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 APA
Member Anita D’Amico Testifies on Cyber Security R&D
APA
Member Testifies before the Senate on Defense Research
Psychologist
Tom McLellan Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee
APA
Provides Input on House Bill to Create Office at Department of Energy
NIMH’s
Insel Answers Questions on Stimulus Spending
Record-Breaking
Number of Hill Staff Attend Briefing on Returning Veterans
New
CDC Director Supports Scaling Up Behavioral Interventions
APA
Offers Assistance as FDA Asserts Regulatory Authority Over Tobacco
Health
and Education Spending Bill Making Way Through Congress
APA Member Anita D’Amico
Testifies on Cyber Security R&D
On June 10, APA Member Anita D’Amico, Director of the Secure Decisions
division of Applied Visions, Inc., gave testimony
before the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education of the House
Committee on Science and Technology on cyber security research and development.
D’Amico, a human factors psychologist, had been invited to the hearing—the
first of three scheduled on cyber security—on the recommendation
of Science GRO staff. Fittingly, the hearing followed on the heels of
an Obama administration review
of cyber security policy and the President’s announcement that
he would implement one of the review’s recommendations by naming
a cyber security czar. Although that czar has not yet been named, a sustained
July 4th weekend cyber attack reportedly disabled websites at the Treasury
Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Department of
Transportation and will likely step up pressure to fill that post.
Read the
full article
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APA Member Testifies
before the Senate on Defense Research
On Thursday, June 18, APA was given an important opportunity to brief
Congress on the value of psychological research sponsored by the Department
of Defense (DoD). The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense held
its annual “public witness testimony” hearing, allowing outside
experts and interested stakeholders a chance to weigh in on the Fiscal
Year 2010 DoD budget. APA was offered a testimony slot and called on member
Gavan O’Shea, PhD, an industrial/organizational psychologist from
the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) to deliver the APA
testimony on Capitol Hill. Dr. O’Shea’s military-oriented
research and consulting has focused on issues related to organizational
commitment, personnel selection and leadership assessment. Testimony focused
on urging the Committee to reverse President Obama’s proposed cuts
across the board to defense research for FY10 and on protecting the behavioral
science research program at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
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Psychologist Tom McLellan
Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee
On June 24, Tom McLellan, PhD, testified
before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his nomination hearing to
become the Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy (ONDCP). Dr. McLellan answered
questions from Committee Members on issues related to the balance
of supply and demand reduction activities at ONDCP, the regulation of
medical marijuana and the value of drug courts. Soon after his hearing,
the focus of the Committee switched to Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor.
In an effort to speed Dr. McLellan’s confirmation vote, Science
GRO staff drafted a letter—endorsed
by over 60 scientific, professional and provider groups—thanking
the Committee for holding the hearing and urging an expedited confirmation
vote. Dr. McLellan’s nomination was unanimously approved by the
Committee on July 28. Although a final vote by the full Senate had not
been scheduled as this issue of SPIN goes to press, it is very unusual
for the full Senate to vote against a decision at the Committee level.
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APA Provides Input
on House Bill to Create Office at Department of Energy
Throughout the spring, Science Directorate staff have been working with
Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) and House Science Committee staff on legislative
language to create an office of behavioral science within the Department
of Energy (DOE). In July, the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and
Environment (chaired by Rep. Baird) reported out a bill, H.R. 3247, creating
a research program at DOE “to identify and understand factors that
influence both energy consumption and acceptance and adoption of new technologies.
The research could then be used to improve the design, development, demonstration
and application of energy technologies.” Science GRO staff will
continue to garner support for the bill throughout the summer as it moves
through the full Science Committee.
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NIMH’s Insel
Answers Questions on Stimulus Spending
As Congress and the country wonder when they will feel the impact of
the recent stimulus legislation on the economy, questions are also being
raised about how the National Institutes of Health is spending the $10.4
billion it received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
(ARRA).
APA, in collaboration with the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research, cosponsored
a congressional briefing
featuring Tom
Insel, MD, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH),
to address this issue and share NIMH’s priorities for spending its
$366 million slice of the ARRA pie. Insel explained that the institute
is using the funds to jumpstart its strategic plan, support autism and
AIDS research and provide training and support for faculty positions.
NIMH has allocated $60 million to expand its payline, $20 million for
administrative and competitive supplements, $157 million for the Challenge
and Grand Opportunity grants, $30 million for autism research, $35 million
for its new suicide research project with the Army and the Recovery After
an Initial Schizophrenic Episode (RAISE) initiative and $5 million on
faculty recruitment.
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Record-Breaking Number
of Hill Staff Attend Briefing on Returning Veterans
A July 14 congressional briefing entitled “Military
Personnel, Veterans and Their Families: How Research is Effecting Positive
Change” drew a crowd of over 200 Capitol Hill and federal agency
staff amidst growing concern for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
APA organized this educational event on behalf of the Friends of the
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) due to the number of veterans
who are experiencing a range of difficulties, including traumatic brain
injury, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and tobacco,
alcohol and drug abuse. New
information about the problems many people experience as a consequence
of war has been uncovered by NIDA, as has knowledge on using existing
evidence based prevention interventions and treatments for addiction and
co-occurring conditions.
Dr. Timothy Condon, PhD, Deputy Director of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse (NIDA), began the briefing with an overview
of NIDA’s current and planned research portfolio in this area. He
also spoke of the ongoing partnerships with the Departments of Defense,
Veterans Affairs and other NIH Institutes. Dr. Condon’s talk was
followed by APA member Kathleen Carroll, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry
at Yale University School of Medicine, who presented recent
developments in science based therapies for addiction that can be
applied to military personnel and their families, as well as areas of
importance for future research. Dr. Condon also alluded to a forthcoming
research collaboration between NIH and VA on Substance Abuse Research
among Military Personnel, Veterans and their Families. The press
release detailing this partnership was released on July 30.
This event garnered the much appreciated cosponsorship of 22 scientific
and professional associations, as well as the Congressional Addiction,
Treatment and Recovery Caucus.
View
pictures from the briefing.
[back to top]
New CDC Director Supports Scaling Up Behavioral
Interventions
On July 15, newly appointed Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Thomas Frieden,
MD, MPH, met with stakeholders from the scientific and public health communities
to discuss the agency’s current priorities and the challenges to
improving public health.
Frieden explained that one of his top priorities is to improve the ability
of public health agencies to monitor health status and behaviors by leveraging
the use of the Internet, for example, in addition to using traditional
surveillance methods. Another interest of his is to continue to address
human behaviors that can cause life-threatening illnesses, such as tobacco
use, which is still the single leading cause of death. Additional priorities
mentioned were the importance of global health and the weaknesses of a
global system to detect disease and health reform to ensure that the system’s
goal is to improve health outcomes and the quality of health care.
Read the
full article
[back to top]
APA Offers Assistance as FDA Asserts Regulatory
Authority Over Tobacco
On June 22, President Obama provided the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) with regulatory authority over tobacco by signing the Family Smoking
Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law. Many APA scientists and GRO
staff have worked collaboratively on tobacco control issues over the years,
including extensive
comments in 1995 on the proposed rule to restrict the sale and distribution
of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products. The biggest challenges may
lie ahead, however, as the legislation calls for the establishment of
a Center for Tobacco Products within FDA and the formation of Tobacco
Products Scientific Advisory Committee. In July, Science GRO staff drafted
a letter
of introduction to FDA Commissioner Hamburg providing background on
APA’s efforts and offering to serve as a scientific resource as
FDA moves forward to implement the new law.
[back to top]
Health and Education
Spending Bill Making Way Through Congress
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services
and Education ‘marked up’ (approved) the bill to fund programs
in those federal departments for Fiscal Year 2010. At press time the bill
was expected to reach the floor of the full House for a vote on or near
July 24, 2009.
Highlights of the legislation include:
- National Institutes of Health: $31.3 billion, $500 million above the
President’s request and $942 million above the 2009 level, an
approximate increase of 3 percent;
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): $6.7 billion, $38
million above the President’s request and $67 million above 2009;
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: $1 billion,
$22 million above the President’s request and $39 million above
2009.
Along with 156 other scientific and health advocacy organizations, APA
cosigned a letter
to the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the House Appropriations
Committee to express thanks for their support: “We sincerely appreciate
that the Subcommittee bill provides an increase for NIH that exceeds the
President’s budget request by $500 million, especially since the
bill also funds many other critical human services programs.” APA
continues to advocate for an increase to the NIH budget of at least 7
percent for Fiscal Year 2010.
View
a committee-prepared summary of the bill and view
full text of the bill. Watch for further updates in Psychological
Science Agenda and SPIN.
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About SPIN
APA's Science Government Relations Office (GRO) wants you to know about
the important policy issues that involve psychological science at the
national level. The Science GRO staff advocate for psychological science
not only with members of Congress, but also with the Departments of Defense,
Health and Human Services, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Education,
Justice, and with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and
National Science Foundation. To keep you up-to-date regarding science
policy within these agencies and on Capitol Hill, Science GRO staff write
various articles and publish them monthly in an electronic newsletter
called Science Policy Insider News (SPIN).
[ Subscribe
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Questions?
If you have any questions regarding SPIN or specific science policy issues,
please feel free to contact any of APA's Science GRO staff.
Geoff Mumford, PhD
Assistant Executive Director for Science Policy
email
Pat Kobor
Senior Science Policy Analyst
email
Heather O'Beirne Kelly, PhD
Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
email
Karen Studwell, JD
Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
email
Anne Bettesworth
Science Policy Associate
email
Kirk Waldroff
Science Website Manager
email
Tammy Barnes
Administrative Coordinator
email |
