Gail Cassell, Chair of ASM's Public and Scientific Affairs Board (PSAB), presented testimony on behalf of the ASM before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, Chaired by Congressman John Porter (R-IL), on March 7. Dr. Cassell testified in support of increased funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for fiscal year 1997. She also recommended that Congress provide additional funding for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to increase funding for new emerging and drug resistant infections. The ASM recommended that Congress appropriate a 6.5 percent increase for the NIH. This increase reflects the funding needed for the institutes in the NIH's profession judgement budget. Dr. Cassell emphasized the urgency in addressing threats from new, emerging and drug resistant infections and presented the Subcommittee with information and documentation about the health and economic impact of infectious diseases. The ASM also provided information concerning the economic return on research discoveries in the microbiological sciences. A copy of the ASM's testimony is available on the ASM Homepage or by contacting the Public Affairs Office.
On March 5, ASM President-elect Kenneth I. Berns testified at a hearing, convened by the Senate Judiciary Committee to examine concerns arising from the interstate transportation of human pathogens. Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT), Chair of the Judiciary Committee, convened the hearing because of concerns about biological agents being used as weapons of mass destruction by terrorists and how access to them might be controlled. He cited a recent case involving the shipment of bubonic plague to a suspicious purchaser. Testifying at the hearing were Representative Markey (D-MA) and Representative Joseph Kennedy (D-MA) who have introduced legislation in the House (HR 3051 and HR 3033) to amend the U.S. criminal code to further restrict certain activities related to biological weapons and to control the transfer within the U.S. of infectious agents which have the potential to pose a severe threat to the public health and safety. Senator Hatch has introduced similar legislation in the Senate (S 1606). Barth Reller, Professor of Pathology and Director of Clinical Microbiology at Duke University Medical Center also testified at the hearing. The ASM testimony is available on the ASM Homepage or by contacting the Public Affairs Office.
The ASM hosted a meeting on February 22 to discuss how federal agencies can combine their resources to facilitate maximal scientific benefit from sequencing of specific microbial genomes. At the meeting, participants discussed mechanisms for identifying organisms of common interest and how joint sponsorship of genome sequencing projects could occur. The ability to sequence microbial genomes has great potential for generating vast amounts of data that can lead to understanding of gene structure functions, evolution, microbial diversity, and microbial physiology. However, limited resources require that intelligent decisions be made concerning which genomes to sequence. Limited resources may also mean that several funding sources be combined to facilitate the sequencing of genomes of mutual interest. The ASM/PSAB has prepared a framework for addressing issues related to microbial genome studies and is working to facilitate interagency cooperation. Representatives from the Health Effects and Life Sciences Research Division, Department of Energy, Energy Biosciences Division, Department of Energy, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Center for Human Genome Research, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Animal, Plant Health Inspection Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture attended the meeting at ASM.
In testimony before the House Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee on 7 March, Dr. Anne K. Vidaver, chair of the ASM Public and Scientific Affairs Board (PSAB) Committee on Agricultural, Food and Industrial Microbiology, urged Congress to increase funding for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program (NRICGP) by $34 million to $130 million. Dr. Vidaver also testified in support of the Coalition on Funding Agricultural Research Missions' (CoFARM) budget request for fiscal year (FY) 1997 including $231.6 million for base program funding, and $710.0 million for the Agricultural Research Service, which provides intramural research to support many USDA agencies. In addition, the ASM also urged Congress to support allocations of federal resources to assure the United States' continued growth and scientific leadership in the area of agricultural biotechnology. For a copy of the ASM's statement, please contact the ASM's Public Affairs Office at (202) 942-9209.
On 29 February 1996, the Subcommittee on Drinking Water of the Public and Scientific Affairs Board Committee on Environmental Microbiology fulfilled Representative Michael Bilirakis' (R-FL), chairman of the Health and Environment Subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee, request for a scientific analysis of legislation that would reauthorize the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). In the analysis, the subcommittee stated that there existed insufficient data on pathogens to conduct risk assessments, and suggested the need for the development of better data bases describing human health effects, pathogens and their occurrence in water. In addition, the subcommittee commented that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be mandated and given resources to cooperatively assess the risks of specific waterborne pathogens using risk assessment methods. In addition, CDC and EPA should work jointly to assess detection and treatment methods for ensuring that the water supplies used for drinking water are free of dangerous levels of pathogenic microorganisms. For more information regarding the reauthorization of the SDWA, please contact the Public and Scientific Affairs Office at (202) 942-9209.
At the 6 March Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC) meeting, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the ASM quality control (QC) initiative was on schedule to be published as part of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) final rule. The ASM QC project surveyed 85 clinical laboratories to determine appropriate QC procedure frequencies. Based on the survey results, ASM recommended to CLIAC that for certain analytes QC could be reduced without any decrease in testing quality. CLIAC endorsed the ASM recommendations, which have since been forwarded to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Alice Weissfeld, chair, Public and Scientific Affairs Board (PSAB) Committee on Professional Affairs, has been selected as the ASM delegate to the Laboratory Technical Advisory Committee (LTAC) for the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) Medicare demonstration project on competitive bidding for laboratory services. The project is intended to establish a pilot program in a defined area that will test the feasibility and effectiveness of establishing Medicare fees for clinical laboratory tests through a competitive bidding procedure. LTAC met in Baltimore, Md., on 8 March and will meet at least twice a year for the next 3 years.
The Partnership for Today's Medical Laboratory met for the first time in Washington, D.C., on 4 March to discuss joint communication goals for the clinical laboratory industry. Roberta Carey represented ASM at this meeting and will continue to represent ASM at future ones. Fifteen laboratory organizations are participating in the Partnership Initiative, including all of the professional laboratory scientific associations, the large reference and public health laboratories, and other members of the laboratory industry. The partnership was formed to explore ways to work together in the changing health-care environment. One future activity of the partnership will be to work on and share outcome research regarding clinical laboratory services and to publicize the cost-effectiveness of laboratory testing. A clearinghouse for such information may be established.
The National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) invited ASM to participate in the first Executive Advisory Group meeting to discuss establishing prospective worldwide standards for interconnected clinical laboratory automation. Daniel Sahm represented ASM at this initial meeting. The meeting was held to explore the level of interest among professional societies and the laboratory industry in the future of standardization of highly automated testing systems, including hardware, software, robotic, and laboratory information system interfacing.
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Created: May 6, 1996
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