67 



States. Implementation of closure actions follows Secretarial and Congressional 



approvals and user and cooperator contacts. 



Overview 



With regard to the agricultural research facilities of the States and other 

 institutions that conduct agricultural research. State and other non-Federal 

 resources historically have provided the bulk of fimds to construct such 

 facilities. In many cases the current need exceeds their capacity to respond. 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 reasonable 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 competitive process. In 1992, the 

 National Science Foundation conducted a biennial study on scientific and 

 engineering research facilities at many of the Nation's colleges and universities 

 and reported that compared with other fields of science (social, medical, 

 biological, physical, etc.), the percentage of research space requiring repair or 

 renovation was greatest in the agricultural sciences. Forty-nine percent (49%) 



