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| Advocacy > Federal > Legislative activities > AVMA legislative agenda > Issue brief |
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| Issue brief |
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S.1094/H.R.2398 CREATE-21 Act of 2007
Creating Research Extension and Teaching Excellence for the 21st Century Act of 2007 |
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| Summary: |
| Creating Research Extension and Teaching Excellence for the 21st Century Act of 2007 or CREATE-21 Act of 2007 establishes the National Institutes for Food and Agriculture, which will be located in Washington, DC. The legislation transfers specified authorities of the Department of Agriculture and other authorities to the Institutes. |
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| AVMA Position: |
| The AVMA supports S.1094, and the legislative score is support. |
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| Purpose |
- The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant College's (NASULGC) Board on Agriculture Assembly has developed a proposal that would combine Agriculture Research Service (ARS), Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), the Economic Research Service (ERS), and the United States Forest Service (USFS) into a single super-agency reporting directly to the Secretary of Agriculture. This new entity would be known as the National Institutes for Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
- NIFA would initially be comprised of six national institutes: (1) Economic Opportunities in Agriculture and Natural Resources; (2) Nutrition and Health; (3) Rural and Urban Community Development; (4) Natural Resources and Environment; (5) Food Safety and Agricultural Security; and (6) Families, Youth, and Communities.
- Authorized funding for NIFA would increase from the current baseline of $2.75 billion to $5.5 billion over seven years. However, there would be an immediate cash infusion of $200 million per year of mandatory funding currently authorized for the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS).
- At the end of the seven-year period, capacity funding for the internal capabilities within USDA and the land-grant universities would be more closely balanced with competitively funded programs.
- CREATE-21 differs from the "Danforth" proposal, more commonly know as the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recommended by United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Research, Economics and Education Task Force, which would have created an additional entity within USDA's current research, extension, and education structure. CREATE-21 essentially embraces the "Danforth" proposal, while providing even greater resources for competitive research and capacity or base funding for the participating institutions.
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| Why AVMA Supports this Issue |
- CREATE-21 would combine Agriculture Research Service (ARS), Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), the Economic Research Service (ERS), and the United States Forest Service (USFS) into a single super-agency reporting directly to the Secretary of Agriculture. By consolidating ARS, CSREES, ERS, and USFS current independent agency structures into an entirely new intramural research, extension, and education organization that comprises the personnel, funding, functions, and program managers of the agencies, program duplication will be eliminated, integration of both the intramural and extramural programs will be required and budgetary and operating inefficiencies will be reduced.
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| Known Opposition to the AVMA Position: |
| No specific opposition to AVMA position.. |
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| Current Status: |
| 4/12/2007 Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. 5/21/07 Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. The House version of the Farm Bill incorporates some of the concepts of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, but there is no additional funding proposed for research. The Senate Agriculture Committee will not request any additional funding for research in their version of the Farm Bill, which will begin hearings in October. |
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| For More Information: |
| For More Information: Please contact Dr. Doug Meckes (dmeckes@avma.org) at the AVMA-GRD at (800) 789-0007 ext. 3210 or visit www.avma.org/grd. |
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 Go to the Government Action Center |
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