weapons laboratories, and NASA is doing a good job at beginning to develop 

 a national facility plan. 



Mr. Chairman, in terms of a conclusion, if I could just quickly summarize 

 by saying that most of the eight agencies' laboratory facilities that we exam- 

 ined, quite frankly, are over 30 years old. They're requiring increasing mainte- 

 nance and funding needs. In FY 1992, six of these eight agencies did not 

 spend minimum guidelines for trying to fund routine maintenance and repair. 

 And many agencies currently have billions of dollars in the backlog of needed 

 repairs. 



There is evidence that inadequate facilities are in fact limiting research ca- 

 pabilities. Substantial funding would be needed to provide the proposed new 

 laboratory facilities. 



We give credit in the fact that in recent years, DOD, DOE, NASA and 

 USDA have initiated task forces to re-examine their R&d) missions and/or to 

 improve effectiveness and efficiency at their laboratory facilities. 



Such task-force efforts are providing the basis for determining whether to 

 realign or to consolidate laboratories and whether to increase funding for 

 those laboratory facilities considered essential for fulfilling agencies' R6dD mis- 

 sions. 



We believe that the Federal Government must in fact begin to make strate- 

 gic management decisions. We think it's good that the agencies are reassessing 

 their R&D missions and that this type of effort is critical before spending large 

 sums of money, perhaps, on old and often outdated structures. 



Mr. Chairman, this concludes my summary statement. I'd be happy to re- 

 spond at the end of the panel discussion to any questions you may have. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Wells, along with the GAO report, starts 

 on pp. 26 and 30, respectively, of Submissions for the Record:] 



Senator Sarbanes. Thank you very much, Mr. Wells. We very much appre- 

 ciate this fine report by the GAO on this problem. It's a very important con- 

 tribution to considering this significant issue. 



Dr. Murrell, we'd be happy to hear from you, sir. 



STATEMENT OF K. DARWIN MURRELL, DIRECTOR, 



BELTSVILLE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTER, 



AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE, USDA 



Dr. Murrell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I think that both you and Mr. Wells have made really the most important 

 points. So I would like to just highlight my testimony, particularly those as- 

 pects that I think underscore and support the major points that you've made. 



I am privileged to be the director of one of the premier research centers in 

 the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 



The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has a long and distinguished 

 hjstory of agricultural research and development and is regarded as the largest 

 agricultural research center in the world. 



Currently, the Center has a staff of 350 permanent scientists and about 100 

 postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists from all over the world, and about 

 1,200 support personnel. 



We also host 18 other federal and state agencies which occupy some of our 

 offices and laboratories and utilize the research plots on our 7,000 acres. 



