46 



that function of education, information, and outreach unit of the 

 USDA in which it might be possible to place the Extension System 

 in that category. There would be, then, a consistency of a reorga- 

 nization based upon function. 



Mr. Chairman, it's important that the placement of the Exten- 

 sion Service-USDA, its relatively small headquarters unit located 

 within the Department, in any Federal structure, that this be de- 

 signed to recognize the Federal, State, and local partnership and 

 the best interests of the people in every State, and in your districts, 

 who support the broad-based program of extension. Regardless of 

 the structure that evolves, the Cooperative Extension System will 

 support the decisions of Congress, We'll cooperate in every way pos- 

 sible to enhance the Department. After all, we are commissioned 

 to serve the people. 



On behalf of ECOP and the Cooperative Extension System, I 

 thank you and the members of the subcommittee for allowing me 

 to testify today. We'll look forward to working with you and your 

 staff on what we consider to be one of the most important issues 

 this subcommittee will address in the 103d Congress. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Carpenter appears at the conclu- 

 sion of the hearing.] 



Mr. DoOLEY [assuming chair]. Thank you. Dr. Carpenter, for 

 your thorough comments, and we'll have some questions at the con- 

 clusion of the rest of the speakers. 



At this time, I'd like to call on Dr. Fischer. 



STATEMENT OF JAMES R. FISCHER, DIRECTOR, AGRICUL- 

 TURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY, AND 

 CHAIRMAN, EXPERIMENT STATION COMMITTEE ON ORGANI- 

 ZATION AND POLICY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE 

 UNIVERSITIES AND LAND-GRANT COLLEGES 



Mr. Fischer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is James 

 Fischer, and I am dean and director of the South Carolina Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, located at Clemson University. This year 

 I have the privilege to serve as chairman of the experiment station 

 committee on organization and policy of the National Association of 

 State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. 



My written testimony discusses research priorities in the context 

 of improving the functional relationships of the U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture and the State agricultural experiment stations. In this 

 respect, the analysis considers four key issues: First, to understand 

 the goals of improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture; second, to define the present State 

 agricultural experiment station for meeting these goals; third, to 

 identify those fimctional areas where change will improve perform- 

 ance of the State agricultural experiment station and USDA part- 

 nership; and, finally, evaluating for redirecting to improve the func- 

 tional relationships. 



In the oral hearing, I wish to emphasize the key issues that you 

 delineated in your letter of invitation for this testimony. Under 

 that, the first issue we considered was the optimum means of fund- 

 ing. The point that I wish to emphasize, given the earlier discus- 

 sion, is that funding of agricultural research requires a balance in 



