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Answers to Questions Submitted to 

 Kathleen A. Merrigan 



1. What did you envision that a Facilities Review Commission 

 would accomplish? Please refer to both ARS and CSRS facilities. 



I envisioned that the Facilities Review Commission 

 would accomplish three goals. 



First, the Commission would take a look backwards and 

 review every existing federally-owned and USDA-operated 

 research facility, including those of the ARS and the Forest 

 Research Service. This review would also encompass 

 facilities in the process of being constructed, thereby 

 capturing some projects under CSRS. The result of the 

 Commission's review would be a series of location specific 

 recommendations regarding facility closure, consolidation, 

 and reinvestment to be forwarded to the Congress and the 

 Administration for action. 



My personal expectation was that such a review would 

 result in closure recommendations for dozens of facilities. 

 However, I also anticipated that the Commission would find a 

 large number of facilities to be of critical importance but 

 in such serious disrepair as to hamper the production of 

 good research. My view was that the money saved from 

 closing some facilities would be needed to modernize 

 remaining facilities. In other words, I did not anticipate 

 this to be a budget-saving measure, but rather a good 

 science policy measure. 



Second, the Commission would look forward and propose 

 to the Congress and the Administration a better system for 

 the future allocation of research facility funds. Such a 

 system would necessarily apply to both ARS and CSRS. Many 

 of my colleagues at your hearing focused on the desirability 

 of a competitive grants program for facility allocation — 

 this was among the options we hoped such a Commission would 

 consider. 



Third, we anticipated that the Commission would present 

 a politically digestible package of recommendations since 

 such a Commission would be viewed a neutral promoter of good 

 science. 



2. Do you view it to be similar to a base closing commission? 



Yes, very much so. In preparing the initial 

 legislative draft for consideration by the members of the 

 Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and 

 their staffs, I collected the various military base closing 

 commission bills and committee reports so to have a model 

 upon which to base my efforts. 



