24 



Mrs. Clayton. I understand. 



Mr. Carlson. Every panel is approved by myself, the chief sci- 

 entist, and Dr. Jordan, the number of minorities are listed. That 

 is, there are so many minorities. But we do not identify them as 

 such. That is what I was referring to. 



Mrs, Clayton. On your list of criteria that you have on page 3, 

 you have one of the bullets, "The priority of the program to the 

 mission of the agency." 



Am I to assume by that the agency has set forth priority re- 

 search goals that they want to achieve before they match up with 

 institutions? 



Mr. Carlson. I will ask my colleague. Dr. Finney, to respond to 

 that. 



Mr. Finney. In this case, it is the Agricultural Research Service. 

 The testimony in that case addresses the in-house research agency 

 where there are all Federal scientists working on problems that are 

 regional and national concerns. And there is a 6-year plan that we 

 have which lays out the priorities and the societal concerns that 

 that research should address. 



So the decisions, then, on allocating fimds for construction, main- 

 tenance, and repairs would relate to those priority needs. 



Mrs. Clayton. So if the institution came to you — or made a re- 

 quest for a facility — and their priority goals were not consistent 

 with your 6-year plan, the eligibility threshold couldn't be made? 



Mr. Finney. If an institution came to the Department? 



Mrs. Clayton. Right. 



Mr. Finney. Let me see if I can clarify something, if I may. 



Mrs. Clayton. All right. 



Mr. Finney. The Agricultural Research Service, as I indicated, is 

 the in-house agency of the Department where Federal employees 

 generally working in Federal laboratories are addressing priority 

 needs of the Department and society. 



Mrs. Clayton. They are doing research themselves? 



Mr. Finney. Yes. 



Mrs. Clayton. That is the research of the 



Mr. Finney. Of the Secretary. CSRS would normally be the agen- 

 cy, if a university were looking to get Federal support to build a 

 new facility. They would not go to the Agricultural Research Serv- 

 ice. They would go to the CSRS. 



Mrs. Clayton. So my question should be, would they look to 

 you? 



Mr. Carlson. Would you redirect the question? 



Mrs. Clayton. If an institution came to your commission and did 

 not have a research goal consistent with the agency's in-house re- 

 search component, would it not make the threshold? 



If I am a university and I come to you with a research project 

 concerning nutrition, but it is not consistent with the in-house mis- 

 sion statement of your agency 



Mr. Carlson. We are talking about the mission statement? 



Mrs. Clayton. Yes. 



Mr. Carlson. We would point out the fact that this did or did 

 not fit the mission statement. When that is getting into a medical 

 area and nutrition, there is a fine line between the nutrient re- 

 quirements, which is agriculture, and the disease-related nutrition. 



