Video Transcript - Dr. Kitty Smith, ERS Administrator 2007-Present 

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Economic Research Service 

In ERS’ past, we had a lot more people, maybe not as much a demand 
for our work, but certainly more people. And those people tended to stay... 
We’ve had several retirements from ERS after more than 40 years of 
Federal service, it’s really remarkable. 

Right now in 2011 I think we are going into an era of budget constraints 
we haven’t faced for a long time and that’s going to be quite a challenge…

To keep not just our people, but to continue to support them in travel 
and programmatic expenses and training at the same time that we have 
a whole lot to do is going to be a big challenge, with some budget 
constraints. Hopefully, this era won’t last much longer than the 
others when we’ve had budget constraints.

The thing that makes ERS what is, is the people who work here, not just now, 
but in its past. We’ve had a remarkable group of people, internationally 
famous people like Calvin Beale, and people who aren’t famous at all, but 
without whom this place couldn’t possibly run.

ERS has a tremendous future. We have so much to look forward to. 
The 2012 Farm Bill is coming up and there is no group that can inform 
those decisions better than the people here at ERS.