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the aspects of an integrated system, I think, should serve the farm 

 community well. 



Mr. Penny. Part of that system is the Foreign Agricultural Serv- 

 ice. And you cite in your testimony over the past several years, "the 

 Foreign Agricultural Service, the agency that performs USDA's ex- 

 port promotion activities, has faced increasing program responsibil- 

 ities without commensurate increases in budgets or staff." 



I think the fact is that we are not going to see increasing re- 

 sources. So what do you suggest we do? 



Maybe better asked: What are some of the responsibilities we 

 don't need to lay on FAS, and in what ways could we use tech- 

 nology to achieve some of the objectives that we now maybe spend 

 on space and rent and you name it, or what are some of the ways 

 we can target our personnel differently than we are today? 



Mr. Mendelowitz. I think that when we talk about limited re- 

 sources, the most important and valuable resource that FAS has is 

 its people. The greatest restraint that they have in terms of effec- 

 tive operation is the number of hours a week their existing staff 

 can put in. And I think FAS needs to look with a very hard eye 

 at priorities in terms of what needs to be done. And I have high- 

 lighted that. 



But second, not just in terms of what needs to be done, but what 

 needs to be done by Government. There has been an explosion in 

 information available about a whole host of markets. Modern tele- 

 communications and modern reporting on markets has made a lot 

 of information available, and what is happening overall in markets, 

 prices, volumes, things like that. 



The extent to which FAS reporting on production overseas is re- 

 dundant with what the private sector is already doing and is read- 

 ily available, to the extent to which we validated that perception 

 when we talked to operators in different markets, FAS should 

 move away from that kind of broad production reporting. 



In the study we did on how to increase HVP exports in the Pa- 

 cific Rim for Mr. Roberts, one of the things that U.S. exporters told 

 us is they want more specific, detailed information that really helps 

 them get into a market. What are the prospects for their products, 

 how do their products have to be modified to meet local needs. 



And thinking in terms of moving away from general information 

 that is available in the broader market to providing the type of in- 

 formation that is really needed by the export community is the 

 type of change that should take place. 



Mr. Penny. Are there any examples of where we are doing that 

 with our FAS offices? 



Mr. Mendelowitz. Well, FAS did a scrub of its reporting re- 

 quirements, for example, recently, and it reduced some reporting, 

 increased other reporting. But we think that that really was a shift 

 at the margin. I think there is an opportunity 



Mr. Penny. A more dramatic shift in this area. That shift also 

 requires recruitment and placement of a different type of FAS em- 

 ployee, doesn't it? And how can the Department of Agriculture do 

 that? It is not easy to move these people around with all of our civil 

 service requirements. 



Mr. Mendelowitz. I think that given the fact that the number 

 of officers in FAS, as you indicated, are unlikely to increase, the 



