06/15/05 Profile research funding

As Congress considers federal budget proposals that would eliminate Hatch Act formula funds to land grant university's agriculture and research programs, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington made a visit last month to Washington State University's Prosser Research Station to demonstrate her support for Hatch Act funds. CAVALIERI: It was at her suggestion that she meet at Prosser and I think that's a great location because we can bring some focus on the huge variety of things that are going on there. And according to W.S.U.'s Director of Agricultural Research Centers Ralph Cavalieri, that includes research programs on valued commodities such as wine grapes and cherries among others. A loss of Hatch Act funding would mean loss of salaried positions and infrastructure for research facilities. CAVALIERI: The reduction would not necessarily be targeted at the Prosser station or any particular one of our stations, but if we lost the $3.5 million a year from the Federal Government, we would have to eliminate approximately fifty to one-hundred salaried positions in our system. That's the equivalent to closing one or two of our research stations around the state. But there is good news from Congress as the full House has put full funding back in to Hatch Act and other formula funds as part of its fiscal year 2006 agriculture appropriations. And Cavalieri says that bodes well for Cantwell and other supporters of Hatch Act funding to do the same in the Senate.