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House Postpones Action on Budget
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), House Majority Leader, announced
that the U.S. House of Representatives would postpone consideration of the
budget, H.Con.Res. 376, until after its spring recess. The House goes back
into session on April 25, 2006.
There is a good deal of controversy surrounding the budget
this year, and science advocates have been contributing to it. APA and
other science advocacy organizations have been calling on their membership
to urge the House to vote NO on the budget unless additional funds are
added for research, public health and education accounts. U.S. Rep. Mike
Castle (R-DE) is leading a group of moderate Republicans who are
negotiating with the Budget Committee leadership to allow an amendment to
be offered on the House floor. In its version of the budget, the Senate
adopted the Specter-Harkin amendment, which would add $7 billion to those
accounts, enough to restore them to their Fiscal Year 2005 levels. The
budget was withdrawn from the floor because the House Leadership doubted
there were enough votes to pass it.
After the House passes a budget, it must conference with
the Senate version. The budget is not signed by the President, but is an
internal document that guides Congress in appropriating federal funds. If
the budget does not allow for increases in science and health programs,
then the Appropriations Committees cannot add funding.
Additional funds for science, health and education were
not the only contentious issues in the budget debate. Efforts to prohibit
earmarking (the practice of members of Congress of targeting
appropriations for special projects) have also drawn fire, as has a
disagreement between the Budget and Appropriations Committees about
emergency funding procedures.
Watch for additional calls for action to ensure a workable
federal budget via action alerts from APA's Public Policy Office.
APA Participates in NSF Workshop on
Math and Science Partnerships
At the end of March, PPO's Heather Kelly and staff from
APA's Education Directorate participated in an interactive workshop at the
National Science Foundation (NSF) for disciplinary and professional
societies interested in its Math and Science Partnerships (MSP) program.
MSP is housed within NSF's Directorate for Education and Human Resources,
and provides funds for institutions of higher education, state departments
of education, local school systems, and business and industry to partner
on innovative projects designed to strengthen K-12 math and science
achievement. Science Policy staff were very involved in advocating for the
MSP program when it first received funding several years ago, but have
been disappointed to see little involvement of psychological scientists as
grantees or consultants on funded projects. Workshop participants
brainstormed with MSP staff on possible roles for disciplinary societies
in promoting the goals of MSP, ranging from sponsoring sessions at annual
conventions to synthesizing cutting-edge science in the areas of learning
and assessment for wide dissemination to grantees.
 More
information on MSP
Science PPO Represented at APA
Career Workshop
Science Policy staffer Heather Kelly, a clinical and
community psychologist by training, was an invited panelist at the April
4th Career Workshop co-sponsored by APA's Science Directorate and the
George Washington University (GWU) psychology department. Held on campus
at GWU, the afternoon workshop was open to area graduate students in
psychology and focused on preparing for traditional and non-traditional
careers. Dr. Kelly joined Drs. Scott Shumate (Department of Defense
Counterintelligence Field Activity), Carol Krafka (Federal Judicial
Center) and Paul Poppen (Chair, GWU Psychology Department) in an informal
discussion with students about navigating graduate school, building in
opportunities for non-traditional experiences, and seeking post-graduate
employment.
AERA Holds Annual Meeting
The American Educational Research Association (AERA) held
its annual meeting April 7-11 in San Francisco. The theme of this year’s
meeting was “Education Research in the Public Interest”, with a focus
towards highlighting how education researchers could contribute to
research that can be more readily used by those making policy decisions.
Given the upcoming reauthorizations of the No Child Left Behind Act, the
Higher Education Act and Head Start, in addition to new Presidential
initiatives to improve math and science education, policymakers are
certainly in need of research that can help inform their decisions. At the
meeting, AERA elected its next President, William F. Tate, a math-science
education researcher at Washington University. Institute of Education
Sciences (IES) Director Russ Whitehurst focused his presentation on
encouraging researchers to increase the scientific rigor and relevance of
their research to those questions that will help improve policy decisions,
including research that contributes to improved academic achievement for
all students.
More
information about AERA
Any questions?
If you have any questions regarding SPIN or specific
science policy issues, please feel free to contact any of APA’s Science
PPO staff.
Geoff
Mumford, Ph.D., Director of Science Policy
Pat
Kobor, Senior Science Policy Analyst
Heather
O'Beirne Kelly, Ph.D., Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
Karen
Studwell, J.D., Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
Sara
Robinson, Legislative Assistant
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