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year of improved funding from the Iowa Legislature for agriculture research. We 

 established a plan to increase our base funding from the State of Iowa at a rate of 

 3 million dollars each year for 5 years. We have completed 4 years of the funding 

 plan. The support from the State of Iowa to improve our base funding has 

 resulted in a much more competitive research program. Funding from 

 extramural funds has greatly increased since 1989. Currently, approximately half 

 of the 60 million dollar agricultural research budget for Iowa State University 

 College of Agriculture is from extramural funds. The taxpayers in Iowa strongly 

 supported our new strategic plan to strengthen agricultural research at Iowa 

 State University. The "crosscutting" principles to expand agricultural research 

 beyond the traditional production agricultural programs was one of the major 

 factors to obtain new base funding for agricultural research from the State of 

 Iowa. I would strongly encourage the USD A, at the suggestion of your 

 committee to establish similar concepts for strengthening agricultural research in 

 the Land-Grant University System as well as the USDA-ARS research programs. 



If you have further questions on the topics I addressed in the 6 questions you 

 provided, I'd be pleased to visit with you. 



(Attachment follows:) 



