APA's Science Policy Insider News May 2003

[Subscribe to SPIN]  Dr. Tim Wilson Testifies on Behalf  of NSF Funding On Wednesday, April 9th, APA member Timothy Wilson, PhD presented APA's annual testimony in support of psychological research before a House Appropriations Subcommittee in the U.S. Capitol. Dr. Wilson, a social psychologist and Chair of the Psychology Department at the University of Virginia, advocated for increased funding at three federal agencies under the jurisdiction of the House VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee: the National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Dr. Wilson's testimony highlighted two large-scale grant programs at NSF in FY04 - the Human and Social Dynamics research priority area within NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, and the foundation-wide Science of Learning program. For more information on each, see NSF's website. Following the official testimony, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Heather Kelly, APA's Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer, met with staff from Rep. Virgil Goode's office (Republican Congressman from Virginia who sits on the influential VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee) to get his support for psychological science at NSF. Read the full testimony here. Behavioral Science in the Department of Homeland Security On May 12, in our monthly meeting with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), several representatives from the behavioral and social science community met with Parney Albright, former OSTP Assistant Director for Homeland & National Security. Parney has formally transitioned to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to work on "policy, plans, programs and budget" in the Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate for the new Undersecretary, Charles McQueary. The organizational chart for the S&T Directorate is evolving rapidly. One Assistant Secretary will oversee the planning, policy, program and budget activities and 3 other Assistant Secretaries will oversee the execution of S&T Directorate activities within an Office of Research and Development; an Office of Homeland Security Advanced Research Programs; and an Office of Systems Development and Engineering. When fully staffed the S&T Directorate will have approximately 180 staff with 75 of those involved in various elements of planning and program activities. Program will be split across several portfolios incorporating the behavioral elements described below as well as programs to deal with a range of potential threats including radiological/nuclear, biochemical and high explosives. The remaining programs will support the other Directorates: Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection; Borders and Transportation; and Emergency Preparedness and Emergency Response. Parney described some of the current S&T programmatic interests related to "determination of intent" (i.e., taking a more scientific approach to understanding what it is that triggers the attention of security personnel when they decide to question suspicious persons); understanding root causes of terrorism and methods to quantify the deterrent effect of countermeasures; understanding how and why people react the way they do to warnings and alarms and what can be done to train people to respond appropriately; understanding how terrorist networks operate and what mechanisms can be used to disrupt them; understanding how to apply "data-mining" techniques to low frequency terrorist events; understanding public perceptions of personal identity and privacy; and understanding effective "red teaming" (i.e., how to think like the bad guys to successfully model different terrorist scenarios). Other than "determination of intent", its not clear which of the program areas are meant to receive dedicated funding but research on determination of intent will be funded at $15 million in this fiscal year and at about $25 million next year. Although Parney is a physicist by training, he went out of his way to assure us that in the S&T Directorate they understand that elements of behavioral and social science suffuse a great deal of what DHS does. Howard Silver, Executive Director of COSSA reminded Parney of a letter drafted by several behavioral and social science groups and sent to Secretary Ridge in April, advocating for an infrastructure within the S&T Directorate much like the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at NIH. Although Parney said he wasn't ready to take that approach for a variety of reasons, he was interested in nominations for a 20-member scientific advisory board for the S&T Directorate. In a meeting the previous week, Gary Strong, Director of Behavioral Research within the S&T Directorate at DHS asked Geoff Mumford, Director of Science Policy, to serve on an informal advisory group with Susan Brandon; Program Chief, Affect & Biobehavioral Regulation, DNBBS, NIMH; Norman Bradburn; Assistant Director SBE, National Science Foundation; Phil Rubin; Division Director Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, NSF; and Ken Whang; Program Manager for Collaborative Research on Computational Neurosciences, NSF. Dr. Darlene Howard Testifies on Health and Education Funding On Wednesday, May 14th, APA member Darlene Howard, PhD, of Georgetown University presented APA's testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Dr. Howard discussed issues related to funding for the NIH, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and Graduate Psychology Education. Chairman Ralph Regula (R-OH) was particularly interested in hearing about research that has shown the cognitive benefits of exercise. Read her testimony here. [Back to top] Dr. Steve Sellman Testifies on Behalf of DoD Research Funding On May 15th, APA member Steve Sellman, Vice President and Director for Public Policy Issues at the Human Resources Research Organization and former Director for Accession Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, presented APA's testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. With over forty years of experience in military personnel management and research, Dr. Sellman was an ideal spokesman for the valuable contributions of psychological scientists funded by the Department of Defense. Testimony focused on proposed cuts in the President's Fiscal Year 2004 human-centered research budgets for the military laboratories at a time when the need to understand and optimize cognitive functioning, perceptual awareness, complex decision-making, stress resilience, and human-systems interactions has become even more mission-critical to the military. Read his testimony here. Friends of NICHD Advocate for Increased Support for NIH The Friends of NICHD, co-chaired by APA's Karen Studwell, submitted testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor Health and Human Services and Education on May 14th. The Coalition followed up that testimony by visiting the offices of several key members of the House and Senate Subcommittee to discuss the outlook for FY2004 appropriations May 19th. The coalition of nearly 100 organizations met with congressional staff to educate them about the broad research mission of NICHD and requested their support for FY2004 appropriations of $30 billion for NIH and $1.32 billion for NICHD, which represents approximately 10 percent increases. The Bush Administration has proposed a 2.5 percent increase for NIH in FY2004, which it states will actually result in a 7.5 increase for research funding by cutting back on some NIH expenditures for facilities and infrastructure. To ensure increased funding for NIH, congressional staff claim they will have to cut other health programs, which are already slated for cuts in the President's budget. APA will continue to work individually and through coalitions such as FNICHD to advocate for increased support for NIH and its mission. Read the Friends of NICHD testimony here. Psychological Researchers Present at National Academies On May 14th the Committee on Law and Justice at the National Academy of Sciences held the third in its series of Roundtables on Social and Behavioral Sciences and Terrorism, in this case, examining the issue of "Screening for Terrorists". In April, APA Science Policy staff recommended several individuals with research experience relevant to the topic and 4 of them were selected to present. Charles Bond, Texas Christian University, presented on "Cross-cultural Judgments of Deception"; Jack Glaser, University of California, Berkeley, presented on "Psychological Errors and Logical Pitfalls in Racial Profiling"; Andrew Silke, Home Office, United Kingdom, presented on "Profiling Terrorists: Lessons from Research"; Jonathan Drummond, Princeton University, presented on "How Does One Become a Terrorist and What Marks the Process? Applications of a Theory of Deviant Legitimation." APA Coordinates Congressional Reception for New NIH Directors Science Policy staff are coordinating a reception to officially welcome the three new NIH Institute Directors of NIMH, NIAAA and NIDA to Capitol Hill on May 22. The reception, co-sponsored by seventeen organizations which collectively represent hundreds of thousands of scientists, healthcare providers and patient advocates, is meant to raise the profile of the new Institute Directors with Members of Congress and their staff. Although Drs. Insel and Li were appointed last September, it took some time for them to transition to the NIH and Dr. Volkow, who received her appointment in February, only arrived here last month. Having transitioned to a new leadership role as well, Dr. Raynard Kington, the Deputy Director of NIH will be on hand to introduce the new Directors. 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

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