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Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition 



Committee on Agriculture 



United States House of Representatives 



Response to Supplemental Questions Submitted to 



Don I. Phillips 



Following the Hearing on Agriculture Research Facilities 



June 17, 1993 



1. Why should the federal government be funding agriculture 

 research facilities in the first place? 



The federal government invests in agriculture research to 

 contribute to the missions of the Department of Agriculture 

 and to the nation's economic and social goals. Facilities 

 are a vital component of the nation's agriculture research 

 enterprise. If investigators are the heart of the 

 enterprise, facilities are its backbone. High quality, 

 state of the art research requires high quality, state of 

 the art facilities. 



University agriculture research facilities often contribute 

 to objectives shared by the federal government, state 

 government, industry, and universities themselves. It is 

 appropriate, therefore, that the costs of these facilities 

 be shared by all of the parties of interest. 



I. When facilities need renovation and scientists need more 

 opace, what is the solution? Especially when it all costs more 

 money. 



In recent times the solution has been to not respond to all 

 of these needs. Scientists work in cramped quarters in less 

 than desireable space. To improve these conditions requires 

 money. It should come from all the parties of interest. 

 There are two ways to obtain the needed additional funds — 

 increased appropriations for the agriculture research 

 enterprise and/or reallocation of funds within current 

 appropriations from labor to capital. 



3. Given the recent trend of the National Science Foundation 

 data which you presented, please speculate as to what the future 

 results might be? 



I have not been sufficiently involved in the collection, 

 analysis, and interpretation of the data to feel qualified 

 to respond to this question. 



