02/21/07 Earmark loss impacts WSU ag research

Washington Ag February 21, 2007 Congress eliminated earmarks in the continuing resolution it passed and the President recently signed, to fund the federal government the remainder of fiscal year 2007. Some of the earmarks would have funded agricultural research at Washington State University. But Ralph Cavalieri, Director of WSU's Agricultural Research Center, says it could have been worse. That's because Congress did put that earmark funding into formula funds, Hatch funds, for a one time increase. However, Cavalieri says those funds are, as the name implies, distributed by formula and do not replace special project funding per se. Cavalieri: "Whereas we received about 4.7 million in 06 of USDA Special Research Grants, we are only going to receive 2.3 million through this one-time increase in the formula funds. So, less than half." Additionally, Cavalieri says the rules only allow him to allocate Hatch funds to federally approved Hatch projects and it's too late in the fiscal year to start new ones. Cavalieri: "The last time I checked none of our earmarked projects have that status." Cavalieri says WSU will do what it can to provide bridge funding to fiscal 2008 for ongoing multi-year research projects. I'm Bob Hoff.