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1 1 (April 3, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govzas0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Cogesoa Resarc Seric 0 April 3, 2019 Proposed Relocation/Realignment of USDA's ERS and NIFA Background As part of the reorganization of the proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Secretary Perdue announced in August 2018 the department's intention to relocate the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) outside the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. He also proposed the realignment of ERS from the Office of the Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics (REE) to the Office of the Chief Economist. Among the stated reasons for the agency relocations are (1) improving USDA's ability to attract and retain qualified staff without the burden of the high cost of living; (2) placing USDA resources closer to the many agricultural stakeholders who live and work outside the Washington, DC, area; and (3) creating departmental savings on high employment costs and rent. In a subsequent USDA notice in the Federal Register, interested parties were invited to make proposals for siting the relocated headquarters of ERS and NIFA. Logistical needs for a new site included location within a reasonable distance of a commercial primary airport and the transportation infrastructure to have commuting options for employees. The notice also stressed the importance of a site in close proximity to a critical mass of intellectual capacity and stated that economic incentives and lower upfront capital costs would be factors in the site selection process. With respect to the relocation of ERS, the notice also emphasized the need for enhanced information technology security to handle the agency's confidential statistical information. In October 2018, USDA announced that it had received 136 expressions of interest in 35 states. That initial list has been narrowed to 68 locations for further consideration. A final decision on the site(s) is expected in May 2019. USDA announced that it would be working with the consulting firm Ernst and Young to assist in the site selection process and to manage the actual relocation. Economic Research Service ERS was founded in 1961 as the successor agency of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, which was established in 1922. ERS conducts economic and statistical analyses on agricultural commodities, trade and international agriculture, rural demography, agricultural marketing, food price forecasting, surveys of farm and crop production practices, farm and rural labor and income analysis, food safety and nutrition, natural resources, and the environment. More recently, ERS has developed geospatial online mapping tools to integrate and display data and research results geographically. ERS is one of 13 principal statistical agencies of the Federal Statistical System of the United States, a decentralized agency or organizational unit of the executive branch coordinated by the Office of Management and Budget whose activities are predominantly the collection, compilation, processing, or analysis of information for statistical purposes. National Institute of Food and Agriculture A 2004 USDA task force report recommended the formation of a National Institute for Food and Agriculture. The task force recommended that such an institute should: * support fundamental research addressing the frontiers of knowledge while leading to practical results or further scientific discovery; * distribute research grants through a competitive, peer-reviewed process and be solely a grant- awarding entity, not one that conducts its own in- house research; * enhance, not replace, existing USDA research; * receive oversight from committees of scientists and a council of advisors; * achieve increasing annual appropriations over a five-year period until it received $1 billion per year; and * be located in Washington, DC, to be close to the other major federal science agencies. NIFA was formally established four years later in the 2008 farm bill (Food Conservation and Energy Act, P.L. 110- 234) as the successor agency of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES). Currently, NIFA administers both formula and competitive grant funds under the 1887 Hatch Act and the 1914 Smith- Lever Act and oversees a wide range of cooperative extension and education functions of the former CSREES. External Response to the Proposed Relocation Criticism of the proposed ERS and NIFA relocations and realignment began almost immediately. Scientists and scientific organizations have mounted aggressive campaigns to slow or reverse the planned relocation. The American Statistical Association joined with 59 other organizations in sending a letter to House and Senate agriculture appropriations subcommittees on November 18, 2018, requesting that no funding be used for relocation beyond that already provided for its relocation within the National Capital Region. As stated in the letter, the signers' fundamental concern is that the proposed relocation and realignment will undermine the quality and breadth of the work these agencies support and perform- work that is vital to informing and supporting U.S. agriculture, food and rural economies. This concern about the quality and breadth of work may reflect the fact that, within the metropolitan Washington area, NIFA and ERS researchers can more easily communicate and interact with https:I/crsreports.conc -- _-_

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