02/28/05 WSU Dean on Bush research cuts

02/28/05 WSU Dean on Bush research cuts

Washington Ag March February 28, 2005 Some of the cuts in agricultural research proposed in President Bush's 2006 federal budget are not surprising. Zeroing out funding for research on special projects is something most presidents propose, and congress rejects. But James Cook, interim Dean of Washington State University's College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resources Sciences, says Bush's 2006 proposal contains something unprecedented, a two year phase out of a funding formula for state agricultural experiment stations first established in 1887. Cook explains the impact that would have on WSU. Cook: "If we eliminate those funds, half this year and the rest next year, it will amount to about 50 faculty positions gone. Or it could be if we took out all the technicians leaving all faculty to have to find other money to pay technicians, then we could probably absorb that level of cut, eliminating all technicians. That's the magnitude of the cut. And that is what really concerns us." The administration does propose a new category of funding to support state experimental stations that would competitively award grants, but Cook fears that would direct research to ivory tower type science instead of applied research. He says a lobbying effort is being organized to oppose the formula funding phase out. I'm Bob Hoff.
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