Book Description

The farm bill research title that the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research approved in May 2007 reflects some aspects of these proposals in that it calls for a unified annual budget for the REE agencies, establishes an Agricultural Research Institute to help coordinate intramural and extramural research and extension activities, and creates a National Instit [...] Background The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for conducting agricultural research at the federal level, and for providing partial support for cooperative research, extension, and post-secondary agricultural education programs in the states. [...] In FY2006 it was approximately 14%, according to CRS calculations.2 The primary and longest-standing mechanisms for distributing annual federal appropriations to the colleges of agriculture at the state land grant universities are contained in the Hatch Act of 1887 (for cooperative research) and Smith-Lever Act of 1914 (for extension activities).3. [...] CRS-3 To address the challenges posed by the perceived need to increase competitive grants in agriculture, the major proposals for the research title propose significant changes in how ARS and CSREES are structured and administered. [...] In the comprehensive farm bill proposal that USDA released in February 2007, the Administration proposed to rename the Research, Education, and Extension mission area the Office of Science, and to merge ARS and CSREES into a single agency conducting both intramural and extramural programs under the leadership of a Chief Scientist.