AAAS Policy
Alert -- November 18, 2009
Budget News
The House was in recess last week and the Senate only met for two days (Monday and Tuesday), during which it considered its version of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (H.R. 3082) appropriations bill. The bill currently contains $580 million for medical and prosthetic research, which is typically matched by other federal grants for a total of $1.2 billion in research and development (R&D). It would be the ninth of twelve fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills passed by the Senate. The House has approved its version of all twelve appropriations bills. Three of the bills--Defense; Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies; and Transportation, all with significant R&D components--have passed both the House and Senate and are waiting to be discussed in conference committee, but no date has been set for those discussions. As for fiscal year 2011, the White House is alerting federal agencies that FY 2011 budget requests will likely remain flat with FY 2010 or be cut by 5 percent in an effort to reduce the deficit, according to CongressDaily. For an update on the current status of appropriations, see the AAAS R&D Budget Web site.
Other Congressional News
Nobel Laureates Speak Out for
Public Access Bill. Forty-one
Nobel laureates have signed an open letter
to Congress in support of
the Federal Research Public Access Act (S. 1373),
which would direct
all major federal research agencies to create policies that would allow
public access within six months to publications resulting from
federally funded research. The bill is sponsored by Senators Joe
Lieberman (I-CT) and John Cornyn (R-TX); it has no House counterpart.
AAAS Hosts Briefing on Climate
Change and Health. On November 16, AAAS
and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research held a
congressional
luncheon addressing the human health impacts associated
with climate change. Speakers included University of Maryland professor
and former National Science Foundation head Rita Colwell, Johns Hopkins
professor Lynn Goldman, and National Center for Atmospheric Research
scientist Mary Hayden. Science
Editor-in-Chief Bruce Alberts moderated
the panel.
Executive
Branch
Delay of GINA Implementation?
Controversy is brewing over
implementation of provisions of the Genetic
Information
Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which provides privacy and
confidentiality protections for personal genetic information in
employment and insurance. Efforts are underway by a coalition
representing businesses that offer health care coverage to their
employees to impose a moratorium on GINA's implementation for one year
so the law can be revised. This group believes
that the law’s
definition of "underwriting" in the current interim final regulations
issued jointly by three federal departments "far exceeds Congressional
intent and will have dramatic and unintended consequences on programs
designed to support at-risk and chronically ill individuals." Opposing
any delay are groups representing patients, disability and medical
associations.
NIH Announces First National
Research Study Recruitment Registry. The
National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a new website,
ResearchMatch.org,
that seeks to connect individuals interested in
participating in clinical trials with researchers conducting the
studies. The site is intended to be user friendly and the service will
cover an array of diseases.
EPA Asks for Changes to
Employee-Made Internet Video. The Environmental
Protection Agency has asked two agency attorneys to take down and then
edit a YouTube video they created that criticizes current climate
change legislation that would take a cap-and-trade approach to reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, reportedly because the video featured EPA
more times than agency policies allow. Though the pair--married couple
Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel--took down the video, the Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility has reposted
it, alleging
that the EPA mandate came only after Williams and Zabel authored a
Washington Post op-ed
on the same theme.
People in the News. Last
week President Obama announced the nomination
of Agriculture Undersecretary for Research, Education and Economics
Rajiv Shah to be the new
Administrator for the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID). Before joining USDA, where he has
only served since May, Shah worked at the Gates Foundation covering
health and agriculture.
Elsewhere
Climate Deal Pushed Back from
Copenhagen. World leaders
meeting in Asia this weekend announced that a legally binding climate
change agreement will not be reached during climate talks in Copenhagen
next month. The announcement comes in the wake of delays in Congress on
climate legislation. A final agreement may be targeted in a subsequent
meeting in Mexico City.
EU-US Launch Coordinated
Nanotechnology Project. Last week the United
States and the European Union announced the launch of an effort to
coordinate research on the health and environmental impacts of
nanomaterials. U.S. agencies, such as the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), National Science Foundation (NSF), and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA), will coordinate with the European
Commission to review research proposals on the "behavior of engineered
nanomaterials in selected environmental and biological matrices." The
U.S. deadline for proposals is February 2, 2010, and the EC deadline is
January 28, 2010.
Global Alliance Seeks to Fight
Noncommunicable Disease. The Global
Alliance for Chronic Disease, an international group of
institutions
that accounts for roughly 80 percent of funding for public health
research, has declared three funding priorities for chronic
noncommunicable diseases. They are lowering hypertension, reducing
tobacco use, and decreasing indoor pollution caused by cooking stoves
in developing countries. Together, these diseases account for about
11.5 million deaths per year. According to the Alliance, the members
expect to invest "tens of millions of dollars in their first
coordinated research programs over five years."
Physics Organization Maintains
Stance on Climate Change. The American
Physical Society has opted
to let its 2007
Statement on Climate Change
stand, declining a petition from some members to replace it with one
that raised doubts about global warming. The vote followed the
recommendations of a scientific review panel established by APS.
Archived issues of AAAS Policy Alert
can be found at
http://www.aaas.org/spp/
Publisher: Alan I. Leshner
Editor: Erin Heath
Contributors: Joanne Carney, Patrick Clemins,
Mark Frankel, Barbara Jasny, Steve Nelson, Gretchen Seiler, Al Teich,
Jamie Wheeler, Kasey White, Brad Wible
NOTE: The AAAS Policy Alert is a newsletter provided to AAAS Members to
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