03/29/05 Johanns on Hatch forumula funds

Farm and Ranch March 29, 2005 One of the stunners in President Bush's proposed Fiscal Year 2006 budget for agriculture was a two year phase-out of Hatch Act formula funds for state agricultural research centers. The formula would be replaced by a competitive grant system. Ag deans from land grant universities in the northwest say the change would lead to the loss of some research and personnel. Why competitive grants would be better than the formula is a question we put to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. Johanns: "This president came to office and one of the things that he said is look we are going to make sure there is accountability in how we use the taxpayers' money. Really if you look at what he is doing here he is really building research. He is doing every thing he can to promote research and do it on a competitive, juried sort of basis. So what you would end up with is a system I believe improves research." Johanns says universities just automatically got their funds and some good things were done. Johanns: "And quite honestly in other areas there wasn't any accountability to speak of in the use of those funds. So, really the whole goal here is to build a system that improves research, improves accountability, gives great justification to the taxpayer as to how the money is going to be spent." It will be up to congress to decide if the system should be changed. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. "Brought to you by new DuPont Affinity TankMix with TotalSol soluble granules for wheat." I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network. I'm Bob Hoff.