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Public Affairs Report
ASM Participates in CDC Planning Meeting on Global Infectious Diseases
On 13-14 November, Gail Casell, chair of the ASM Public and Scientific Affairs Board, participated in a meeting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to discuss global infectious disease strategy and review CDC's plan for global health. The CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry have prepared a global health strategy, called "Working with Partners to Improve Global Health: A Strategy for CDC and ATSDR," which defines goals in five areas of public health, including: capacity building, disease and injury prevention and control, applied research for effective health policies, and exchange of information and lessons learned. The impetus for this effort is the increasing influence of determinants arising outside the country on U.S. health, the mutual benefits of improving the health of other countries, the benefits of sharing U.S. public health expertise with international partners, and the need to respond to health consequences of international emergencies.
Record Increases for FY 2001 Research Appropriations
On 15 December 2000, the House and Senate approved the FY 2001 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) received a 14.2% increase, or $2.5 billion over last year's level for a total of $20.3 billion for FY 2001. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received an increase of $830 million over FY 2000, a 27% increase, for a total of $3.9 billion in FY 2001. CDC’s Infectious Diseases programs were increased to $181.7 million, an $84 million increase over FY 2000. Within the amount provided, $25 million was earmarked for antimicrobial resistance detection, surveillance, education, and research. Another $25 million, $20 million over the president's request, was set aside for CDC to expand efforts including laboratory testing activities in response to the West Nile Virus. Funding also increased for tuberculosis programs ($126.5 million), sexually transmitted disease programs ($148.2 million), immunization programs ($525.5 million), and HIV/AIDS programs ($767.2 million). Funding in the amount of $181.1 million from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund was allocated to the CDC for bioterrorism activities including $2 million to continue to discover, develop and transition anti-infective agents to combat emerging diseases, $18 million for anthrax research, and $32 million for a national health alert network. In addition, Congress earmarked $60.1 million for the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Emergency Preparedness for bioterrorism-related activities.
Congress approved $175 million, an increase of $118 million, for CDC to meet its facilities needs and repairs and planned construction and upgrades to modernize the CDC's inadequate and outmoded physical plant. ASM recommended that Congress provide this amount in the CDC's fiscal year 2001 budget. The Food and Drug Administration received a 4% increase, or $35 million, and was funded at a level of $1.2 billion for fiscal year 2001. Attached to the FY 2001 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill, was the so-called Medicare "Givebacks" bill. Of interest to laboratories is the establishment of a National Limitation Amount (NLA) for new clinical laboratory tests at 100% of the national median for such tests; the establishment of public consultation for coding and payment determinations for new clinical diagnostic laboratory tests; and an arrangement to allow independent laboratories to direct bill for two years (2001-02) for the technical component of pathology services provided to hospital inpatients and outpatients. Final Report language accompanying the FY 2001 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education funding bill requires the General Accounting Office (GAO) to study the effect of the technical component of physician pathology services on hospitals, laboratories, and access of fee-for-services beneficiaries. Throughout the year, ASM engaged in a number of activities to gain final approval of the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education funding bill, including participation in a press conference on Capitol Hill on 11 December to stress the urgency of completing the funding bill when it was being held up by a long series of continuing resolutions.
Major Increases for NSF and DOE Science Programs
The National Science Foundation (NSF) received a budget increase of 13.6%, bringing its total budget to $4.4 billion in FY 2001. The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science got a 13% increase, and Department of Defense basic research was boosted to a level of 14.3%. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) science and technology programs went up 8.4%, although the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Research Intiative fell almost 11% below FY 2000. The total federal Research and Development budget rose 9.1%.
ASM Supports Continuing Efforts To Strengthen NSF Funding
On 15 January, ASM endorsed a letter from the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) asking Congress and the Bush Administration to continue efforts toward the doubling of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) budget by 2006. The Coalition recommends that legislators and the new administration work toward, at a minimum, a $5.1 billion (15% increase) budget for FY 2002. The letter also commends Congress and the administration for providing NSF's 2001 budget with its largest dollar increase in the agency's history and specifically thanks several members of the House and Senate for their individual efforts, including Congressman James Walsh (R-N.Y.) and Senators Christopher Bond (R-Mo.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).
The Coalition hopes an early push in 2001 will garner the same support and success for NSF funding that was achieved in the FY 2001 budget. With NSF the primary source of federal support for non-medical basic research in colleges and universities, it will be critical to NSF’s future budgetary success that momentum be maintained with the new Congress and Administration.
New ASM Booklet on Role of Microbes in Climatic Change
The Public and Scientific Affairs Board (PSAB) has recently completed its latest informational booklet on global climate change, which explores the role microbes' play in the natural phenomenon of global warming. The booklet, Global Environmental Change: Microbial Contributions, Microbial Solutions, provides background information on the problem of global environmental change and emphasizes the critical role of research in responding to environmental and public health issues which currently confront policy makers. The booklet represents the efforts of PSAB’s Subcommittee on Global Climate Change, chaired by Gary King of the University of Maine and consisting of David Kirchman (University of Delaware), Abigail A. Salyers (University of Illinois), William Schlesinger (Duke University), and James M. Tiedje (Michigan State University).
The booklet makes four recommendations to enhance microbiological solutions to global change challenges and expand ongoing research efforts. (i) Integrate an understanding of microbiological processes from individual organisms to entire ecosystems in organizations pursuing global warming research. This will lead, in part, to an improved understanding of the budgets and controls of trace gases (CO2, CH4, and NO2) in the climate. (ii) Discover, characterize, and harness the abilities of microbes that are key components in the transformation of trace gases and toxic elements. (iii) Establish multiyear research programs that draw on the strengths of microbiology, chemistry and other sciences (climatology, geochemistry, etc.). (iv) Begin training tomorrow's scientists and policy makers for tomorrow's complex environmental problems.
Global Environmental Change: Microbial Contributions, Microbial Solutions [PDF]
A copy of Global Environmental Change: Microbial Contributions, Microbial Solutions will be available during the ASM General Meeting at the Public Affairs booth. A link to the booklet is available on ASM’s Public Affairs website.
ASM Adds New Advocacy Tool to Website
The ASM Office of Public Affairs has added a new advocacy tool to its website to aid members in communicating with their congressional representatives. The website "Contacting Congress" allows members to draft e-mails and send them directly from the website to their Senators or Representatives. During key times in the congressional process Public Affairs will post legislative alerts to inform ASM members that they can take action. Website users can either draft their own letters or use suggested letter text provided by the Office of Public Affairs. The website also lets users search for their congressional representatives by zip code, read biographies of key congressional leaders and provides a House and Senate legislative schedule that is updated daily.
The Office of Public Affairs used the website for the first time during the final days of the 106th Congress during appropriations negotiations. Over 600 letters and e-mails were sent by ASM members to their congressional representatives from the website on biomedical research and public health appropriations issues. If you have any questions regarding the new website please contact the Office of Public Affairs at publicaffairs@asmusa.org .
Email: webmaster@asmusa.org