SENATOR RICHARD G. LUGAR
CHAIRMAN SENATE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION AND FORESTRY

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH REAUTHORIZATION HEARING

MARCH 18, 1997

Today we continue our series of hearings to review our agricultural research system in preparation for legislation to reauthorize research programs.

We will continue to discuss funding mechanisms for agricultural research. Federally funded agricultural research is allocated among intramural funds, formula funds to universities, competitive grants, and special grants. We will continue to ask what might be the most effective method of allocating funds.

We will have the opportunity today to hear about the private sector’s role in conducting agricultural research. With a preponderance of total ag research spending coming from the private sector, we want to examine whether there are processes to ensure that public funding does not unnecessarily duplicate the efforts already underway among private researchers while keeping in mind the need to protect confidential business information.

We will hear from the producer community today. Much agricultural research is conducted to benefit farmers and ranchers enabling them to increase their yields yet produce more efficiently for the increasingly global marketplace. What is their role in determining research priorities? Is their voice heard in the priority setting process at land grant universities and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture? What is the best process to use to set priorities for agricultural research, extension and education?

I have posed several fundamental questions for consideration as we review our research efforts. For example, what is the American public getting for its $1.8 billion annual investment in agricultural research? And what are the best criteria to judge whether the federal government is getting the most for its agricultural research dollars?

Last week we heard how other federal agencies fund research and set priorities. Witnesses today may have opinions regarding the National Institutes of Health model. Are there lessons from other federal agencies that have application to the funding mechanisms of agricultural research and the priority setting process as we consider these issues within this Committee? We will also hear from two scientific societies today. They may have opinions on the structure of the U.S. agricultural research, education and extension system and how it will meet the research and scientific challenges of the next century. The National Research Initiative may be of interest as well. As these hearings progress, the basic question remains: Can the current research structure continue to meet the needs of this changed agriculture sector in the new millennium? If not, how can it be strengthened or improved? Finally, I look forward to working on research in a bipartisan manner in this Committee with Senator Harkin and other members of this Committee.