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Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, I am Dr. Merry Bullock,
Acting Executive Director for Science at the American Psychological
Association. We are a scientific and professional organization of more
than 150,000 psychologists and affiliates. Because psychological
scientists play vital roles within the Department of Veterans Affairs,
NASA and the National Science Foundation, I'd like to briefly address the
proposed FY 05 research budgets for each of these 3 agencies.
Let me begin with the VA. Within its research program,
psychological scientists are lead researchers on studies that address
significant challenges confronting the veteran community. These include
mental health, deployment, substance abuse, aging and rehabilitation. For
example, you have all seen newspaper accounts suggesting an increase in
domestic violence in those returning from combat zones. Psychological
researchers are uniquely trained to investigate whether this is the case
and to help put prevention and intervention efforts into place. After many
years of flat funding and only a slight increase in FY 04, the
Administration budget proposes a $20 million cut to VA research in FY05.
This clearly is not a time to shortchange our veterans and those who will
follow them into harm's way. APA joins the Friends of VA Medical Care and
Health Research in recommending that Congress reverse this cut and provide
$460 million for the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research Account in FY05.
You've also been hearing a lot about NASA recently.
Because humans perform critical functions throughout all aspects of every
NASA mission - from concept development, system design and acquisition
through operations, it is critical to fund this research at NASA. Programs
include human adaptation to space and human factors in space and aviation
design and safety. One small example of the value of human-centered
research at NASA involves the current Mars mission. You may know that the
day on Mars is 40 minutes longer than ours, or 24.6 hours. This means that
NASA scientists monitoring the rovers every second of the Martian day must
adjust their body clocks to this longer day. Psychological researchers
advised on how to best help the ground crew stay alert, efficient and
productive in what amounts to daily and chronic jet lag. APA supports both
the Administration request of $491.5 million to advance Biological
Sciences Research within the Office of Biological and Physical Research
and the request of $188 million for the Aviation Safety and Security
Program. [back to top]
Finally, as a member of the larger science community and
an active leader in the Coalition for National Science Funding or CNSF,
APA thanks Congress and the Administration for completing the NSF
Authorization Act of 2002. Although we strongly support funding NSF at the
authorized level of $7.38 billion for FY05, in contrast to the President's
budget request of $5.75 billion, we recognize that this is an extremely
tough budget year. We therefore urge the Committee to instead increase
NSF's funding by the authorized annual proportion - 15% - over current
levels, for a total of $6.44 billion in FY05.
This should include $30 million in funding for the
Foundation-wide special research priority called "Human and Social
Dynamics." This priority will enable scientists across disciplines to
help us better understand and manage the profound and rapid societal
changes we all face. This priority will fund research on the ways that
individuals, organizations and societies make decisions, assess risk and
uncertainty; adapt to and resist technological change. It will explore
changes occurring in society and how they interact with climate, geography
and environment; and ways in which human performance can be enhanced in
conjunction with advances in biology, engineering, nanotechnology,
robotics and information technology. Within psychology, some of the
exciting research we'd hope to see funded will focus on how people do and
can respond during and after large-scale crisis events such as terrorist
attacks or natural disasters.
In conclusion, we recognize the budget challenges you
face. But we urge you to continue investing in basic and applied science
(particularly human-centered research) that will enable us to better care
for those who dedicate their lives to our protection; more safely watch
over those who explore the solar system and beyond; and better prepare the
generations after us in ways we can't even imagine.
Thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions you have.
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