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The President’s Budget Request for F.Y. 2006 (February 2005)
included a proposal to eliminate funding through the Cooperative
State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) for
three key land-grant university research programs relating to
agriculture, forestry, and animal health and disease. |
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Although this proposal was soundly rejected by congressional
decision-makers, it was clear that the land-grant system faced a
prolonged struggle to continue funding for these and other
programs with monies distributed through legislatively mandated
formulas. |
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The Board on Agriculture Assembly (BAA) of the National
Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges
(NASULGC) adopted a proactive approach and impaneled a group of
its leaders to examine the Federal-State Partnership and recommend
changes “as if we were designing the Partnership from the ground
up.” |
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This “Think Tank” group met on several occasions in 2005 and
produced the outline of a legislative initiative. Later that year,
the BAA’s Policy Board of Directors (PBD) approved the concept and
expanded the original group to include other representatives of
the land-grant system and related universities/institutions. |
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This CREATE-21 committee has worked in close conjunction with the
BAA’s Farm Bill Committee to further improve the CREATE-21
proposal and to craft it as an amendment to the Research Title of
the 2007 Farm Bill. In the summer of 2006, a legislative outline
was completed and submitted to the BAA membership for approval. |
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In August 2006, 398 ballots were distributed to the voting members
of the BAA with a September 11, 2006 deadline for response. When
the votes were subsequently tallied, 86.6 percent of those voting
supported moving ahead with the CREATE-21 proposal. |
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With this unequivocal mandate from the land-grant system,
NASULGC and its partners are now in the final stages of preparing
a legislative product, identifying congressional sponsors from
among House and Senate champions, and visiting with the many
stakeholder organizations who share our vision of Creating
Research, Extension, and Teaching Excellence for the 21st Century. |
