Volume 19, Number 3
Inside UPDATE...
President Clinton released the FY 2001 proposed budget on February 7th. As promised, it contained what Presidential Science Adviser Neal Lane called "a historic science and technology budget." What the administration has called "The 21st Century Research Fund" will increase by $2.9 billion over the FY 2000 level. The Fund is an attempt to present science and technology budgets as one package.
As noted at a recent speech at Cal Tech, Clinton's proposed budget for the National Science Foundation (NSF) provides the largest dollar increase in its history. The $675 million, or 17 percent boost, would bring NSF funding to $4.6 billion. Almost one-half the increase, $320 million, would go to enhance support for core programs, rather than for new Foundation wide initiatives. NSF's Research and Related Activities account would increase by almost 20 percent to $3.54 billion. The Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE) would share in this enhancement with a potential increase of close to 20 percent to a total of $175 million. NSF has also made the cognitive, psychological, and linguistic sciences a special emphasis area in the proposed budget. NSF Director Rita Colwell called her proposed largesse, "a 21st Century budget for 21st Century science and engineering."
The National Institutes of Health would receive a $1 billion increase to almost $19 billion. Although only a 5.6 percent increase, it is widely expected that the Congress will keep NIH on the "doubling track" and provide a much larger increase than the President's proposal. NIH Acting Director Ruth Kirschstein has noted that NIH's priorities for FY 2001 include increased attention to health disparities research. NIH has established a working group, headed by NIH Acting Deputy Director Yvonne Maddox and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, to examine this topic. The NIH budget also includes $20 million to establish within the Office of Research on Minority Health (ORMH) a Coordinating Center for Health Disparities. Members of Congress have been pushing to create such a center to replace the ORMH, currently located within the Office of the Director.
The President's budget requested a total of $3.5 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a $201 million or 6 percent increase over FY 2000. If Congressionally approved, the FY 2001 budget for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality would provide a program level of $250 million, a $46 million or 22.6 percent increase over FY 2000.
The Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) received $199 million for research, development, and dissemination activities — $30 million more than its FY 2000 level. The increase includes funds to doubles OERI's commitment to $20 million from $10 million for the Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI) which would increase. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) received a 24 percent increase to $84 million from $68 million in the current year.
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) received an increase in its base funding to $49 million from its current funding of $43.4 million. NIJ's overall funding, when including budget transfers, will likely be four times its base funding. The request includes language that would set aside one percent of the sums appropriated to the programs of the OJP for the NIJ to carry out research and evaluation. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)received a nearly 30 percent increase — to $33.2 million from $25.5 million in FY 2000.
The Census Bureau's funding for the decennial census was reduced, as is common in the year that it is conducted since most of the preparation work is performed in the years leading up to the census. For FY 2001, the Bureau received $421 million to complete the head count and to compile and publish the data. Additionally, the President's request included $25 million for continued development and implementation of the American Community Survey (See related story, page 6).
For Agriculture and Rural Development spending, the President has proposed increasing the National Research Initiative Competitive Grants program to $150 million from its current $119.3 million. The administration also announced that it intends to continue spending for the Initiative for Future Food and Agriculture Systems and the Fund for Rural America. Unlike the past few years, the administration is not proposing to cut Hatch Act funds, but to keep it level funded at $181 million.
COSSA will fully report on the proposed budgets of all federal agencies affecting social and behavioral science research in its annual special issue of UPDATE. Look for it the week of March 6.
Norman M. Bradburn has been selected as the new Assistant Director for the National Science Foundation's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE). The Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University Chicago, Bradburn becomes the third person to lead the directorate since its establishment in 1991. He succeeds Bennett Bertenthal, who has become Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. Bertenthal replaced Cora Marrett, now the Provost at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the inaugural Assistant Director.
The new Assistant Director is also the Vice President and Director of Research at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. An expert in survey methodology, Bradburn has also served three terms as NORC's President from 1967 to 1992. In between, he was the Provost of the University of Chicago from 1984 to 1989.
No stranger to Washington and the policy world, Bradburn served as Chairman of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on National Statistics from 1993 to 1998, led the Panel to Evaluate Alternative Census Methods, produced the report Counting People in the Information Age (1994), and is currently a member of the research and advisory panel of the U.S. General Accounting Office.
As a scientist, Bradburn pioneered in the application of cognitive psychology to questionnaire design and methodological problems in survey research. His books with Seymour Sudman, Thinking About Answers: The Application of Cognitive Processes to Survey Methodology (1996); Polls and Surveys: What They Tell Us (1988); Asking Questions (1982); Improving Interview Methods and Questionnaire Design (1979); and Response Effects Surveys: A Review and Synthesis (1966), have made huge contributions to the field of public opinion and survey research. With Dorothy Gilford, he edited a volume Framework and Principles for International Education (1990).
He received B.A. degree from the University of Chicago and Magdalen College, Oxford, an M.A. in clinical psychology from Harvard, and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Statistical Institute, and a fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA), a member organization of COSSA. Bradburn is expected to take the reins at SBE on March 13th. Until then, Wanda Ward will remain as SBE's Acting Assistant Director (See UPDATE, January 10, 2000, No. 1).
The 106th Congress' second session has finally begun. Following the President's State of the Union address on January 27th, the Republican leaders of the legislature have pledged to move quickly to achieve their agenda for this election-shortened session. What is that agenda?
First, the leaders have agreed to pass the Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 budget resolution a month ahead of the April 15th deadline in the budget law. This will put pressure on Senate Budget Chair Pete Domenici (R-NM) and House Budget Chair John Kasich (R-OH) to figure out how to spend an ever-increasing surplus and how much tax cutting they want. With the Congressional Budget Office predicting much larger budget surpluses for the next ten years, the debate again will be over how much to save for Social Security and Medicare, how much to pay off the national debt , how much to spend on domestic and defense discretionary spending, and how much tax relief to provide. Most of these issues are also part of the debates on the presidential campaign trail.
The appropriations committees are moving quickly to begin hearings on the agencies under their jurisdiction. Both the President and the Congress appear to have reached a consensus to scrap the caps that were supposed to, but have not, limited spending in the past few years. The Republican leadership clearly does not want a repeat of last year's haggling over agency and program spending that carried on after the new fiscal year had begun.
Representative John Porter (R-IL), chairman of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, has announced his retirement. One assumes that he will want to give his favorite agency, the National Institutes of Health, a parting gift. Thus, the President's $1 billion proposed increase, will, with the help of Porter and his Senate counterpart Arlen Specter (R-PA), most likely be boosted to keep NIH on the "doubling in five years" track. The National Science Foundation, as always, finds itself in an appropriations subcommittee competing with other priorities such as veterans' affairs, subsidized housing, space, natural disasters, and the environment.
With time limited to not much more than 60 legislative days between now and the projected adjournment date in early October (a legislative day is when Congress is actually in session), the outlook for major legislation is not good. Reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is a priority. Major fundamental differences between the White House and Congress on how much local control of federal funds should be allowed, will make this a difficult test. Whether the reauthorization of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement occurs likely depends on how quickly ESEA gets done.
After a short two year authorization in the last go round, it is time for the Congress to take another look at NSF. The House Basic Research Committee's Chair Representative Nick Smith (R-MI) gets first crack at this one. The full House Science Committee chair, Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), is probably serving his last year as head of the panel. Representative Ralph Hall (D-TX) is serving his first full year as Ranking Democrat, having moved up after the death of George Brown in 1999. Hall, who has been in Congress since 1981, is one of the many Texas representatives who gravitate to the science committee because of their interest in space and the Johnson Space Center and energy policy. He is one of the more conservative Democrats in the House.
Juvenile justice legislation remains on the priority list. Whether Congress can reach any kind of agreement on this issue, which includes gun control, is unclear. The reorganization of the Office of Justice Programs, which was part of the Senate bill, may occur separately from the success or failure of the legislation. The House continues to discuss two competing database protection bills, each trying to balance access and fair use vs. fair compensation for compilers. H.R. 354, sponsored by Representative Howard Coble (R-NC), does this less well than H.R. 1858, sponsored by Representative Thomas Bliley (R- VA), according to the data user community.
As many commentators noted, the President, as usual, laid out a laundry list of proposals in the State of the Union address, including the science and technology initiative (See UPDATE, January 24, 2000, No.2). The bitter partisanship that has marked the divided government we have had since 1995 remains, heightened by the upcoming elections. The Republican hold on the House for 2001 is tenuous. The prognosis for agreements and significant legislation is not good; reforming Social Security and Medicare are now considered off the table. Yet, in 1996 the White House and Congress cooperated to the extent that both felt they could tout their accomplishments in that year's election. Could this happen again?
While former Director Harold Varmus may have already left the National Institutes of Health (NIH), current Acting Director Ruth Kirschstein says the NIH "expects to continue the course set by" Varmus. Speaking at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advisory Council, Kirschstein discussed the future of NIH and the upcoming appropriations process.
Before turning the microphone over the NIDDK's new director, Allen Speigel, Kirschstein noted that the NIH plans to continue meeting scientific opportunities as they occur. She said that the NIH would "continue to encourage the best science possible." She also noted that she had no idea how long she would be in the Acting Director position. Rumors suggest that Gerald Fischbach, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), is the White House's choice to succeed Harold Varmus as NIH director.
Kirschstein stressed that NIH knows that Congress has "been extraordinarily generous" in providing it resources. She said, however, if the NIH is to meet the goal of doubling the agency's budget in five years, the coming fiscal year requires a considerable increase in resources over the current fiscal year. She acknowledged that some question whether the NIH can absorb the funding increases in an effective manner. In other words, critics question whether the agency is funding new scientifically creative research or if is it just adding dollars to the coffers of experienced investigators. Kirschstein countered that mindset by stressing that there is "plenty of good science to do," and that it is a "question of how [NIH] tells our story." She has instructed Institute directors to emphasize what the agency has done with the increases provided by Congress and what the agency plans to do in "specific terms that can be understood."
President Clinton has named Robert Solow one of the recipients of the 2000 National Medal of Science. Solow, Economics Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was cited "for creating the modern framework for analyzing the effects of investment and technological progress on economic growth, which has greatly influenced economics and economic policy worldwide." Solow, who has won the Nobel Prize, will receive his medal in a White House ceremony on March 14. He joins 11 other winners from the other sciences, including Cal Tech President David Baltimore and best-selling author of Guns, Germs and Steel, physiologist Jared Diamond. Last year, William Julius Wilson of Harvard, was the "social science" recipient of the Medal, which was established by Congress in 1959 and has been awarded to 374 distinguished scientists and engineers.
Ending several months of speculation, President Clinton announced on February 2 his intention to nominate Lauress L. Wise II as commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics at the Department of Education. Wise is currently the president of the Human Resources Research Organization, a nonprofit organization that contracts with both the federal government and the private sector to conduct high quality research on human resource issues and to products and services that improve individual and organizational performance. Wise served on the National Academy of Science's committee to evaluate the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). He received his Ph.D. in mathematical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Wise's appointment requires Senate confirmation.
Mary Lou Leary has been named Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs (OJP). Leary, currently a Deputy Associate Attorney General, replaces Laurie Robinson, who announced her resignation earlier this year. Leary will officially take over OJP's reins at the end of February.
According to the Report of the National Advisory Mental Health Council Behavioral Science Workgroup, "[b]ehavioral science can offer critical insights into the nature of mental illness and health and the processes and interventions that can prevent illness or lead from disorder to remission, recovery, and rehabilitation." The Workgroup, chaired by Anne C. Petersen of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Robert W. Levenson, of the University of California, Berkeley, presented the Report at the National Advisory Mental Health Council at the February 4 meeting. The report, Translating Behavioral Science into Action, notes that the behavioral science field "which has yielded great practical benefits for education, the military and industry, as well as many health areas, has much more to offer in mental health. Many findings that might inform interventions have not yet been applied in the clinical services domain; others remain to be explored and developed."
The report makes recommendations that are designed to help NIMH overcome the barriers to fostering translational research which in the behavioral and social sciences "addresses how basic behavioral processes inform the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and delivery of services for mental illness, and conversely, how knowledge of mental illness increases our understanding of basic behavioral processes."
The report targets three specific areas of study in which the push of research progress converges with the pull of public health need to create prime targets for intensified study: 1) basic behavioral processes in mental health; 2) functional abilities in mental illness; and 3) contextual influences on mental illness and its care. The Workgroup believes that these priority areas "are critical starting points for progress in translational science because they are at the interface of what end-users have identified as important and what behavioral science researchers regard as areas of opportunity."
Observing that because the three priority behavioral research areas are so central to the core mission of NIMH, the report suggests it may seem puzzling that it would have to highlight them for "special encouragement." The Workgroup notes that such research is sparse at best in the Institute's portfolio, "suggesting that these are difficult areas to develop." The report further notes that presently there are too few researchers attempting to bridge across basic, clinical, and services research. Additionally, there are not enough researchers working with colleagues in related allied disciplines to move research advances out of the laboratory and into clinical care, service delivery, and the policy making fields.
The Workgroup also notes that NIMH "stimulates outstanding mental health research through a blend of scientific leadership and efficient research administration. As the leading supporter of basic and clinical behavioral science, as well as treatment research and services research related to mental illness, NIMH is strongly positioned to build a successful and enduring program of translational behavioral research." The Workgroup further believes that in order to establish a strengthened program of translational behavioral science research at NIMH it will require special effort and incentives to overcome extensive structural, financial, and attitudinal barriers.
Some of the report's recommendations include:
Establish and publicize translational behavioral science research as priority funding area for NIMH and to develop a coherent strategy for its systematic development.
Stimulate NIMH-funded research centers to provide an infrastructure for new research, speed the translational findings, and encourage interaction across basic, clinical and services research.
Develop innovative approaches to supporting translational research.
Train researchers at all career levels to conduct translation behavioral research.
Facilitate appropriate and rapid funding of outstanding translational research.
For more information, contact the National Institute of Mental Health at http://www.nimh.nih.gov.
The Census 2000 Initiative held a February 2nd briefing to discuss the importance of data collected through the so-called "long-form" in the decennial census. Speakers representing various data-user groups noted the importance of the vital demographic information that allows local, State, and federal officials to craft public policy and distribute funds. The information gleaned from the long-form, according to one of the speakers, allows many groups to answer questions about "who we are," "where we've come from," and "where we're going as a nation."
The long-form is a census questionnaire delivered to a small segment of the population — approximately 1 out of 6 households receive the long-form. The questionnaire contains 52 questions on 33 different topics. The 33 topics, according to the Census 2000 Initiative, are all included because federal law mandates their inclusion in the decennial census, the legal system requires that the data be collected, or federal law requires it for program implementation and the decennial census is the only or historic source for the information.
The long form asks questions on many different topics, including income, marital status, language spoken at home, place of work and journey to work. It also goes into great detail on housing conditions, including number of bedrooms, house heating fuel, kitchen and plumbing facilities, telephone services, and selected monthly owner costs (utilities and fuels, mortgages, taxes, and insurance).
Jacqueline Byers, of the National Association of Counties, noted that the demographic data collected through the census is important for county officials because it allows them to determine land-use planning and the proper allocation of space for growth, as well as the infrastructure needs of different communities. David Crowe, from the National Association of Home Builders and representing the Housing Statistics Users Group, noted that the long-form allows communities and home builders to estimate housing demand and housing conditions throughout local communities. Deborah Weinstein, of the Children's Defense Fund, said, "The long-form is important if you care about the health and well-being of our nation's children." She noted that long-form data provide information on school conditions and if they are equipped to handle handicapped children and children who speak English as a second language. Additionally, the data allow officials to determine parents' work patterns, day care needs, demand for after school programs, and what type of racial disparities exist and where.
Weinstein, and the other speakers, offered support for the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), and called on the data- user community for their backing of the survey. The ACS is a monthly household survey that when fully operational will provide more timely and up-to-date information on America's communities than the current long form. It will provide information similar to that gathered by the long form, but unlike the long form which updates this data only every ten years the ACS data will be updated every year.
In 1999, the ACS was conducted in 31 comparison sites which will give a good tract-by-tract comparison between the 1999-2001 ACS cumulated estimates and the Census 2000 long form estimates. The comparison process will allow the Bureau to determine the differences between the ACS and the long form. In 2000-2001, the Bureau will conduct the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey of 700,000 household units using methods similar to the ACS to determine whether the ACS is a fair replacement for the decennial long form. The results of this survey will be available in July 2001. By 2003, the Bureau, with Congressional approval and funding, plans to introduce the ACS in every county throughout the country with an annual sample of three million housing units. Once its is up and running, the ACS will sample 250,000 households per month for an annual sample of 3 million households. The Bureau expects to replace the long form with the ACS by the 2010 decennial census. For the ACS funding picture in the President's FY 2001 request, see budget story on page 2.
The Luxembourg Income Study is currently accepting applications for its Summer Workshop to be held in Differdange, Luxembourg from July 9 to July 15. The workshop is a one week pre- and post-doctoral workshop designed to introduce young scholars in the social science to comparative research in income distribution and social policy using the LIS database. The LIS has made comparable over 75 large microdata sets which contain comprehensive measure os income and economic well-being for a set of over 25 modern industrialized welfare states. The language of instruction will be English, and the course of study will include a mix of lectures and assistance and direction using the LIS database. For more information about the workshop, contact: Kati Foley, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 13244-1020; lisaa@maxwell.syr.edu (Email); or Caroline de Tombeur, LIS at CEPS/INSTEAD, B.P. 48, L-4501, Differdange, LUX, caroline@lissy.ceps.lu (Email). The deadline for applications is May 1. For an application form, check the webpage: http://lissy.ceps.lu/index.htm.
COSSA provides this information as a service and encourages readers to contact the agency for further information or application materials. Additional application guidelines and restrictions may apply.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
Letter of Intent Deadline: March 24, 2000
Application Deadline: April 25, 2000
The NIDDK and the NICHD invite investigator-initiated research grant applications to study the epidemiology, natural history, pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of type 2 diabetes in children in the U.S. For more information regarding this RFA No. DK-00-008 contact: Barbara Linder, NIDDK, Bldg. 45, Room 5AN18A, 45 Center Drive MSC 6600, Bethesda, MD 20892-6600; 301/594-0021 (Telephone); LinderB@extra.niddk.nih.gov (Email).
Letter of Intent Deadline: March 10, 2000
Application Deadline: April 27, 2000
The AHRQ, formerly the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), invites applications to conduct cooperative agreement demonstration projects which specifically focus on evaluating strategies for translating research into practice through the development of partnerships between researchers and health care systems and organizations. For more information regarding this RFA No. HS-00-008, contact: Joanne Book, Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, AHRQ, 6010 Executive Boulevard, Suite 300, Rockville, MD 20852; 301/594-4039 (Telephone); jbook@ahcpr.gov (Email).