Thomas Daschle: “today Senator Frist and I are offering an amendment to authorize a new program that we call the Sun Grant Initiative.…”

“today Senator Frist and I are offering an amendment to authorize a new program that we call the Sun Grant Initiative. The Sun Grant Initiative--or SGI--is an effort to provide an innovative approach to creating new biobased products and markets for farmers, thereby enhancing the environment and developing new industries in our Nation's rural communities. The SGI would establish five Sun Grant Centers across the Nation to stimulate needed research and development projects, while providing leadership and coordination for a regional competitive grant program that will address national research issues and educational needs at the regional and local levels. This new program will provide a much-needed bridge between our Government's current national research efforts and the State-based research education networks of the Land-Grant universities. The SGI will forge a new partnership between the national leadership and energy expertise of the Federal Government and the agricultural and rural community development expertise of the Agricultural Experiment Stations and the Cooperative Extension System. The United States has steadily increased its reliance on imported oil. Alternative sources of energy and industrial chemicals must be developed as soon as possible.”