$17 Million possibly coming to USU
USU is slated to receive $17 million as part of an appropriations bill pending approval by a committee of members of both houses of Congress.
The bill, called the Fiscal Year 2008 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, has been passed by both the House and the Senate and must now be sent to a conference of both chambers to hammer out the differences between the two versions of the bill they have passed.
Utah Sen. Bob Bennett has been instrumental in having the money allocated for USU, said Noelle Cockett, dean of the College of Agriculture, which will receive a large chunk of the money. Most of the money, a little less than $10 million, will not go directly to USU, but to federal projects located at the university.
USU President Stan Albrecht said in a press release, “This is great news and it is a resounding vote of confidence both for Utah State University’s own research strengths and for the successful collaborative programs we have forged over the years with federal agencies.”
Cockett said, “We are really excited about the support of Sen. Bennett and the other Utah representatives and their confidence in USU.”
Thirteen projects at USU will receive some of the $17 million. The largest chunk of money will go toward the planning, design and preliminary stages of construction for a new Agriculture Research Center which will stand where the old Merrill Library was on the Quad. For that project, $8 million of the proposed appropriation would be set aside. Other projects to receive money include the U.S./China joint biotechnology research program, an initiative supported by Albrecht, an air quality center research program, and the Jack H. Berryman Institute for Wildlife Damage Management.
Cockett said once the bill is approved and the money is received, planning and design for the new building will start “very aggressively.”
Other projects have been funded “through this mechanism” in the past, she said. Many of the projects to receive money have been funded by Congress before. Cockett said this money also helps new projects to get on the ground. Once the university begins showing accomplishments and progress, it can receive funding through traditional sources.
Albrecht said as funding for USU is part of an ongoing process, most of the projects the money would be going to have already been funded. The bill would allow the university to maintain projects that are already going on.
“There’s some just dynamite projects,” Cockett said.
Albrecht was careful to note that the bill is not a done deal.
“Congress hasn’t passed it yet, so we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” he said. However, he said the funding would be “an awfully important part of our research, our outreach and our facilities construction.”
Cockett was optimistic about the probability of the bill’s success.
“There will be a lot of celebration around this campus when it is finalized,” she said. “If something odd happened on the national scene and the Senate decided not to approve it, it would be a continuing resolution. But the word on the street is that that’s very unlikely.”
Cockett said she hoped the process would be finished as early as next month.
-elizabeth.lawyer@aggiemail.usu.edu