G. Magnuson of Washington. The commission began its work in early 1967, and on 9 January 1969 it issued its final report, entitled Our Nation and the Sea: A Plan For National Action. The Commission determined that "because of the importance of the seas to this Nation and the world, our Federal organization of marine affairs must be put in order," and that fulfilling the U.S. ocean policy declared in the 1966 act and making "full and wise use of the marine environment" required the study of both the ocean and the atmosphere and their interactions with one another. Accordingly, it recommended the creation of an independent "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency" to administer the principal civil marine and atmospheric programs of the United States, and that the new agency be composed of the United States Coast Guard from the United States Department of Transportation; ESSA and its subordinates, the National Weather Service and U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, from the U.S. Department of Commerce; the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and the functions of the Bureau of Sport Fisheres and Wildlife dealing with marine and migratory fishes from the United States Department of the Interior′s United States Fish and Wildlife Service; the National Sea Grant Program from the National Science Foundation; elements of the United States Lake Survey from the United States Department of the Army; and the National Oceanographic Data Center from the United States Department of the Navy. Soon after the Commission published the report, the U.S. Congress began to deliberate action on it, as did the Advisory Council on Executive Organization created by President Richard Nixon in 1969. Among the Advisory Council's proposals for reorganization of the executive branch of the United States Government was one that proposed the replacement of the U.S. Department of the Interior with a new U.S. Department of Natural Resources, and that this new department include a "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration" which combined ESSA with some elements of the Department of the Interior; the Nixon administration considered placing the new Administration within the Department of the Interior as an interim measure pending the creation of a new Department of Natural Resources. Noting that two-thirds of the new Administration would be made up of ESSA personnel and funding, United States Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stans (1908–1998) proposed instead that the new Administration become part of the Department of Commerce, where ESSA already