FY 2008 Appropriations | (Re)Authorizing Legislation | Federal Agency Initiatives | Education Advocacy Grassroots Activities

FY 2008 Appropriations

FY 2008 Labor-Health & Human Services-Education Appropriations Bill
The House Appropriations Committee passed its Labor-HHS-Education bill on July 11, 2007. The Senate passed its version out of Committee shortly thereafter. The Senate bill’s of $ 149.2 billion of discretionary spending represents a $5.4 billion increase over what was enacted in FY 2007 and $9.6 billion more than the President. The House bill included $151.1 billion in discretionary spending — $6.6 billion more than in fiscal 2007, $10.8 billion more than President Bush requested in his budget proposal and $1.9 billion more than the Senate version. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Labor-HHS-Education bill on July 19, 2007 by a vote of 272 - 155. The U.S. Senate passed the bill on October 23, 2007 by a vote of 75-19. The $1.9 billion difference between the House and Senate bills will need to be reconciled in conference.

On November 15, 2007 President Bush vetoed the Labor-Health & Human Services-Education Appropriations bill because of its “excessive level of spending”. The House voted on November 15, 2007 to override the veto but failed. On December 11, 2007, the House will consider an omnibus bill for the FY 2008 appropriations bills not yet enacted into law; then the Senate will consider the omnibus bill. The amount of funding for the omnibus bill is expected to be about $10.6 billion less then the combined bills in order to avoid another Presidential veto. If that doesn’t work, Congress will pass the 4th Continuing Resolution to allow funds to flow until the end of January. Without the passage of an omnibus bill, none of the 2,200 earmarks worth $1 billion will be funded for next year.

The Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) Program FY 2008 Funding
Since the FY 2006 cut of $1.6 billion from the Labor-Health & Human Services-Education in which over 50% of the Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr) funding was eliminated ($150 million), it has been very difficult for Congress to restore those funds. Nevertheless, the House and Senate Labor-Health & Human Services-Education bills for FY 2008 contain $228 million for the BHPr Health Professions Programs, an increase of almost 24% primarily for the Diversity Programs. No increase was designated for the GPE Program nor the other individual health professions programs.

Once again the GPE Program had broad, bipartisan support in both the House and Senate but unfortunately there was no “die-hard” champion and the program, received a modest increase of $200,000 (to restore the small across-the-board cuts) for FY 2008 at $2 million in both the House and Senate Labor-Health & Human Services-Education Subcommittee bills unlike some of the other BHPr programs that had much of the lost funding restored. It is clear that the GPE Program does not have the fervent champion (s) it needs.

Nevertheless, Senator Durbin again sponsored a “Dear Colleague” in the Senate and other Senate support included Senators Harkin (D-IA), Chair of the Labor- Health & Human Services-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, Specter (R-PA), Ranking Member of the Labor- Health & Human Services-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, Domenici (R-NM), Kohl (D-WI) Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Reed (D-RI). In addition a number of other Senators signed onto the Dear Colleague letter, including: Senators Bingaman D-NM), Lieberman (I-CT), Feingold (D-WI), Cardin (D-MD), Wyden (D-OR), Schumer (D-NY), Stabenow (D-MI), Kennedy (D-MA), Bayh (D-IN), Snowe (D-ME), Clinton (D-NY), Brown (D-OH)and Biden (D-DE). In the House, support was expressed by Congresswomen DeLauro A(D-CT), Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Lowey (D-NY) as well as Congressmen Lewis (R-CA), Walsh (R-NY), Jackson (D-IL), Kennedy (D-RI) and Ryan (D-OH).

We want to express our appreciation to the thousands of APA members who responded to our Action Alerts. In addition, we want to thank the members of the Federal Education Advocacy Coordinators (FEDAC) grassroots network and current and former GPE grantees who reached out to their Members of Congress. And we want to express our gratitude to the many individuals who made a special effort to help us: Alan Kazdin, PhD (APA President Elect), Mardi Allen, PhD, Katie Cherry, PhD, Natalie Duke, PhD, Jerry Grammer, PhD, Paula Hartman-Stein, PhD, Gloria Khan, PhD, Maureen Lacy, PhD, Carl Lejuez, PhD, Marsha Linehan, PhD, Ed Nightingale, PhD, Ned Siegel, PhD, and Jeanne Wurmser, PhD. It is precisely because of all their personal emails, phone calls and hill visits that the GPE Program survived despite an extremely tight budget and a very competitive appropriations process.

VA Fund Transfer to HRSA for GPE
As a result of ED GRO advocacy, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) successfully offered an amendment to the Senate Military Construction VA Appropriations bill on the Senate Floor on September 5, 2007 to allow the transfer of up to $5 million to HRSA for the GPE Program for a focus on returning military personnel with PTSD, TBI or post-deployment readjustment problems. There was a subsequent meeting with Toni Zeiss, PhD, Deputy Director, VA Mental Health to discuss a Memorandum of Understanding between the two agencies on use of funds. The House is yet to vote on its Military Construction VA Appropriations bill. Congressmen Sam Farr (D-CA) and Bill Young (R-FL) and Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) all expressed support to the subcommittee chairman. All of these Members of Congress were honored by the Education Directorate over the past few years. APA Members instrumental in securing support include President-Elect Alan Kazdin, PhD, Luli Emmons, PhD, Gloria Khan, PhD, and Herb Goldstein, PhD.

Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) FY 2008 Funding
The Center for Deployment Psychology continues to have a champion in Congressman Bill Young (R-FL), Ranking Member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Unfortunately, there was no counterpart to Mr. Young in the Senate. On July 25th the House Appropriations Committee marked up and approved the Department of Defense Appropriations bill, allocating $1 million in FY 2008 funding for the CDP program. The program was funded at $3.4 million in FY 2006 and $2.9 in FY 2007. Earmark funding (in terms of the amount of money available) was significantly reduced in the Defense bill. The CDP program, which is not a true earmark because it is a national program, was treated like one because a Member of Congress requested its funding. This controversy over earmarks, however, did not prevent House members from including 1,776 other earmarks in the final Defense Appropriations bill.

SAMHSA Suicide Prevention Programs FY 08 Funding
The Appropriations Committees in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have included funding for the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act (GLSMA) programs, which are housed at SAMHSA. These three programs: State Youth Suicide Prevention; Campus Suicide Prevention and the Technical Assistance Center have made a significant difference in addressing the issue of suicide throughout the nation since being created in 2004. The APA’s Education GRO office, in partnership wit key APA members, were instrumental in developing the idea for the Campus Suicide Prevention initiative, which is designed to strengthen and enhance mental and behavioral health services on college campuses.

The Senate provided $30 million FY 2008 funding for the Youth Suicide Prevention grants – an increase of $12.2 million over the FY’07 level. The Campus Suicide Prevention program received $5 million – the same amount as last fiscal year’s level. Finally, the Suicide Prevention Technical Assistance and Resource Center received $5 million (i.e., level funding from FY'07). The U.S. House of Representatives included the following amounts for the three GLSMA programs under SAMHSA: State grants: $17.8 million; Campus Suicide Prevention grants: $4.95 million and Technical Assistance and Resource Center: $3.96 million. The differences between the House and Senate bills will be resolved during conference.

(Re)Authorizing Legislation

Higher Education Act (HEA) Reauthorization
On June 20, 2007, the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) unanimously passed S. 1642, the Higher Education Amendments of 2007. This legislation provides the foundation for the federal government’s investment in post-secondary study. The law addresses a wide range of important education policy areas including pre-service teacher education; aid to institutions; federal grant programs; support services for first generation college students; graduate education; and international education to name a few. Over the past two Congresses, Education Government Relations Office (GRO) staff has advocated for a number of changes to the Higher Education Act. These amendments to the Higher Education Act seek to better integrate psychology and psychological research into teaching and learning, as well as expand opportunities for psychology education and training. APA’s recommended definition for “teaching skills” is included in S. 1642 and departments of psychology are included as optional partners under Title II – Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants. To date, the House Education and Labor Committee has not yet considered its Higher Education Act reauthorization bill. Action is expected by the end of this year, or early next year.

On a related note, the Senate passed an amendment by Sen. Brown (D-OH) that calls on the Department of Education to update a 2002 Secret Service document entitled, “Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates” to address the recommendations from “A Report to the President On Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy.” In addition, it directs the Department to include information about the need to provide schools guidance about what can be shared legally under the regulations for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

In early September, Congress passed the “College Cost Reduction Act of 2007.” On September 27th, the President signed this important legislation. This law amended many Title IV (Student Assistance) federal higher education programs as part of the budget reconciliation. It includes an expanded loan forgiveness program for people working in public service and provides opportunities for psychologists to have their loans forgiven after 10 years of services in certain public service careers. Further, the law made changes to the student loan programs to provide more favorable interest rates to students – a benefit to psychology graduate students.

Elementary & Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind) Reauthorization
In early spring, Education GRO staff (in partnership with Public Interest (PI) GRO staff) submitted recommendations for improving the “No Child Left Behind Act” on behalf of the APA. These recommendations touched nearly every title of this important federal legislation. As a follow up to the submission of APA’s proposals, Education and PI GRO staff met with key House and Senate staff to discuss the recommendations and justifications in more detail.

APA’s recommendations for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization are comprehensive and far-reaching. Generally, they seek to integrate what we know from psychology and psychology research to improve teaching and learning, as well as to expand opportunities for psychologists working in schools and with children and adolescents.

Drawing on the expertise of individual APA members, APA Divisions, APA’s Coalition for Psychology in Schools and in Education, APA Committees and APA Task Force reports, the recommendations address such policy areas as: testing and assessment through the adoption of a growth model as a replacement for a static model for measuring student progress; improving teacher professional development by including a definition of “teaching skills”; innovations in education technology; adoption of “growth mindset” or expandable view of intelligence model in the 21st Century Community Learning Center program; facilitating parental involvement in schools; strong support for the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling program; strengthening character education to include social and emotional learning; and language to expand bullying prevention in schools.

While there has been no further action on the ESEA, Congressional staff has been working furiously behind the scenes to complete action on the legislation. Both the House and the Senate have shared “draft” bills with the education community and APA has seen much of our proposed language included in these draft bills. Some of our recommended changes have not been adopted yet, and Education GRO and PI GRO continue to work with the Committee staff, as well as staff from other important House and Senate offices, to advocate for the recommendations that were put forward on behalf of the Association.

Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) Reauthorization
Workforce Development
The Senate is expected to introduce their bill to reauthorize SAMHSA on December 5, 2007 and then to mark-up the bill the next week. The Senate drafted a bipartisan bill with the hope that the House will accept it as is sometime in the 2nd Session of the 110th Congress next year. A priority for us is workforce development. There are no provisions on workforce development in the current statute even though the agency was originally mandated with both mental health service delivery and training. There are documented shortages in underserved areas, inadequate training, lack of diversity and pipeline issues as documented by the Annapolis Coalition Report (2007), two Institute of Medicine Reports (2006, 2001) and the findings of President’s (Bush) New Freedom Commission (2002) and the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health under President Clinton (1999).

Education GRO staff have taken the lead for the field in the area of workforce development. There has been strong opposition to any training provisions but it appears that despite the challenges, funding of “internships and fellowships” will be included in the legislation as well as a mandate on recruiting and retaining a behavioral health workforce. It also appears that our recommendation to expand workforce data collection and analysis to also include providers was successful. Unfortunately a specific authority for the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) was not successful. We are hopeful there will be one or two more opportunities to impact on the pending legislation and have this important recommendation accepted. The MFP awards grants on a competitive basis through eligible non-profit organizations (including the APA) to eligible students who provide services to underserved racial and ethnic minority communities and are enrolled or accepted to be enrolled in a graduate education and training program, internship, residency or fellowship in one of the eligible health professions.

The biggest challenge with the greatest amount of opposition has been the establishment of training programs. It appears that after very hard negotiations Education GRO staff won the inclusion of a training program for interns and residents: our recommendation (3) establishing a competitive institutional grant program for eligible entities (a graduate education and training program, internship, residency or fellowship in one of the eligible health professions) for planning, developing, and operating a mental health professional training program that includes student stipends; however, our recommendation (4) establishing a Loan Repayment Program for licensed or certified mental health professionals with priority given to those working with high priority populations and who demonstrate financial need, competence in evidence based practice, cultural competence in practice and will be working in facilities that served underserved persons was not accepted.

Campus Suicide Prevention Program
Authorized first as part of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act and housed at SAMHSA, the Campus Suicide Prevention program is a small but effective competitive grant program that makes funds available to college counseling centers to enhance services for students with mental and behavioral health problems, such as depression, substance abuse, and suicide attempts, which can lead to school failure.

Since the creation of the Campus Suicide Prevention program at SAMHSA, ED GRO has been active educating Congress and their staff about the importance of the program as well as raising awareness about important provisions from the Campus Care and Counseling Act (108th Congress) that were left out of the final version of Campus Suicide Prevention, making it difficult for grantees to meet the significant and documented needs of the students on their campuses.

As part of our reauthorization efforts, APA is seeking an expansion of the “uses of funds” under the Campus Suicide Prevention program to include “strengthening and expanding mental and behavioral health training opportunities in internship and residency programs, such as psychology doctoral and post-doctoral training.” This change would address a serious concern that APA has raised since 2004; the sharp increase in demand for counseling services as reported by college and university counseling centers. Sixty percent of senior student affairs officers surveyed reported that a record number of students are using campus counseling services for longer periods of time than ever before.

APA member Jeffery Pollard, Ph.D. ABPP, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at George Mason University came to Capitol Hill and briefed a group of Senate HELP Committee staff about issues facing college counseling centers, which included: increased student awareness about signs of depression/suicide without an increase in trained professionals able to see these patients seeking assistance; a new presence of returning Iraqi war veterans, whose mental and behavioral needs may or may not have been met, pursuing their university degrees; and new fears and concerns associated with the tragic events of Virginia Tech last school year.

ED GRO are now meeting with key Senate staff to push for these critical changes to the law in the Senate bill. While many of our meetings have been positive and we are pleased to report we have top staff pushing hard for this change, we are faced with significant opposition from important Members of Congress and it is far from certain we will be able to expand the provision on campus mental and health services or to have included the use of interns.

Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act (CHCCRA)
The Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act (CHCCRA) was introduced again this year on April 30 in the House by Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and on June 7 in the Senate by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). This bill provides loan repayment, scholarships and grants to develop the child and adolescent mental health workforce (professionals and paraprofessionals.)Eligible professions include psychiatry, psychology, social work, and counseling. Education and PI GRO staff are representing APA in a coalition to advocate in both the House and Senate for the passage of this legislation.

Federal Agency Initiatives

Health Resources & Services Administration
Community Health Centers (CHC)
The President’s FY 2008 budget proposed a $25 million increase for Community Health Centers, representing only a modest increase as compared to his previous yearly increases of close to $200 million. The House proposed an increase of $200 million in its FY 2008 appropriations bill and the Senate proposed a $250 million increase.

This has been a joint initiative with the Practice Directorate’s Rural Health Task Force. The purpose is to increase the number of psychologists and psychology interns in the $2 billion Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) program within the Bureau of Primary Health Care by reaching out to state-based Primary Care Associations (PCAs) beginning with Californian and New Mexico. Earlier this year in February Nina Levitt, EdD, Associate Executive Director, APA Education Government Relations Office, and Gil Newman, PhD of the California Psychological Association (CPA) and representing an urban perspective, as well as Marv Megibow, PhD, CPA Rural Representative, met with California Primary Care Association (CA PCA) officials in Sacramento. The CA PCA was very receptive to working with APA to promote the hiring of psychologists and the utilization of psychology interns at the California CHCs. Hopefully a similar experience and result will occur when Nina Levitt, EdD and Elaine LeVine, PhD of the New Mexico Psychological Association (NMPA) meet with the New Mexico Primary Care Association.

National Health Service Corps (NHSC)
The President's FY 2008 budget proposed $116 million for the National Health Service Corps, a $9 million (7.2 percent) decrease below FY 2007. The House and Senate have completed work on their FY 2008 Labor-HHS appropriations bills. For the NHSC, the House bill provides $131.5 million, a $5.8 million (4.6 percent) increase over FY 2007. The Senate bill level funds the NHSC at the FY 2007 level ($125.6 million), rejecting the proposed $9 million (7.2 percent) cut in the President's budget. There are currently over 200 unfilled slots for psychologists.

APA has tried for many years to gain the inclusion of doctoral level, licensed school psychologists in the NHSC Loan Repayment Program. However, we have always been told that they are not eligible because the settings in which they work (i.e., schools) do not provide primary care. Recently we learned from Linda Juszcazk, Deputy Director of the National Assembly on School-based Health Care, that their most recent survey funded by the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) found that approximately 1,700 school health clinics are designated Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and/or Medically Underserved Area (MUA) and that 65% of them provide mental health services. Apparently 181 school health clinics employ school psychologists, although it is not known whether they have masters or doctorates. Further, Ms. Juszcazk said there is great interest in hiring psychologists to work in the school health clinics to provide mental health services, and we are aware that there are many doctoral level school psychologists interested in participating in the NHSC Loan Repayment Program. In any case, it is clear that licensed school psychologists with doctoral degrees from APA accredited programs and trained in primary care should be eligible through the NHSC for these placements. Armed with this information, Education GRO staff is in the process of negotiating with the NHSC to accept doctoral level school psychologists for the next loan repayment application cycle.

Office of Shortage Designation: Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas
ED GRO staff successfully lobbied the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) for the revision of the mental health professional shortage area (MHPSA) designation that targets federal funds to areas with high mental health care needs. ED GRO staff pressed for the change because the population to provider ratio in the regulations was outdated and a designation was granted only upon request. In addition, the MHPSA designation was the basis for the National Health Service Corps placements. Until recently, HRSA’s focus was primarily on revising the designations for the medical and dental HPSAs. Revising the MHPSA designation became a priority a few years ago when the University of North Carolina Shep Center was awarded a contract to develop a proposal for revising the MHPSA designation. In October 2007 month a final draft of the revision was made available to the representatives of the different associations effected including ED GRO staff. In fact, it was found that 1 in 5 counties in the U.S. have unmet mental/behavioral health needs, It will take some time to implement the changes, but the revisions will make a significant difference in the federal focus on integrated health that includes mental/behavioral health and facilitate psychologists participation in the NHSC.

Bureau of Health Professions Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) Program
The Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) recently announced the recipients of the Graduate Psychology Education Program (GPE) grants, which are administered by HRSA’s Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr). Like most of the other programs in BHPr, the GPE program received $1.8 million flat-funding for FY 2007 in both the House and Senate Labor-Health & Human Services-Education Subcommittee bills (down from its highest level of $4.5 million in FY 2004 and 2005). This most recent competition resulted in 18 grants being awarded for three years under the Graduate Psychology Education Program totaling $1.8 million. These grants went to universities and medical institutions to train psychologists in mental and behavioral health to work with underserved persons in medically underserved areas.

Many of the grants will be used to provide resources for underserved ethnic minorities, mostly African American and Hispanic consumers. Some are specializing in children and adolescents while others are focusing on the family, the homeless, immigrants, or women. The grants are a mix of rural and urban settings and internship and doctoral programs. The following is an example of one way the grants will be utilized:

“Infants are disproportionately represented in the national welfare system and early screening, prevention, and intervention services for these children can have a significant impact on the costs of later academic and behavioral problems. Children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds frequently do not receive the mental health services they need; this too may lead to increases in both academic and behavioral difficulties. With a growing elderly population nation-wide, it is imperative that the number of service providers trained to offer care in illnesses such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, and depression related to declining health and loss of functioning also increases. This project will provide service to these three populations in addition to closing the gap between physical and mental health care, thus helping consumers access more necessary health services.” Taken from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro grant proposal.

A complete listing of the FY 2007 GPE Grantee abstracts can be found at http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/medicine-dentistry/07abstracts/gradpsyched.htm.

Department of Defense: Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP)
The Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) is an innovative Department of Defense psychology training consortium established in the FY 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill. The CDP is a tri-service center training psychologists, psychology interns/residents, and other behavioral health professional from the Army, Navy, and Air Force as well as civilian professionals to provide high quality deployment-related behavioral health services to military personnel and their families. Since its inception in January 2007, the CDP has trained over 100 military personnel and civilians at its core two-week training course held at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, MD and over 500 military personnel and civilians at the ten participating Military Medical Centers across the country. Continued funding for the CDP would allow for the continuation of education and training efforts already underway as well as for the initiation of additional activities that are planned for the CDP, such as increasing outreach to communities impacted by deployments by developing workshops that will be delivered in community settings, developing resources to sustain a peer support and consultation system, increasing delivery of materials and information via internet and other communication technologies, and developing a knowledge base of best practices in the care of deployment-related problems among military personnel and their families. Please visit the CDP website, www.deploymentpsych.org, for further details on the program and for a schedule of upcoming two-week training seminars and workshops.

Substance Abuse and Mental Heath Services Administration (SAMHSA)
To date, SAMHSA has made grants to 54 institutions of higher education under the Campus Suicide Prevention grant program. First authorized in 2004 and first funded from the fiscal year 2005 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, SAMHSA has made grants of up to $75,000 to colleges and universities for their centers on campus that provide mental and behavioral health services. These funds must be used for educational seminars, operation of hotlines, preparation of informational material, preparation of educational materials for families of students to increase awareness of potential mental and behavioral health issues of students enrolled at the institution of higher education, training programs for students and campus personnel to respond effectively to students with mental and behavioral health problems that can lead to school failure, such as depression, substance abuse and suicide attempts, or the creation of a networking infrastructure to link colleges and universities that do not have mental health services with health care providers who can treat mental and behavioral health problems. A new RFA will be announced on October 31, 2007.

Education Advocacy Grassroots Activities

Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) Honored at 2007 ELC
A special reception honoring Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) was held during the September 2007 Education Leadership Conference (ELC). As a senior and majority member of the House Appropriations Labor Health and Human Services-Education Subcommittee, Rep. Lowey has enormous influence on Capitol Hill. Rep. Lowey is a long-time proponent for education and a champion of health care services for women, children, and the elderly, and recently a strong advocate for mental health care for returning veterans. Of particular interest to the psychology education/training community, Rep. Lowey has expressed her strong support for the Graduate Psychology Education Program – the only federal program solely dedicated to the support of psychology education and training – which is providing supervised mental and behavioral health services to underserved populations (children, older adults, victims of abuse and trauma, including returning military personnel and their families, especially in rural and urban communities).

Education Advocacy Training Workshops and Presentations
APA Education Government Relations Office (GRO) staff continues to raise awareness of the importance of getting involved in advocacy and grassroots activities. Education GRO staff presented an update on education advocacy initiatives at the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology (NCSPP) mid-winter conference. Later in the spring Dr. Levitt and Sheila Forsyth, APA grassroots consultant, conducted an advocacy training workshop for members of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). In September a very successful “Advocacy for Novices” training session was also provided at the 2007 ELC Conference. Staff from the Education, Public Interest, and Science Government Relations Offices will also be conducting a full day of advocacy training workshop and hill visits for APAGS in December. In January Education Advocacy staff will conduct advocacy training for a group of military psychology residents stationed at Andrews Air Force Base and other local military bases. Advocacy presentations and workshops are also planned for the January 2008 NCSPP mid-winter meeting, the March 2008 International Counseling Psychology Conference, and again at the 2008 ELC conference.

On-line Advocacy Training Curricula
Education GRO staff are also planning to create an on-line site for sharing modules on advocacy training, which can be used at the local, state and federal levels for psychology programs at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Expanding the Federal Education Advocacy Coordinators (FEDAC) Grassroots Network
A major recruiting campaign is currently underway for the FEDAC grassroots network. There are currently 19 regional FEDACs and nearly 300 individual Campus/Training Representatives (CTRs) nationwide working with their faculty colleagues in response to our requests for emails and phone calls to their Members of Congress in support of education advocacy initiatives. And, even though over 5,000 messages were recently sent to Congress to help save the Graduate Psychology Education Program, more voices are needed. JOIN US…YOU CAN TRULY MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Contact: .

REMEMBER…“The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport.”
Barbara Jordan

Back to Top^