Reorganizing REE, Presented to National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges by Dr. Gale Buchanan (November 13, 2006)

1. It is a pleasure to meet with you especially to talk about how our USDA programs can be strengthened through greater collaboration with our nation's universities.
2. Soon after my appointment as Under Secretary, I began to think about how we could strengthen our programs.
3. I was aware of NIFA as put forth by Dr. William Danforth and CREATE 21 advanced by a group led by Jeff Armstrong and supported by NASULGC.
4. While I am not able to comment on either of these specific proposals, which I now understand has been collapsed into a single proposal; I am here to strongly support changes that would strengthen our programs in research, education and economics.
5. Building on NIFA and CREATE 21, I charged my staff and Agency Administrators to review these efforts and propose to me changes in our structure and organization that would improve our programs.

   Their review is being guided by the following three goals:

   1. Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing REE programs.
   2. Strengthen the linkages communications, and coordination of REE with the Nation's Land Grant Universities, as well as other cooperators.
   3. Highlight and enhance the quality of USDA-conducted and supported science.
   The results of the review and recommendations are currently undergoing internal consideration.
6. While our system is certainly not broken, it can be made better. That is what I want to do and I appreciate those of you who are making an effort to do that.
7. I look forward to working with you, Congress and our stakeholders as we move forward.
8. Your help in this process is critical. Obviously, your experiment station and extension Directors along with Deans and Vice Presidents for agriculture as well as the total university will be impacted. Therefore, I am asking for your help and assistance as we move forward to reenergize our research, education, and extension system.