39 



Now, that hasn't necessarily worked bad. I'm not necessarily 

 criticizing it, but I want you to think about it when you criticize 

 other things just because they don't have peer review. 



Mr. Savage. If I can address your question, sir, first of all, in 

 terms of who gets what, in terms of earmarked fiinds, for fiscal 

 year 1992 there are about $146 million. Ten schools received one- 

 half of those funds. 



In terms of whether ARS peer reviews, as I indicated to the 

 chairman, there are many executive programs. Just because it's in 

 the Federal budget proposal by the President does not mean it's 

 been peer reviewed. I think that the question of competitiveness 

 and merit review should be extended to all Federal programs. That 

 would be my position. So if you're critical of ARS because they're 

 not merit reviewed, then I think your criticism 



Mr. VOLKMER. I'm not critical. I'm just raising a point. I don't 

 think that you can say that ARS hasn't done good agricultural re- 

 search in the years that they have. I think they have. I'm just try- 

 ing to point out that just because you have peer review doesn't 

 mean, in my opinion, that you have good research, and just because 

 you don't have peer review doesn't mean you don't have good re- 

 search. That's what I'm trying to point out to you. 



I'll go one step further. As I've toured my district over the many 

 years, and I've been in the Congress 16 years, you know the only 

 complaints that I've had are about research? You know where it 

 came fi^om? You know who funded it? NSF. Some of their grants 

 about flies and about pigeons and things like that that get written 

 up in Reader's Digest and places, but I get criticized for. I've yet 

 to hear a criticism for an agricultural reseau-ch project. 



NSF's peer reviewed. Correct? 



Mr. Savage. Golden Fleece Award. 



Mr. VOLKMER. All right. Now, what do we do about projects that 

 some of us here in the Congress think are very worthwhile that are 

 not eligible for competitive grants or formula grants and ARS 

 doesn't do them? What do we do? 



Mr. Savage. I think that what you do is you work with the insti- 

 tution or the researcher and that you encourage the program itself 

 to recognize those kinds of projects. The project might not get fund- 

 ed in the immediate year, but over time, if the program is broad- 

 ened to encompass that kind of research, it eventually will be fund- 

 ed. 



Mr. VOLKMER. I have to persuade the bureaucracy to enlarge 

 competitive grants to include it and let them compete on an area 

 in which the people in the bureaucracy don't think is appropriate, 

 and I do. 



Mr. Savage. You can do that legislatively, yes. 



Mr. VOLKMER. Pardon? 



Mr. Savage. You can do that legislatively, yes. 



Mr. VoLKMER. Yes. So then instead of earmarking the funds, I 

 earmark what the/re going to do with the money. 



Mr. Savage. But you do that already through authorizations. 



Mr. Volkmer. Yes. In a broad outline, that's correct. Well, maybe 

 I can get on my soap box just a little bit more. If you know, where 

 did we have the problems in use of funds for facilities rather than 

 research and for operational costs that some of us thought were 



