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Congressional Briefing Highlights Childhood Obesity
Research at NICHD
On May 22, APA co-sponsored a Friends of NICHD
congressional briefing to highlight the important contributions that NICHD
is making to research on the multiple causes, treatments and preventive
measures for childhood obesity. Gilman Grave, MD, Chief of the NICHD
Endocrinology, Nutrition and Growth Branch; Jack Yanovski, MD, PhD, Head
of NICHD's Intramural Unit on Growth and Obesity; and Jill Center, MPH, an
NICHD Public Health Advisor, represented the breadth of the institute's research, from genetics to behavior to dissemination. Center also outlined
NICHD's new public health education campaign, Media Smart Youth, focused
on preventing childhood obesity. The audience included congressional staff
from 25 House and Senate offices as well as members of the scientific
community. In June, the House Appropriations Committee approved its annual
funding bill for NIH that would provide $1.26 billion to NICHD, a $7
million decrease from FY06.
 More
about NICHD's new Media Smart Youth Campaign
More
about the Friends of NICHD
APA Advocates for Human-Centered
Defense Research on the Hill
On May 24, Bill Strickland, APA member and Vice President
of the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO), delivered APA's
oral testimony on Fiscal Year 2007 funding for research within the
Department of Defense (DoD) before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
on Defense. Testimony focused on reversing the proposed decline in support
for DoD basic and applied research accounts in President Bush's budget (a
16.3% decrease over the current funding level).
In terms of the DoD behavioral research accounts more
specifically, Strickland urged Senate appropriators on behalf of APA to
avoid cutting human-centered military research in FY07. The service
laboratories support research in the broad categories of personnel,
training and leader development; warfighter protection, sustainment and
physical performance; system interfaces and cognitive processing; and
intelligence-related processes such as detection of deception. The May
hearing was another opportunity to highlight how critical these areas are
to national security and how important it is, in today's environment, for
DoD to sponsor this mission-related research directly.
Read
Dr. Strickland's oral testimony
Read
Dr. Strickland's written testimony
[back to top]
No Easy Answers for Funding the National Children's
Study
Despite being targeted for elimination in the President's
FY07 budget proposal, the Federal Advisory Committee to the National
Children's Study (NCS), composed of scientists and community advocates,
met from May 31 to June 1 to discuss the progress that has been made in
planning the study, potential challenges to that progress, and future
directions for the study.
The meeting began with a progress update by Peter Scheidt, MD, Director of
the NCS, in which he detailed several funding issues. Scheidt stated that
as of 2006, approximately $50 million had been spent for developing the
protocol, establishing the six Vanguard Centers, identifying the study
population, and developing measures for the NCS. However, the primary NCS
funding stream, which is currently derived primarily from the budget of
the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), with
some funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, is in question. This is due in part to
overall NIH budget cuts, but also to language in the President's proposed
budget for Fiscal Year 2007 that does not include funding for the NCS and
recommends the closure of the NCS program office. However, the President's
budget language stands in contrast to annual Congressional report language
in support of the NCS.
To add to the confusion, while advocates for the NCS have continued to
request that only new money be provided to fund the NCS, in June, the
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education (LHHS) approved its FY07 funding measure and directs NICHD to
allocate $69 million of its current $1.26 billion budget to fund the study
in FY07. The full House must still approve the bill and then it will be
reconciled with a Senate funding measure. Attention now turns to the
Senate LHHS Subcommittee, which is slated to mark-up its own version of
the LHHS funding bill in July. APA and other scientific organizations are
now focused on educating Senate Subcommittee staff about the importance of
the NCS, but also the threats this allocation poses to the overall NICHD
portfolio and individual investigators across all disciplines.The issue will likely be unresolved
until after the November elections when Congress completes the
appropriations process.
More information on the NCS
New NRC Committee on Military
Research
Science Policy staffer Heather Kelly was invited to sit in
on the inaugural meeting of a committee staffed by the National Research
Council's Division on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE).
APA member James Blascovich chairs the NRC Committee on Opportunities in
Basic Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences for the U.S.
Military, and the June meeting in Washington, DC kicked off with a
presentation from another APA member, Paul Gade, Chief of the Research and
Advanced Concepts Office at the U.S. Army Research Institute for the
Behavioral and Social Sciences. Heather will follow the work of the
committee as it reviews work in the defense research area and lays out
opportunities and challenges for future directions. [back to top]
APA and AERA Collaborate on Capitol
Hill Science Exhibit
APA co-sponsored an exhibit with the American Educational
Research Association (AERA) for the annual Coalition for National Science
Funding (CNSF) Capitol Hill Exhibit and Reception on June 7. Marcia Linn,
University of California-Berkeley Chancellor's Professor and a Fellow of
APA Divisions 15 and 35, presented her National Science Foundation
(NSF)-funded research on the use of technology in teaching middle- and
high-school math and science. The evening event highlighted stellar
research supported by NSF for Members of Congress and their staff. Given
recent congressional threats to the NSF behavioral science portfolio, this
was an important year to emphasize the critical roles psychological
science plays in addressing national challenges such as science and math
education. Linn discussed the results of her center's research with
Members of Congress including Reps. Bob Etheridge (D-NC), Howard Coble
(R-NC) and Vern Ehlers (R-MI), as well Arden Bement, Director of NSF, and
his Deputy Director, Kathie Olsen.
Friends of NIDA Hold
Congressional Briefing on Preventing Drug Abuse
APA Scientist Richard Spoth, PhD, was a featured speaker
at the sixth in the Friends of NIDA coalition's educational briefing
series, held on June 12 and entitled, "Preventing
Drug Abuse: Putting Science to Practice for Real World Solutions".
Dr. Spoth, Director of the Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute at
Iowa State University, presented empirical findings from his 15 years of
NIDA-funded experimental research on partnership-based implementation of a
range of interventions for youth and families, including long-term
positive outcomes, economic benefits, success of the evidence-based
PROSPER partnership model, and future directions in partnership network
development. The science of preventing drug abuse has made great progress
in recent years, largely due to NIDA's investment in long-term research on
the biological, behavioral and environmental underpinnings of drug abuse
behaviors and effective prevention programs.
Diane Eckert, a leader in a Fairfax community-based
prevention coalition, discussed how evidence based practices have been
effective within her community. Anna Freund, a Fairfax high school
student, provided a rare youth perspective on the problem of adolescent
drug abuse, and shared her experiences as a young advocate educating her
peers on the risks and costs of drug abuse. Nora Volkow, MD, Director of
the National Institute on Drug Abuse, provided an overview of NIDA's drug
abuse prevention research portfolio, highlighting important differences in
the brain architecture and connectivity of adolescents, including research
findings on how drugs affect adolescent brain plasticity in particular.
The briefing drew an audience of approximately 100 people, including
personal and committee staff from House and Senate offices.
View
photos from the briefing
View
Dr. Spoth's presentation
[PPT 4 MB]
View
Ms. Eckert's presentation [PPT 950 K]
View
Dr. Volkow’s presentation [PPT 3 MB]
[back to top]
NIH Funding Unsettled as Congress Goes Home for July 4
Legislation to fund the federal Departments of Labor,
Health and Human Services and Education (call it the L-HHS bill) was
completed on June 13, but some predict it won't get its day on the House
floor until AFTER the November elections. There are several issues that
make the bill controversial: first, a $2 increase in the minimum wage was
adopted: the House leadership wants the amendment removed, and moderates
and Democrats want it left in. Second, and more to the point of
scientists' concerns, there are generally low funding levels in the bill
that Democrats and some moderates oppose. Also, there are $1 billion in
earmarks in the bill that some Republicans oppose, and the bill's overall
funding level is $4 billion over the President's request, which budget
hawks oppose. The Congressional leadership can justly assume that passage
of this bill isn't going to make anyone happy.
The measure provides $454.6 billion for mandatory programs
and $141.9 billion for discretionary programs, which includes research
programs. The House bill provides $28.3 billion for NIH, only slightly
above last year's level and equal to the President's budget request. Most
institute budgets would decrease if this level of funding were adopted.
For example, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
(NICHD) would receive $1.23 billion, $7 million less than Fiscal Year
2006. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) would receive $995
million, or $5.2 million less than the current year's funding. The
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) would receive $1.4 billion, or
$8.7 million less than current funding.
APA worked with members of the House L-HHS Committee to
highlight important areas of behavioral and social science research that
needed emphasis. In the report accompanying the bill, the Appropriations
Committee urges the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
to continue working to build alliances among institutes that support and
nurture basic behavioral and social science research. In particular, OBSSR
is encouraged to "partner with the NIGMS [National Institute of
General Medical Sciences] and other funders of basic research to enhance
support for work on methods, animal models, and the interplay of
biological factors, behavioral and social influences underlying phenomena
such as stress that influence multiple conditions."
The Senate is a couple of steps behind the House in
working on its version of the appropriations bills. Allocations to each of
the appropriations subcommittees in the Senate were just approved, but
they are more generous to the programs in the Labor-HHS bill than those of
the House. The Senate allocation is $5 billion above the President's
request; the House allocation for the same bill was $4.1 billion above the
President's request. The Specter-Harkin amendment, which the Senate
approved during debate on the budget, did contribute to the quest for a
larger L-HHS allocation, but the full $7 billion that the amendment called
for was not added.
The Senate version of the L-HHS bill will likely come to
the Senate floor in mid-July. As usual, SPIN readers should remember that
there are many steps in the journey to each year's funding, so watch this
publication to keep track of the trip. [back to top]
OBSSR Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Scientific Meeting
at NIH and Poster Session on Capitol Hill
NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, MD welcomed an overflow crowd
to Natcher Auditorium on the NIH campus on June 21, 2006 for the
celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Office of
Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). In his prepared
statement, which he amplified for the audience, Dr. Zerhouni acknowledged
the importance of behavioral and social sciences research to NIH's
mission:
"We are faced with an enormous and evolving national
burden of disease and disability, much of which has roots in personal
behavior or socioeconomic influences. The need for behavioral and social
research and intervention has never been greater, and its impact has never
been clearer. We need but look at recent decreases in rates of cancer,
largely due to dramatic decreases in tobacco use. We can point to a
remarkable demonstration of the pronounced benefits of diet and exercise -
more effective than drug therapy - in preventing the onset of type 2
diabetes among high-risk individuals. These are but two among many shining
examples of the widespread benefits to public health realized through our
investment in basic and applied behavioral and social science research, so
critical to our understanding of health and disease."
Read
the full article
NIMH Launches Inaugural Newsletter for Scientists
On June 26, the National Institute of Mental Health
published the first issue of its e-mail newsletter, Inside NIMH,
which aims to educate researchers about NIMH funding opportunities,
trends, and plans. The first issue provides an update from Institute
Director Tom Insel about NIMH's current budget and funding situation, as
well as recent and future research funding initiatives and summaries of
NIMH sponsored meetings.
Sign
up to receive Inside NIMH or to read the first issue
[back to top]
House Holds Hearing on Mental
Health Awareness
On June 28, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on
Health held a hearing to promote awareness of research, diagnosis, and
treatments for serious mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, major
depression and schizophrenia. The hearing was organized by Rep. Sue Myrick
(R-NC), whose granddaughter was diagnosed with bipolar disorder more than
fifteen years ago. Witnesses included Tom Insel, Director of the National
Institute of Mental Health; Raymond DePaulo, Director of the Johns Hopkins
University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; as well as
psychologists Kay Redfield Jamison, founder of the UCLA Affective
Disorders Clinic; and Diane Gooding, Associate Professor of Psychology and
Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fifteen members of the Subcommittee attended the hearing,
and many took the opportunity to express their support for more funding
for mental health research as well as support for mental health parity
legislation that would require insurance coverage for mental health
issues. While the hearing was focused on reducing the stigma associated
with these brain diseases, Subcommittee Chairman Nathan Deal (R-GA) opened
the hearing by commenting that the biological nature of many mental
disorders cannot be separated from environmental factors, a statement that
was further supported by the Dr. Gooding's testimony. Rep. Tim Murphy
(R-PA), a child psychologist, emphasized that mental health treatments are
more than just medication. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WS) asked the panel about
the impact of recent NIH budget cuts and the impact on future research as
she had heard many more researchers are not being funded. Jamison and
Gooding agreed that these cuts are making it harder for research projects
to receive funding or for investigators to collect enough pilot data for
their larger studies to move forward. Insel added that the U.S. invests
$4.76 per American per year on mental health research and perhaps that
level should be reconsidered, given the $170 billion that mental disorders
cost in terms of treatments and lost productivity.
Read
Dr. Insel's testimony
Read
Dr. Jamison's testimony
Read
Dr. Gooding's testimony
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, PhD, Director of Science Policy
Pat
Kobor, Senior Science Policy Analyst
Heather
O'Beirne Kelly, PhD, Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
Karen
Studwell, JD, Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
Sara
Robinson, Legislative Assistant
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