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PREPARED STATEMENT OF Don I. Phillips 

 Executive Director, GUIR Roundtable 

 National Academy of Sciences 

 Page 10 



The agencies that fund science seek the advice of 



acknowledged experts as they manage their programs just as 



Congress seeks the advice of experts as it develops policy. 



But ultimately it is the agencies that must decide what 



projects to fund, just as it is Congress that must decide 



what broad programs to establish and what level of funds to 



allocate to those programs. 



These tiers of decision-making allow each body to contribute 

 its unique expertise. Earmarking places all of the 

 responsibility in the hands of Congress and thus asks 

 Congress to make decisions it is ill-equipped to make. 

 Earmarking also subjects members of Congress to unending 

 pressures to confer similar benefits on other institutions 

 and researchers. 



Federal Funding Mechanisms 



I turn now to a review of the mechanisms most often 

 discussed by the Roundtable as possible federal contributions to 

 facility funding. The mechanisms, taken together, can be used to 

 achieve multiple objectives: 



• Sustain and renew the base of research capacity created with 

 previous investments 



• Establish new capacities in growing fields, new 



