ELIMINATION OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH HEARINGS BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND RELATED AGENCIES OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE EIGHTY-NINTH CONGRESS 45-140 Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1965 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1966 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1965 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 1114, New Senate Office Building, Hon. Spessard L. Holland, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding. Present: Senators Holland, McGee, Yarborough, Young, Mundt, Hruska, Case, and Aiken. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE STATEMENTS OF HON. ORVILLE L. FREEMAN, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE; NYLE C. BRADY, DIRECTOR, SCIENCE AND EDUCATION; G. W. IRVING, JR., ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR, AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE; T. C. BYERLY, ADMINISTRATOR, COOPERATIVE STATE RESEARCH SERVICE; H. A. RODENHISER, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR, FARM RESEARCH, AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE; AND CHARLES L. GRANT, BUDGET OFFICER, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ANNOUNCEMENT Senator HOLLAND. The subcommittee will please come to order. Before we proceed any further, I should like to announce that Chairman Hayden, a ranking member of the subcommittee, is conducting hearings in the Interior Subcommittee, and Senator Stennis is presiding at a joint meeting of the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense to consider fiscal year 1966 authorizations for aircraft, missiles, and naval vessels, and budget estimates for the Department of Defense. Both regret their inability to attend this hearing. Mr. Secretary, the subcommittee welcomes you; I am pleased that you and your associates will be with us for these hearings. I notice, at this time, there are present in addition to the Secretary, Dr. Brady, the Director of Science and Education, Dr. Irving, Associate Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service and, I suppose, there are others who are here in the back of the room. Present also is Mr. Grant, the budget officer of the Department of Agriculture. Is Dr. Shaw not available? Secretary FREEMAN. Dr. Shaw is not in the city, Mr. Chairman. Senator HOLLAND. He is not in the city at this time? Secretary FREEMAN. He is on a convalescent leave. He has not been well. Senator HOLLAND. Well, I suppose that Dr. Irving is here representing Dr. Shaw; is that right? Secretary FREEMAN. That is correct. ELIMINATION OF RESEARCH STATIONS AND LINES OF RESEARCH Secretary HOLLAND. At this time, the committee will examine into the proposal of the Department of Agriculture to eliminate several research stations and lines of research. The list of stations and lines of research proposed to be eliminated and the criteria in connection with such elimination were announced in a press release issued by Secretary Freeman on the date of December 31, 1964. This press release will be placed in the record at this point. (The press release referred to follows:) PRESS RELEASE FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON, December 31, 1964. USDA CONSUMER SERVICES STRENGTHENED Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman announced today "a significant reorganization of the consumer, marketing, regulatory and food distribution services within one Department agency.' He also announced a restructuring of USDA research work that will close 20 small research stations and eliminate complete lines of research at 34 locations. The action will mean that some research activities will be moved to other locations "where technical and support facilities are more adequate to enable research programs to be carried out more effectively and efficiently." Savings of over $5 million are expected to result from these activities in fiscal 1966, Secretary Freeman said, and noted that "the actions are in keeping with the desires of President Johnson to insure maximum effectiveness in current programs and to free additional resources that can be used in building the Great Society." He indicated that additional savings will accrue in future years through reduced administrative costs. At the same time, the Secretary said he had reported to the President that advances in management and program areas and reduction of grain surplus had enabled the Department to realize improvements worth more then $1 billion over the past 4 years. Under the reorganization proposal, a new agency, the Consumer and Marketing Service, will be created. It will perform the present function of the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) plus related operating programs in other USDA agencies. Interested person may submit comments on the reorganization proposal, contained in Secretary's memorandum No. 1567, during the next 30 days. One of the immediate effects of the reorganization will be to combine meat inspection services now provided by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) with poultry inspection now performed by AMS. Administrative savings of about $500,000 a year is expected to result from the combining of inspection services, Secretary Freeman said. Inspection of warehourse storing Commodity Credit Corporation commodity stocks also will be transferred from the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service to the new agency. This activity will be combined with the present AMS responsibilities under the United States Warehouse Act. The Secretary said the new Consumer and Marketing Service will be designed "to give stronger emphasis to consumer services within the Department. The action taken today consolidates responsibility for consumer protection services and the consumer food programs under separate deputy administrators. This will separate the responsibility for regulatory and consumer services where it is now combined, and will streamline the multifunctions of AMS-such as consumer protection, food distribution, regulation and trade practices, and agricultural marketing-to enable the Department to carry out its responsibilities more effectively." The Secretary, commenting on the research actions he announced, noted that the expenditures for research by all USDA agencies had increased from nearly $103 million in fiscal 1961 to almost $170 million in the current fiscal year. The increased expenditures over the past 4 years is greater than the total amount spent for USDA research as late as 1956, Secretary Freeman said. "I am a strong advocate of research and development programs in agriculture and related areas as a wise investment in a future of continued abundance. As our research activity has grown, however, we have found it necessary to reassess the various programs to assure the Congress and the taxpayer that the research dollar is being spent to the best possible advantage. "The stations that are being closed represent the small or isolated installations where equipment is often old or outmoded, and where libraries and other supporting facilities so essential to effective research are inadequate or nonexistent. "In some cases, the research work being discontinued is related to special problems of an individual State and can be carried on more effectively through State facilities. In others, the research activity has accomplished its major goal, and is being discontinued. "And in others, the research objective is being supported at other stations and in other institutions with better equipment and better support facilities. In these cases, duplication of effort is being eliminated." The Secretary emphasized that USDA employees whose jobs are affected by the restructuring of research activities will be given the opportunity for employment elsewhere in the Department. He said they will receive top priority in new job openings, and that retraining programs would be made available where necessary. The Secretary noted that improved management practices had enabled the USDA employment figures to show a decline of 3.6 percent in the year ending June 30, 1964-only the second time in the past decade that year-to-year employment figures showed a decline. "When the fiscal year 1964 budget was submitted to the Congress in January 1963, the agencies of the Department projected employment needs of more than 121,000," the Secretary noted. "Actual employment in June 1964 was a little over 108,000, or 4,000 less than June 1963 and 13,000 below the agency projections. "The greatest decrease in employment has taken place in Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, the agency which has the most direct contact with farmers. ASCS employment in fiscal 1966 will be about 15 percent below the level that was needed in 1961. This agency now accounts for a relatively small portion of total USDA employment, a fact that dramatically refutes the common misunderstanding that USDA employees work exclusively with farmers. Secretary Freeman said that increased man-years of Department employment "relate primarily to forestry, soil and water conservation, research, plant and animal disease and pest control, credit, meat and poultry inspection, school lunch, food stamp, and other consumer service work." By "careful budgeting as well as through management improvements," the Department's budget estimates for fiscal year 1966 have been trimmed considerably, and likely will be below 1965 fiscal year estimates, the Secretary noted. He said that these and prior reductions which have made possible the $1 billion plus savings had not been made at the expense of program effectiveness. He cited these increases in USDA services in the past 4 years: A 47-percent increase in recreation visits to national forests, with a man-year increase of only 34 percent to operate and maintain recreation facilities. A 15-percent increase in the volume of meat and poultry inspected. A 25-percent increase in the number of children fed under the school lunch prograin. A 94-percent increase in watershed projects under construction. A 140-percent increase in loans and grants to farmers, rural residents, and rural groups. Secretary Freeman cited these examples of benefits resulting from innovation, automation, or increased productivity: Increased employee productivity in ASCS county offices resulted in cost reductions of over $12 million in fiscal 1964. Paperwork and reports are synonymous with Government operations. The Department, after taking a "second look" review of its reports, eliminated 119 of them and improved another 149. Annual value of this cost-cutting effort totals almost $370,000. |