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forestry research, non-land grant universities involved in agricultural research, the Colleges 

 of Forestry, Veterinary Medicine and Home Economics and the research directors of the 

 1890 universities. The NARC provides to the Joint Council annual rank-ordered 

 recommendations for research priorities, a semi-annual input for the update of the Joint 

 Coimcil's strategic plan and annual reports on research accomplishments. The Joint Council 

 meets at least annually with the Users Advisory Board, also mandated by the Farm Bill. As 

 the name implies, this Bozird is comprised of representatives of the user community who 

 also make recommendations on the budget for science and education to both the Secretary 

 and the Congress. The product of the Joint Council is presented to the Secretary of 

 Agriculture and, in practice, has been a significant input to the budget development process 

 for Science and Education in USDA. 



ESCOP participates in the development and advocacy of the budget proposal for the Board 

 on Agriculture of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges 

 (NASULGC). ESCOP uses the strategic research plan as the principle guideline in 

 developing recommendations for the annual budget recommendation, maintaining close 

 communication at the early stages of development with CSRS. NASULGC makes a 

 proposal to the USDA for the Science and Education budget in the summer before 

 appropriations are made. ESCOP, along with other NASULGC counterparts evaluate the 

 President's budget in early spring and then take their recommendations to the Congress. 



The SAESs are not tightly organized as is the case with federal agencies conducting research 

 and development. They represent a coordinated network of participating state agencies 

 which are part of land grant universities. Their strength lies in the distributed decision 

 making and programs of research that address the needs and opportunities of individual 

 states. They support a diversified set of agricultural and related industries which are based 

 on the specific natural resources and other factors that also make U.S. agriculture site 

 specific. Despite the distributed nature of this network, it has a consistent ability to find 

 consensus on the major national issues of over-arching importance that require programs 

 of research to provide new knowledge and solutions. There is a growing need and 



