23 



merits in new or existing facilities fit the goals and programs in the 

 strategic plan. 



Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, the UAB believes that our whole 

 present agricultural research facility system needs an overhaul and 

 that the time to do that is now. It is the UAB's opinion that the 

 Congress should delay any authorization or appropriations of funds 

 for additional facihties until we have in place a strategic national 

 plan and mechanisms, such as the national external peer review 

 panel we have proposed, to evaluate all current and proposed facili- 

 ties. 



Thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning, and I'd be 

 happy to answer any questions you have. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Ifloek appears at the conclusion 

 of the hearing.] 



Mr. Stenholm. Thank you, Dr. Kloek. 



Next, Dr. Ofiutt. 



STATEMENT OF SUSAN E. OFFUTT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

 BOARD ON AGRICULTURE, NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, 

 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Ms. Offutt. Good morning. Thank you very much for inviting 

 me, the executive director of the Board on Agriculture, part of the 

 National Research Council, to be with you this morning. The board 

 and, indeed, the National Research Council are vitally interested in 

 the future of agricultural science and agricultural research and 

 what it does to support the prosperity of this Nation's agriculture 

 and the quality of its environment, as well as the health of its peo- 

 ple. 



In that respect, I'd like to just touch briefly on two areas which 

 are of particular concern to the board and to the National Research 

 Council, which I think are relevant to the issues you're discussing 

 here this morning. In the first instance, I'll talk a little bit about 

 the competitive grants program supported by the board, which has 

 grown into the National Research Initiative, and, in the second, a 

 study the board proposes to undertake which concerns the conduct 

 of teaching, research, and extension in the land-grant colleges of 

 agriculture. 



To begin, the National Research Initiative, which is the competi- 

 tive grants program for peer-reviewed research at the Department 

 of Agriculture, largely grew out of a proposal by the Board on Agri- 

 culture in 1989 that sought a significant expansion in the amount 

 of funding provided to agricultural research through peer-reviewed 

 grants. Over most of the history of the system, since the late 

 1800's, research has been supported by formula grants. Competi- 

 tive grants had not been used in agricultural research to the extent 

 that they had been used in other areas of science. 



The board recommended that there should be six areas of en- 

 deavor that relate to national priorities in agricultural science and 

 research, and they are quite familiar to this committee, which in- 

 cluded the authorization for this program in the 1990 farm bill. Ul- 

 timately, the board, and the farm bill, asked that the program be 

 funded at $500 million annually, and we are hopeful that someday 

 we will reach that goal. But what's important this morning is the 



