see 5 U.S.C. 901 et seq.].
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF
COMMERCE
Section 1. Transfer of Functions
All functions vested by law in the Weather Bureau, the Chief of the
Weather Bureau, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Director of the Coast
and Geodetic Survey, and any officer, employee, or organizational entity
of that Bureau or Survey, and not heretofore transferred to the
Secretary of Commerce, hereinafter referred to as the Secretary, are
hereby transferred to the Secretary.
Sec. 2. Abolitions
(a) The offices of Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Deputy
Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Chief of the Weather
Bureau are hereby abolished. The Secretary shall make such provisions as
he shall deem to be necessary respecting the winding up of any
outstanding affairs of the officers whose offices are abolished by the
provisions of this section.
(b) The abolitions effected by the provision of subsection (a) of
this section shall exclude the abolition of rights to which the present
incumbents of the abolished offices would be entitled under law upon the
termination of their appointments.
Sec. 3. Environmental Science Services Administration
(a) The Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Weather Bureau are hereby
consolidated to form a new agency in the Department of Commerce which
shall be known as the Environmental Science Services Administration,
hereinafter referred to as the Administration.
(b) The Secretary shall from time to time establish such constituent
organizational entities of the Administration, with such names, as he
shall determine.
Sec. 4. Officers of the Administration
(a) There shall be at the head of the Administration the
Administrator of the Environmental Science Services Administration,
hereinafter referred to as the Administrator. The Administrator shall be
appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate. He shall perform such functions as the Secretary may from time
to time direct.
(b)(1) There shall be in the Administration a Deputy Administrator
of the Environmental Science Services Administration, hereinafter
referred to as the Deputy Administrator, who shall be appointed by the
President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall
perform such functions as the Secretary may from time to time direct,
and, unless he is compensated in pursuance of the provisions of
paragraph (2), below, shall receive compensation in accordance with the
Classification Act of 1949, as amended [chapter 51 and subchapter III of
chapter 53 of Title 5].
(2) The office of Deputy Administrator may be filled at the
discretion of the President by appointment (by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate) from the active list of commissioned officers of
the Administration in which case the appointment shall create a vacancy
on the active list and while holding the office of Deputy Administrator
the officer shall have rank, pay and allowances not exceeding those of a
Vice Admiral.
(c) The Deputy Administrator or such other official of the
Department of Commerce as the Secretary shall from time to time
designate shall act as Administrator during the absence or disability of
the Administrator or in the event of a vacancy in the office of
Administrator.
(d) At any one time, one principal constituent organizational entity
of the Administration may, if the Secretary so elects, be headed by a
commissioned officer of the Administration, who shall be designated by
the Secretary. Such designation of an officer shall create a vacancy on
the active list and while serving under this paragraph the officer shall
have rank, pay and allowances not exceeding those of a Rear Admiral
(upper half).
(e) Any commissioned officer of the Administration who has served as
Deputy Administrator or has served in a rank above that of Captain as
the head of a principal constituent organizational entity of the
Administration, and is retired while so serving or is retired after the
completion of such service while serving in a lower rank or grade, shall
be retired with the rank, pay and allowances authorized by law for the
highest grade and rank held by him; but any such officer, upon
termination of his appointment in a rank above that of Captain shall,
unless appointed or assigned to some other position for which a higher
rank or grade is provided, revert to the grade and number he would have
occupied had he not served in a rank above that of Captain and such
officer shall be an extra number in that grade. [As amended Pub. L. 90-
83 Sec. 10(c), Sept. 11, 1967, 81 Stat. 224.]
Sec. 5. Authority of the Secretary
Nothing in this reorganization plan shall divest the Secretary of
any function vested in him by law or by Reorganization Plan No. 5 of
1950 (64 Stat. 1263) or in any manner derogate from any authority of the
Secretary thereunder.
Sec. 6. Personnel, Property, Records and Funds
(a) The personnel (including commissioned officers) employed in the
Coast and Geodetic Survey, the personnel employed in the Weather Bureau,
and the property and records held or used by the Weather Bureau or the
Coast and Geodetic Survey shall be deemed to be transferred to the
Administration.
(b) Unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, and other
funds available or to be made available in connection with functions now
administered by the Weather Bureau or by the Coast and Geodetic Survey
shall be available to the Administration hereunder in connection with
those functions.
(c) Such further measures and dispositions as the Director of the
Bureau of the Budget shall deem to be necessary in order to effectuate
the foregoing provisions of this section shall be carried out in such
manner as he shall direct and by such agencies as he shall designate.
Sec. 7. Interim Officers
(a) The President may authorize any person who immediately prior to
the effective date of this reorganization plan held a position in the
executive branch of the Government to act as Administrator until the
office of Administrator is for the first time filled pursuant to the
provision of this reorganization plan or by recess appointment, as the
case may be.
(b) The President may similarly authorize any such person to act as
Deputy Administrator.
(c) The President may authorize any person who serves in an acting
capacity under the foregoing provisions of this section to receive the
compensation attached to the office in respect to which he so serves.
Such compensation, if authorized, shall be in lieu of, but not in
addition to, other compensation from the United States to which such
person may be entitled.
Message of the President
To the Congress of the United States:
I transmit herewith Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1965, prepared in
accordance with the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949, as
amended, and providing for the reorganization of two major agencies of
the Department of Commerce: The Weather Bureau and the Coast and
Geodetic Survey.
The reorganization plan consolidates the Coast and Geodetic Survey
and the Weather Bureau to form a new agency in the Department of
Commerce to be known as the Environmental Science Services
Administration. It is the intention of the Secretary of Commerce to
transfer the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory of the National Bureau
of Standards to the Administration when the reorganization plan takes
effect. The new Administration will then provide a single national focus
for our efforts to describe, understand, and predict the state of the
oceans, the state of the lower and upper atmosphere, and the size and
shape of the earth.
Establishment of the Administration will mark a significant step
forward in the continual search by the Federal Government for better
ways to meet the needs of the Nation for environmental science services.
The organizational improvements made possible by the reorganization plan
will enhance our ability to develop an adequate warning system for the
severe hazards of nature--for hurricanes, tornadoes, floods,
earthquakes, and seismic sea waves, which have proved so disastrous to
the Nation in recent years. These improvements will permit us to provide
better environmental information to vital segments of the Nation's
economy--to agriculture, transportation, communications, and industry,
which continually require information about the physical environment.
They will mean better services to other Federal departments and
agencies--to those that are concerned with the national defense, the
exploration of outer space, the management of our mineral and water
resources, the protection of the public health against environmental
pollution, and the preservation of our wilderness and recreation areas.
The new Administration will bring together a number of allied
scientific disciplines that are concerned with the physical environment.
This integration will better enable us to look at man's physical
environment as a scientific whole and to seek to understand the
interactions among air, sea, and earth and between the upper and lower
atmosphere. It will facilitate the development of programs dealing with
the physical environment and will permit better management of these
programs. It will enhance our capability to identify and solve important
long-range scientific and technological problems associated with the
physical environment. The new Administration will, in consequence,
promote a fresh sense of scientific dedication, discovery, and
challenge, which are essential if we are to attract scientists and
engineers of creativity and talent to Federal employment in this field.
The reorganization plan provides for an Administrator at the head of
the Administration, and for a Deputy Administrator, each of whom will be
appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate. As authorized by the civil service and other laws and
regulations, subordinate officers of the Administration will be
appointed by the Secretary of Commerce or be assigned by him from among
a corps of commissioned officers. The Administration will perform such
functions as the Secretary of Commerce may delegate or otherwise assign
to it and will be under his direction and control.
Commissioned officers of the Coast and Geodetic Survey will become
commissioned officers of the Administration and may serve at the
discretion of the Secretary of Commerce throughout the Administration.
The reorganization plan authorizes the President at his discretion to
fill the Office of Deputy Administrator by appointment, by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, from the active list of commissioned
officers of the Administration.
The reorganization plan transmitted herewith abolishes--and thus
excludes from the consolidation mentioned above--the offices of (1)
Chief of the Weather Bureau, provided for in the act of October 1, 1890
(15 U.S.C. 312); (2) Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, provided
for in the acts of June 4, 1920, and February 16, 1929, as amended (33
U.S.C. 852, 852a); and (3) Deputy Director of the Coast and Geodetic
Survey, provided for in the act of January 19, 1942, as amended (33
U.S.C. 852b).
After investigation, I have found and hereby declare that each
reorganization included in Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1965 is
necessary to accomplish one or more of the purposes set forth in section
2(a) of the Reorganization Act of 1949, as amended. I have also found
and hereby declare that by reason of the reorganizations made by the
reorganization plan, it is necessary to include in the plan provisions
for the appointment and compensation of the officers of the
Administration set forth in section 4 of the reorganization plan. The
rate of compensation fixed for each of these officers is that which I
have found to prevail in respect of comparable officers in the executive
branch of the Government.
In addition to permitting more effective management within the
Department of Commerce, the new organization will ultimately produce
economies. These economies will be of two types. The first, and probably
the most significant, is the savings and avoidance of costs which will
result from the sharing of complex and expensive facilities such as
satellites, computers, communication systems, aircraft, and ships. These
economies will increase in significance as developments in science and
technology bring into being still more advanced equipment. Second,
integration of the existing headquarters and field organizations will
permit more efficient utilization of existing administrative staffs and
thereby produce future economies. It is, however, impracticable to
specify or itemize at this time the reductions of expenditures which it
is probable will be brought about by the taking effect of the
reorganizations included in the reorganization plan.
I recommend that the Congress allow the accompanying reorganization
plan to become effective.
Lyndon B. Johnson.
The White House, May 13, 1965.
