47 



And it would go on and on and on until finally I would dive in 

 or one of my brothers would dive in. The person who dived in the 

 water would look back at the dock and see the other kids laughing 

 and having a good time at that person's expense. The person in the 

 water feels hoodwinked. The person feels angry. And most of all, 

 the person feels cold and wet. 



That is how people feel who have tried to exert leadership on the 

 facilities reform problem. They have felt left out and alone swim- 

 ming against the tide. 



I really hope that people work together this time and really 

 achieve reform. I appreciate the subcommittee's dedication to this 

 issue. 



I am pleased to answer any questions and to be available for 

 your staff at any juncture as you work on this serious problem. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



[The prepared statement of Ms. Merrigan appears at the conclu- 

 sion of the hearing.] 



Mr. Stenholm. Thank you. 



Next we will hear from Dr. Huffman. 



STATEMENT OF WALLACE E. HUFFMAN, PROFESSOR, ECO- 

 NOMIC AND AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, IOWA STATE UNI- 

 VERSITY 



Mr. Huffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I am pleased to be here today to present information before your 

 committee. Much of what I will be talking about is the result of a 

 joint project that has been underway with Prof. Robert Evenson at 

 Yale University. He and I undertook a major project starting in 

 1980 for examining the evolution, impacts, and productivity of agri- 

 cultural research in the United States. Our work has most recently 

 been summarized in a book which was just published by Iowa State 

 University Press. 



I want to first indicate a little bit of the nature of some of the 

 findings of our work and then turn more to some implications for 

 priority setting. I will say at the beginning that we did not pri- 

 marily focus on research facilities, more generally focusing on the 

 organization of public and private research in the United States 

 and its impacts. 



As you know, agricultural research in the United States is both 

 a public and private sector activity. We have put together data esti- 

 mating the total amount that is spent by the private sector — the 

 data for the public sector are more accessible. 



During the 1980's, we show that real public agricultural research 

 expenditures increased by roughly 0.4 percent per year on average 

 where private R&D expenditures for agriculture increased by 3.1 

 percent per year, which was much larger. We estimate in 1990 that 

 the private sector was about twice as large as the public sector in 

 terms of its expenditures on agricultural research. 



It is true that the public and private sectors engage in different 

 kinds of activities, and we believe that should continue. The private 

 sector is very much in the business of R&D for profit, and the pub- 

 lic sector is primarily not seeking profit for itself. 



What did we find in the way of social payoffs to agricultural re- 

 search from our work? First, we viewed expenditures on agricul- 



