17 



To address some of their more immediate infrastructural needs, 

 many institutions have resorted to individual funding initiatives 

 with Congress. Although most of these requests have provided rea- 

 sonable investments for individual institutions, such a process does 

 not adequately address the Nation's overall need for modernized 

 and expanded research infrastructure, nor does it systematically 

 take into account national research priorities. The administration 

 would prefer to see these funds awarded through a national com- 

 petitive process. 



In 1992, the National Science Foundation conducted a biennial 

 study on scientific and engineering research facilities in many of 

 the Nation's colleges and universities and reported that compared 

 with other fields of science — social, medical, biological, physical, et 

 cetera — ^the percentage of research space requiring repair or ren- 

 ovation was greatest in the agricultural sciences. 



The current CSRS program operates in the following ways. Since 

 1986, CSRS has administered a facilities grants program from 

 funds appropriated for buildings and facilities. Shortly after publi- 

 cation of the conference report of the agriculturgd appropriations 

 bill, CSRS contacts each institution for which a new facility project 

 has been designated and requests that it submit baseline informa- 

 tion about the project. After review, CSRS appoints a team of ex- 

 pert scientists and administrators to conduct an on-site merit eval- 

 uation of the project. 



At the conclusion of the evaluation, the team develops a report 

 that sets forth its findings, conclusions, and recommendations. The 

 purpose of this report is to critically evaluate the research program 

 in relation to national needs of agricultural science, the design of 

 the proposed facility, and its fit with the mission of the U.S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture. The report is also subjected to a rigorous 

 internal merit review. 



The report then is submitted to the House and Senate Appropria- 

 tions Committee. Once a project is identified for funding by the Ap- 

 propriations Conference Committee, CSRS requests a fully devel- 

 oped proposal from the institution that is to receive Federal sup- 

 port. This is critically reviewed from a technical standpoint. 



Also, in accordance with conference report language, all grant re- 

 cipients under this program are required to provide 50 percent in 

 matching funds. It is estimated that, if the Federal Government 

 provides 50 percent of the funds, that between $265 million and 

 $390 million would be needed to complete the projects already in 

 the pipeline in various stages of construction. 



In the last 3 years, an average of 16 additional projects per year 

 have been initiated, totaling 48 newly initiated projects without 

 finishing up those previously initiated projects. Although this was 

 brought out before, I guess it doesn't hurt to emphasize it again. 

 Based upon the number of facilities in the current program and 

 also what would be expected as an inflationary factor, it is going 

 to take about a decade before these projects are finished that are 

 already in process. 



Another major concern of the current program is the increasing 

 tendency for medical schools or medical programs to vie for fund- 

 ing, thus foreclosing on the opportunity to provide needed infra- 



