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Look for these Public Policy-Related Events at the
APA Convention!
 Symposium:
Sexual Orientation and Military Service - Challenges and Opportunities for
Psychologists (Friday, July 30th; 11:00-11:50 am; Hawaii Convention Center,
Level 3, Meeting Room 306A)
Symposium:
Opportunities and Challenges for Psychologists in the Public Policy Arena -
Perspectives of APA Congressional and Executive Branch Fellows (Saturday, July
31st; 10:00-11:50 am; Hawaii Convention Center, Level 3, Meeting Room 302B)
Division
19 Hospitality Suite Discussion: APA's Science Public Policy Office update on
psychological research related to the military and the federal legislative
outlook (Saturday, July 31st; 10:00-10:50 am; Division 19 Hospitality Suite)
Supporting
Scientific Integrity and Freedom in Behavioral Health Research:
Researchers and APA Science Policy Staff will be discussing recent
congressional inquiries into scientific research at the National
Institutes of Health. (Saturday, July 31st, 12:00-1:50 am; Hawaii
Convention Center, Level 3- Meeting Room 320)
Funny Feelings Focus of Department of Justice Workshop
For a day and a half at the end of June, passersby may
have had a hunch that something exciting was happening at Marymount
University in Arlington, Virginia. Or, more to the point, they might have
had a gut feeling that a group of august researchers were partnering with
a who's who of the law enforcement and intelligence communities to talk
about the phenomenology of "intuition"…because that's
precisely what happened.
Read
the full article
View
web page about the workshop
CNSF Reception Mark Frank, PhD, a member of APA's
Division 8 and Division 41, was APA's presenter at the Coalition for
National Science Funding Exhibit and Reception on Capitol Hill in
Washington, DC on June 22nd. The Public Policy Office and the Science
Directorate invited Dr. Frank to present his research before a
Congressional audience at this annual event highlighting stellar research
funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Frank's work
represents a cutting-edge collaboration with computer scientists designed
to drastically improve computer programs' ability to detect deception from
facial expressions. His discussion of potential applications to the
homeland security area drew particular interest from Members of Congress
and executive branch science luminaries in attendance, including: Rep.
Ralph Regula (R-OH; chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee that
funds NIH); Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI; a physicist and member of the House
Science Committee); Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC; member of the House Select
Homeland Security Committee); Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD; member of the
House Science and Armed Services Committees); John Marburger, PhD,
Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and
Arden Bement, PhD, Acting Director of NSF.
View
pictures from the reception [back to top]
Lies and the Lying Liars
Who Tell Them
On June 24th, Science Policy staff attended a day-long
meeting designed to forge collaborations between operational staff working
in the intelligence community and scientists conducting research on
interpersonal deception. Generously funded by the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), the meeting was held near RAND headquarters in Arlington, VA
and was facilitated by RAND policy analyst Scott Gerwehr. Gerwehr provided
a conceptual framework for the meeting while Susan Brandon, Assistant
Director of Social, Behavioral and Educational Sciences for the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy and APA Science Policy
Director Geoff Mumford concentrated on the logistics of inviting the
particpants representing, the FBI, US Secret Service, CIA, DoD, Department
of Homeland Security, UK Ministry of Defense, New Scotland Yard, and the
UK Home Office as well as a long list of academic institutions.
Gerwehr's notion was essentially the reverse of a previous
workshop conducted as a joint CIA/RAND/APA exercise on the theme of
detecting deception as he explains in the concept piece here.
Provided with that background, presentations were grouped
thematically with Scott serving as facilitator throughout: 1)
Interpersonal deception & deception detection: operational challenges;
2) Technological advances; behavioral challenges; 3) Empirical &
ethical challenges. It's not clear yet how we'll report out on the proceedings of this
meeting, but look for a more comprehensive overview somewhere down the
road. It is likely however, that this and our previous workshop on
detecting deception (July 2003), will serve as a spring board for some
Congressionally mandated workshops outlined in the "Intelligence
Authorization Act of 2004" (PL 108-177, see TITLE III, Subtitle E,
Section 375). NSF received the full $500,000.00 that was authorized,
and Dr. Wanda Ward (NSF) and Dr. Susan Brandon (OSTP) will be coordinating
the development of the workshops.
Read
Dr. Gerwehr's concept piece on Interpersonal Deceptive Practices
Read
the "Intelligence
Authorization Act of 2004" (PL 108-177, see TITLE III, Subtitle E,
Section 375)
National Children's Study Adopts National
Probability Sampling Strategy
As we have previously reported, the NCS is a proposed
longitudinal study of 100,000 children looking at the physical, social and
behavioral environmental influences on their health and development. The
National Children’s Study Advisory Committee (NSCAC) met June 28-29 to
reach consensus on the design and sampling strategy for the study. After a
two-day discussion of possible sampling strategies and feasibility
concerns, the NSCAC recommended that the NCS program office pursue a
national probability design. The following day, APA’s Executive Director
for Science Steve Breckler met with Duane Alexander, Director of the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to reiterate the
importance of having a nationally representative sample to the behavioral
science community. On July 9, the NCS program office announced that the
study would be moving forward with a probability based sampling design. In
the coming months, additional progress is expected in protocol development
and pilot studies. APA staff will continue to monitor the planning and
implementation process as it moves forward.
Deborah Phillips, a developmental psychologist and member
of the NSCAC, also presented an overview of some of the hypotheses that
the working group on healthy development would propose for the study,
including hypotheses that focus on school readiness and its association to
family work patterns, child care situations, parental depressive illness
as well as positive health behaviors in adolescence.
More
information about the study and the sampling design [back to top]
New Acting Chief Research and Development Officer Comes on Board at the VA On
July 5, Stephan Fihn, MD, MPH, became the Department of Veterans Affairs'
(VA's) acting Chief Research and Development Officer. Fihn replaced the
VA's Under Secretary for Health, Jonathan Perlin, MD, PhD, who had taken
on the additional job responsibilities in an acting capacity following the
departure of Nelda Wray, MD from the post in December of 2003. Wray
officially resigned from the VA on May 31st to return to Baylor
University, in the wake of a report from the VA's Inspector General which
found that Wray and some of her staff had improperly used $1.7 million of
VA funds. Fihn most recently has been head of the Division of General
Internal Medicine for the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and Director
of the Northwest VA Health Services Research and Development Center.
Homeland Security Center of Excellence Competition
On July 6th, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
released a long-awaited Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for a
university-based Center of Excellence in Behavioral and Social Aspects of
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism. The new Center will focus on both the
behavioral and social aspects of terrorists as well as the behavioral and
social effects of terrorist threats and attacks on populations. This
Center will be the fourth in a proposed series of University-Based Centers
of Excellence. Although the original plan called for the creation of two
Centers, one focused broadly on understanding "root causes" of
terrorism and the other on responding to terrorist events, in the end the
two were combined for budgetary reasons. APA's Science Policy staff have
been engaged in discussions with DHS Science and Technology staff, the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as well as many
individual scientists since the Center's inception, and we are pleased to
note that the BAA clearly reflects that input. It will be important to
mount a vigorous response to this BAA, not only to bring the best science
to the fore on these issues, but also to continue to demonstrate to DHS
the critical role social and behavioral sciences can play in addressing
issues related to homeland and national security. Toward that end, we
immediately distributed the announcement to all Graduate Psychology
Programs and the Executive Committees of all APA Divisions. The notice
invites colleges and universities to submit letters of intent by July 30,
2004 (although please note they are not necessary), and full proposals are
due on September 30, 2004. Science Policy staff will be working closely
with DHS to nominate candidates to serve as peer reviewers in the fall.
Read
the DHS press release
Read
the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) [PDF 220K]*
[back to top]
Have You Supported Scientific Integrity Today?
APA's public policy staff have been working for more than
a year preparing for a repeat of last year's battle over federal funding
for sexual health research. During the 2003 debate, Rep. Patrick Toomey
(R-PA) offered an amendment on the bill that funds the National Institutes
of Health that sought to rescind funding for five peer-reviewed grants
studying sexual behaviors and development. Last week, the House
Appropriations Committee approved the bill funding NIH and other agencies,
making it likely that the House will consider the bill in early September.
APA and members of the Coalition to Protect Research are gearing up for a
possible House amendment likely to be offered and are meeting with
congressional staff to share the concerns of the scientific community. To
show the community's support for peer review and scientific integrity,
advocates are sharing the CPR petition supporting scientific integrity,
signed by more than 3,400 scientists, with Members of Congress. We
encourage you to sign the petition to let your voice be heard on this
issue and to contact your member of congress to encourage their support
for the National Institutes of Health. Stay tuned for action alerts if
there are any amendments seeking to restrict peer-reviewed research
offered on the bill during the upcoming House debate.
Sign
on to the petition
Learn
more about this issue
Visit
the Coalition to Protect Research website Making
New Friends on Capitol Hill
Science Policy staff worked with Linda Hay Crawford at Therapeutic
Communities of America to organize the debut event for the new Friends of
NIDA coalition on Capitol Hill. Twenty organizations representing those
with interests in the basic science, prevention and treatment of substance
abuse pitched in to co-sponsor the event on July 14. NIDA Director Nora
Volkow, MD was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to lead
the standing-room only crowd through an hour-long presentation of cutting
edge substance abuse research findings. Dr. Volkow highlighted NIDA
priority areas as they relate to prevention, including genetics,
development, environment and co-morbidity, as well as treatment research
priorities in medications development and behavior. She reviewed three
roadblocks that are inhibiting progress on those fronts. One, a lack of
interest by pharmaceutical industry in developing new medications to treat
drug abuse/dependence in large part because of the stigma associated with
drug abuse and lack of appropriate incentives to pursue new
pharmacotherapies. Two, the
difficulty in translating research from the bench to the bedside to the
community and NIDA's attempts to bridge that gap with the Clinical Trials
Network. Three, the reluctance of primary care health providers to address
substance abuse with their patients and to examine the relationship
between substance abuse and other medical disorders. The audience,
estimated at around 100, included representatives of the co-sponsoring
organizations and many interested congressional staff. We are extremely
grateful to Congressmen Ramstad (R-MN) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) for
providing a room for the event and for their overall leadership as
Co-Chairs of the bipartisan Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus, described in
a "Dear Colleague" letter made available at the briefing. View
the briefing invitation
View
photos from the briefing
View
Dr. Volkow's presentation [PPT 8 MB]
Read
the "Dear Colleague" letter about the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery
Caucus [PDF 600K]*
[back to top]
House Appropriations Committee Approves Spending Bill for HHS-Education
Programs
Legislation to set spending levels for research funded by the National
Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the
U.S. Department of Education moved a little closer to passage this week.
The House Appropriations Committee approved a nearly $500 billion version
of the fiscal 2005 bill that will fund the Departments of Labor, Health
and Human Services (HHS) and Education. Read
the full article
*Requires free download of Adobe Reader. 
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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APA's
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