policies and priorities relating to the acquisition, management, exchange, and use of plant germplasm. Scientists and administrators from the public and private sectors (including universities) are appointed for 2-year terms, and may be reappointed twice.

• National Plant Germplasm Committee (NPGC), the intended function of which is to guide and coordinate the system by developing policies, priorities, and proposals related to funding, research, and international relations. Members are drawn from the ARS, CSRS, experiment stations, and the private sector.

• Crop advisory committees that provide expert advice on acquisition, management, and use for particular crops or crop groups (e.g., wheat, beans, leafy vegetables, or woody landscape plants). There are currently 39 of these committees comprised primarily of scientists with crop-related expertise.

• Technical committees, established by CSRS for the NPGS sites, that are funded by CSRS or through an experiment station. They consist of representatives from each of the state agricultural experiment stations in the region and from appropriate federal agencies.

• Technical advisory committees that provide advice to individual national clonal repositories and are composed of scientists with technical expertise in one or more of the crops maintained at that site.

• Plant Germplasm Operations Committee, assembled by the ARS national program leader for plant germplasm for the purpose of discussing specific questions or actions and operations between and within the national system's sites. It is an ad hoc assembly of ARS research leaders and site managers of major NPGS sites or activities, but it has no direct authority over the NPGS.

• Germplasm Matrix Team, chaired by the national program leader for plant germplasm and comprised of the ARS agricultural science adviser for plant germplasm and the ARS national program leaders responsible for research planning on commodities or subjects generally related to germplasm use (e.g., range, pasture and forage crops, plant health). The at times competing areas of responsibilities of these individuals must be balanced against concerns about plant germplasm.

The NPGS, as presently constituted, has no discernible structure and organization. It lacks a central, clearly defined authority and process for managing its activities, formulating national policies, identifying priorities, or developing budgets necessary to act on new policies and emerging priorities. NPGS is managed by too many individuals, com-