Thank you Mr. Chairman.  I am pleased to join you today for the second in a series of hearings on agricultural research.  Monday’s hearing provided an excellent start to our efforts to re-authorize agricultural research and education programs and provided many issues for us to think about as we proceed.  I am looking forward to an equally stimulating discussion this morning and next week.

Today we will hear from the USDA on their current research efforts and hopefully the direction they plan to take those programs in the future.  As part of that future,  I would like to find new ways to promote research into alternative crop utilization and new crop development.  Initiatives in these areas would improve economic activity in rural America and help our farmers and ranchers capture more of the value of their commodities in their own communities.  I would especially like to hear what the ARS and CSREES have been doing to promote and develop these types of activities.

We will also hear testimony from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy on each of those agency’s research programs.  I think this is a valuable opportunity to examine other federal research programs and ask if we can learn from them to improve the returns to ag research dollars.

Each of these agencies has a different and specific research mission.  Common to all of the agencies, however, is the directive to fund the best science and technology possible within its mission.  How each accomplishes this goal through its various funding mechanisms and research grant programs will be useful as this Committee discusses the future of the agricultural research infrastructure.
In particular, I am interested in comparing intramural versus extramural funding programs, and in learning how each agency handles competitive grants and deals with the issue of assessing accountability to stakeholders.

We have a tremendous opportunity in this research re-authorization process to enhance a system that has accomplished great things in the past and to ensure that it will continue to develop the best science and technology for 21st century American agriculture.