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GETTING BEYOND THE BLAME GAME 



Testimony before the Svibcommittee on Department Operations 

 and Nutrition of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee 



Presented by Kathleen Ann Kerrigan, Ph.D. Candidate 



Environmental Policy Group 



Department of Urban Studies and Planning 



Massachusetts Institute of Technology 



Former Staff Member, D.8. Senate Committee 



on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry 



June 17, 1993 



I. INTRODUCTION 



Almost everyone in the business of assessing agricultural 

 research in this country agrees that existing facilities are under- 

 used and run down, that they duplicate activity elsewhere, and that 

 the current process for establishing new projects is seriously 

 flawed. 



Independent reviews by the General Accounting Office (GAO) , 

 Office of Technology Assessment, the National Academy of Sciences, 

 the National Science Foundation, the National Association of State 

 Universities and Land Grant Colleges, the U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture Users Advisory Board, and the U.S. Senate Agriculture 

 Committee all document these and other problems. 



Today, I will contribute more information and analysis to this 

 arsenal of studies that, together, describe a crisis in our 

 research facilities system and demonstrate a real need for reform. 



