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June 24, 2002
APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS BEGINS: HHS, NSF, NIJ TO COME LATER
With Congress still finishing up the FY 2002 Supplemental Appropriations bill (see next column), the FY 2003 appropriations process commenced with House Subcommittee markups of the Military Construction bill on June 12 and the Defense bill on June 19.
The markups have been delayed because of the Supplemental. The proposed creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the shifting of 22 agencies, has slowed the process further. The House hopes to complete its consideration of the Agriculture, Interior, Legislative Branch, and Treasury, Postal appropriations bills before the August recess, now scheduled to begin July 29. Subcommittee action on these bills is expected the week of June 24.
This suggests that once again the huge Labor, Health and Human Services, Education bill will come last. The spending decisions in the VA, HUD, Independent Agencies bill, which includes the appropriation for the National Science Foundation, and the Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary bill, which includes funding for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Census Bureau, will also not start until September.
Complicating the situation is that the House and Senate are about $9 billion apart on the total allocation for FY 2003 discretionary spending. House Appropriations Committee Chairman C. W. Bill Young (R-FL) has suggested that the House simply does not have sufficient funds to make allocation decisions without significant cuts to important programs. The expectation is that the Senate will increase the House numbers to “realistic” levels. There is also the hope that in the endgame, as members of Congress seek to establish re-election credentials, more funds will be found for programs.
FY 2002 Supplemental
President Bush, as most presidents do, sought more funding in the current fiscal year for certain programs through a supplemental appropriations act. The President’s $28.4 billion proposal focused mainly on programs related to national security and homeland defense. The House passed its version of the bill (H.R. 4775) on May 24, allocating $30.1 billion. The Senate enacted its version (S. 2551) on June 7, adding about $3 billion to the Bush figure. The President has threatened to veto the bill if it costs as much as the Senate version. The bill is now in a House-Senate conference committee.
Included in the legislation are a number of items providing additional funds for social and behavioral science related activities. The House bill contains $20 million for educational and cultural exchange programs, of which $10 million would be a contingent emergency appropriation that could be allocated upon a specific request from the State Department. The rest of the funding would go for media training and English teaching programs targeted at improving communication and understanding with the Muslim world. The Senate version has $9 million in this vein, of which $4 million is allocated to the Fulbright program to expand its existing programs in Islamic countries. The Senate also provides $2 million for English language programs and $3 million to the Afghan Women’s Council.
Both bills also include funding to the U.S. Geological Survey to map infrastructure in 120 urban areas across the United States. The House provided $25.7 million and the Senate $20 million. The Senate also allocated $6.8 million to the Earth Resources Observation System Data Center (EDC) to upgrade the storage of its archived data.
The House appropriated $4 million to the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, for research and training. The funding includes support for psychological distress research on those high-risk individuals subject to various exposures as result of the terrorist attacks. The Senate gave the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention $315 million, of which $215 million will go towards the construction of new facilities in Atlanta.
The Senate also included $16 million to the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service for enhanced extension activities related to homeland security in rural areas. The funds would expand the Extension Disaster Education Network to serve as a national first response program in rural areas including components of awareness, risk assessment, mitigation, and recovery.
Finally, the Senate, in its discussion of the Office of Domestic Preparedness in the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), notes that it has “long supported increased capacity for research and development aimed at combating terrorism. The focal point for terrorism-related R&D is the National Institute of Justice under OJP. Since 1998, NIJ has directed approximately $150 million toward terrorism-related research and development.” The Senate did not, however, provide additional funds.
DOUBLING NSF BUDGET GAINS MORE SUPPORT AT SENATE HEARING
On June 19 the effort to double the budget of the National Science Foundation (NSF) moved to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA). As key VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Appropriations panel members Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Christopher Bond (R-MO) also sit on the HELP Committee, the doubling noise was overwhelming.
Under a deal struck many years ago, the Senate’s jurisdiction over the NSF authorization is shared by two committees. The Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee concerns itself with NSF’s research activities and the HELP Committee examines the Foundation’s education and human resources activities. In reality, both Committees look at all of NSF. The Commerce panel held its hearing on May 22. (See Update, May 24, 2002).
Kennedy made clear that he thinks NSF deserves more funds, noting it has “made a difference in the lives of millions of Americans.” He also joined the many others who have made the link between basic research in the physical sciences and engineering and the advances in biomedicine. In addition, he was quite concerned with the shortage of American- born students who are entering science and engineering professions.
NSF Director Rita Colwell, in the course of her testimony and during responses to questions, noted the Foundation’s new priority area in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. She also mentioned the importance of understanding human-computer interactions.
Former Senator John Glenn (D-OH) was warmly welcomed back by his former colleagues in his appearance as a witness at the hearing. He spoke about the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, which he chaired, and its report Before It’s Too Late. Like many others, he decried the quality of teaching in math and science in the K-12 system, noting oft-cited facts about the number of people untrained to teach these subjects. He also reiterated many times the difficulties our education system has because of the insistence on local control. “We have 14,700 local school boards doing their own thing,” he said, making it hard to implement significant changes to boost teacher quality and improve curricula.
Glenn also noted that he had heard a witness in an earlier hearing call for a tripling of NSF’s budget (former Speaker Newt Gingrich at the Commerce Committee hearing). He wanted to improve on that and called for increasing the NSF budget fivefold.
Senators James Jeffords (I-VT) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) also attended the hearing and expressed their strong support for NSF. Jeffords called for increased teacher pay as a solution to the teacher quality problem. Clinton advocated better use of research to make policy, suggesting Congress is often “an evidence free zone” when it enacts legislation.
Kennedy and Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings (D-SC) are expected to introduce their version of the NSF authorization soon. The House passed its bill on June 5.
SENATE HEARING CONSIDERS ILLINOIS DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM
On June 12, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Constitution Subcommittee convened a hearing to assess the Illinois moratorium on executions issued by Governor George Ryan (R) in January 2001. Northwestern Law Professor Lawrence Marshall joined Ryan and a number of others with expertise on the death penalty as witnesses.
Subcommittee Chairman Russell Feingold (D-WI) opened the hearing by praising the Governor for issuing the moratorium and appointing a blue-ribbon Commission to review the state’s death penalty system and advise on needed fixes. The Commission’s membership included former U.S. Senator Paul Simon (D-IL), Illinois Deputy Governor for Criminal Justice Policy Matthew Bettenhausen, and best-selling author Scott Turow.
Feingold continued by pointing to the presence in the hearing room of three men who at one time had been on death row but were later exonerated and released, saying “These are not abstractions, they are real people, innocent men who suffered for years under the very real possibility of being put to death for crimes they did not commit.” The Chairman concluded his statement by noting that he introduced a bill (S. 233) that would place a moratorium on Federal executions and create a National Commission to examine administration of the death penalty on both the Federal and State levels.
The first witness panel featured Governor Ryan, who testified via teleconference due to a budget crisis that kept him in Illinois. He indicated to the Subcommittee that for many years he was a supporter of the death penalty. As a result of the exoneration of 13 individuals on death row, however, Ryan decided to issue the moratorium because “to put it simply, we had a better than fifty-fifty chance of executing an innocent person in Illinois. The odds of justice being done were as arbitrary as the flip of a coin.” He recognized the problem present in his state and acknowledged that “there was no justice in the justice system” if innocent people could possibly be executed as a direct result of flaws in state procedure. “We must protect the innocent,” concluded the Governor, and he encouraged other states to closely examine their justice systems.
The second panel featured testimony from several members of the Governor’s Commission as well as distinguished lawyers and death penalty experts. Bettenhausen, who served as Executive Director, testified about research initiated by the Commission. The areas of study were divided into three research efforts: cases involving the thirteen men released from death row, review of the cases in which a death sentence was imposed, and the examination of laws of other states with the death penalty. After reviewing the results, Bettenhausen stated “. . . it became clear that there were some unanswered needs that should be addressed by prosecutors, courts and our social service networks.” To ensure that no innocent person faces wrongful prosecution, the Commission has proposed 85 recommendations for improving Illinois’ capital punishment system.
Kent Scheidegger, Legal Director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, testified in opposition to Ryan’s moratorium by expressing his belief that the execution of criminals will save innocent lives. He told the Subcommittee that “a study at the University of Houston estimated that a temporary halt on executions in Texas to resolve a legal question cost over 200 lives in a single state.” Based on this evidence, Scheidegger argued that a moratorium could lead to detrimental effects for innocent people because criminals would no longer face the death penalty as a deterrent against crime.
Wrongful Convictions
Rounding out the panel was Lawrence Marshall, Professor at the Northwestern University School of Law, who informed the Subcommittee about research conducted on wrongful convictions. Marshall, who also serves as Legal Director of the Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions, attributed the three leading causes of wrongful conviction to eyewitness error, false confessions, and informant testimony. Although emphasizing the wrongful convictions in Illinois, he stressed that “Illinois does not convict more innocent people than other states do; Illinois has simply done a better job of exposing its errors.”
Changing his focus, Marshall noted that although the United States is a society that fosters technological advancements, DNA testing in capital punishment cases cannot be the only means of determining guilt or innocence. “We must avoid taking false comfort, then, in the current availability of DNA testing. We must recognize that for every person whose innocence can be established through DNA testing, there are many equally innocent defendants whose lives depend on the fortuities of the right witness emerging at the right time.” Acknowledging that the justice system, with regard to capital punishment, in Illinois needs improvement, Marshall, like Governor Ryan, encouraged other states to allow their death penalty to be examined.
The Outlook
While it’s unclear what impact the Illinois example will have on the national death penalty debate, Governor Parris Glendening (D-MD) recently followed Ryan’s lead and declared a moratorium in Maryland pending the results of a University of Maryland study on the state’s criminal justice system. And while S. 233 faces an uncertain future, the Innocence Protection Act (S. 486/H.R. 912), a separate piece of legislation that would ensure DNA testing is conducted in certain Federal cases, has numerous sponsors in both houses of Congress and could win passage this year.
INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH MEETS WITH 'PARTNERS IN RESEARCH’
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has a “significant public health mission,” observed Acting Director Richard Nakumara presiding over the Institute’s Sixth Annual Research Roundtable: Partners in Research Progress on June 20. Of the ten leading causes of disability in the United States and other developed countries, four are mental disorders: major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Nakamura noted that by 2020, depression, which is second only to heart disease in life-years lost from illness, is expected to be the second leading cause of disability in the world. In addition, one-third of job loss is due to mental illness, he explained. “This is an extraordinary significant burden on health and productivity in the U.S. and throughout the world,” related Nakamura to a room of NIMH’s partners, representatives of research and professional organizations with a stake in the Institute’s research agenda, including COSSA.
NIMH is very proud of its research portfolio, from the most basic molecular research, to studies involving animals such as pigeons and sea slugs, to sophisticated, difficult, and complex clinical and health services research, Nakamura told the group. He highlighted the Institute’s efforts in several areas including: mental health services research, biodefense, human genome, and anxiety and mood disorders.
Mental health services research. Exciting progress and advances in health services research occurred over the last year, yet the dilemma of how to “best weave research, practice and policy to improve care” arose, said Nakamura. The Institute, he continued, is now confronting serious challenges to find effective solutions, tackle unmet mental health service needs, reduce health disparities, and provide equitable and effective treatments for mental illness in a managed-care era. The research is at a crossroads; moving what has been learned from controlled clinical trials into the community has been more difficult than had been imagined. In developing new research designs, many questions have arisen. For instance, “Will it matter to recruitment, retention, or study results if some of the people receiving this treatment live in substandard housing and do not have access to transportation?” NIMH is committed to pursuing a wide range of studies of mental health services, he emphasized.
Biodefense. Nakamura acknowledged that the events of September 11th focused a spotlight on trauma and its after effects, including mental illnesses such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and expanded the dialogue among many Americans about treatment. He observed that enormous progress was made toward reducing the stigma associated with mental illness; however, it still needs to be addressed.
Human genome. It is critically important for mental disorder research to capitalize on the fruits of the genome projects. It is often not recognized, however, that “genetics creates new opportunities, not only for biologists, but also for behavioral scientists,” explained Nakamura. He emphasized that the “long-term NIMH investment in behavioral science research has yielded a wealth of opportunities for developing and applying behavioral science knowledge and methods to benefit clinical, intervention, and services research and, ultimately, clinical care.”
All aspects of basic behavioral science can contribute to improved clinical care. And basic behavioral science promises to contribute to the development of a new generation of therapeutic and preventive interventions for many mental illnesses, stressed Nakamura.
Anxiety and mood disorders. Anxiety disorders are chronic, unremitting, and can grow progressively worse. As a group, they are the most common mental illness in America. While there are effective treatments that can help, “we have a long way to go before we understand these disorders fully or have treatments that work for everyone. . . Like heart disease and diabetes, these brain disorders are complex and probably result from a combination of genetic, behavioral, developmental, and other factors,” stated Nakamura.
Mood Disorders Strategic Plan Highlighted
To address anxiety and mood disorders, the Institute has developed a strategic plan, “Breaking Ground, Breaking Through: The Strategic Plan for Mood Disorders Research of the National Institute of Mental Health. The plan addresses two types of mood disorders: major depression and bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness.
The strategic plan contains 52 research objectives that form its core. It addresses brain science, genetics, behavior, treatment, prevention, and service systems and the delivery of treatment. In addition, special segments of the population with particular needs – women, children, the elderly, members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and persons who simultaneously have a mood disorder and another general medical illness – are addressed.
For more information on NIMH see www.nimh.nih.gov.
DECADE BRIEFING FOCUSES ON PUBLIC RESPONSE TO TERRORISM
On June 18 COSSA joined the American Political Science Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Sociological Association in sponsoring a congressional briefing entitled Reactions to Terrorism: Attitudes and Anxieties. The event was held under the guise of the Decade of Behavior, a multidisciplinary initiative stretching from 2000-2010 to focus the talents, energy, and creativity of the social and behavioral sciences on meeting many of society’s most significant challenges; COSSA Executive Director Howard Silver served as moderator.
Reactions to 9/11 Attacks
Michael Traugott, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication Studies, and Senior Research Scientist, Institute of Social Research (ISR), University of Michigan, presented Six Months Later: American Attitudes and Beliefs Changed by 9/11. He explained that the study was compiled by a diverse group of ISR researchers, and it was designed to measure personal reactions and psychological responses to the attacks, effects on children and families, and attitudes about civil liberties and anti-terrorism measures.
According to Traugott the study took the form of two waves of household telephone surveys. The first wave (W1) was carried out between September and October, 2001 and included 752 contacts. The second wave (W2) was completed during March and April of this year; 613 households were interviewed again, and 151 new contacts were made. Results from the surveys include:
· Forty-nine percent of W1 respondents indicated that the attacks shook their personal sense of safety and security either a great deal or a good amount.
· That 49 percent followed the news coverage of the attacks more closely than households that were less shaken by the terrorism.
· Male respondents were less likely to be shaken by the attacks than females.
· More than half of the respondents showed at least one depressive symptom following the attacks.
· Respondents shaken by the attacks were more likely to support varied anti-terrorism measures.
Traugott concluded by relating the study’s conclusions, which notes: “Americans’ loss of a sense of personal safety and security persists and is complicated by the difficulty of keeping the country on alert to minimize harm and defining a clear ‘result’ in the ‘war on terrorism’ that the public understands and can accept.”
Anthrax Anxiety
Traugott was followed by Len Lecci, Professor of Psychology, University of North Carolina (UNC), Wilmington, who presented on Bioterrorism and the Role of Perceived Control in Minimizing Automated Fears: Preliminary Analysis. Lecci did his research in collaboration with fellow UNC, Wilmington Psychologist Dale Cohen, and it focused on the anthrax attacks that occurred last fall.
Lecci related that the extensive media coverage of the anthrax incidents made Americans think that they were much more at risk of contracting the disease than they really were – a condition termed “perceived vulnerability.” He stated that this condition in general (called hypochondriasis) can lead to a dangerous abuse of the public health system. In the anthrax case, this was manifested in the high number of cipro and other antibiotic prescriptions. This was problematic in that it depleted drug supplies and made interventions less effective through misuse.
Lecci and Cohen’s research, which was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), tested UNC, Wilmington students to measure the response of hyponchondriacs to health threats. They found that by influencing beliefs about risks and providing perceived control, hypochondriasis can be minimized.
Egyptian Attitudes
The final speaker was Mansoor Moaddel, Professor of Sociology at Eastern Michigan University, who addressed The Impact of 9/11 on Value Orientations of the Islamic Public in Egypt. He presented data from surveys taken of Egyptians both pre- and post-9/11 that are part of a larger study of public opinion in Egypt, Jordan, and Iran, also funded by NSF.
Moaddel related that since September 11, Egyptians are more likely to view the prevalent Western cultural invasion as a very important problem. In addition, they are now almost united (99.8 percent) in opposition to having Jews as neighbors. The survey also found that Egyptians are now less likely to express confidence in the ability of religious authorities to adequately respond to social problems. Finally, the surveys showed that Egyptians now view democratic systems of government in a far more favorable light than before 9/11.
Moaddel explained that the results suggest that Egypt is experiencing a cultural change “in a direction favorable to democracy, gender equality, and secularism, and away from the Islamic fundamentalism of the past decades.” But he noted that this cultural change is guided by the perception that Western culture is not good for the country.
More information about the Decade of Behavior can be found at its website, www.decadeofbehavior.org.
COSSA is pleased to announce that the Social Science History Association has rejoined the Consortium as an Affiliate. SSHA originally belonged to COSSA from 1981-1993. We look forward to working with the Association on issues of interest to its members.
COSSA provides this information as a service and encourages readers to contact the sponsoring agency for further information. Additional application guidelines and restrictions may apply.
Department of Health and Human Services
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) invites applications for cooperative agreements for a National Poverty Research Center and Area Poverty Research Centers. ASPE plans to fund one national center that will plan and conduct a broad program of policy research and mentoring of emerging scholars to describe and analyze national, regional, and state environments (e.g. economics, demographics) and policies affecting the poor, particularly those families with children who are poor or at-risk of being poor. The research and evaluation program will focus on important and emerging social policy issues associated with the nature, causes, correlates, and effects of income dynamics, poverty, individual and family functioning and child well-being. ASPE plans a $1 million award per year for five years for the national center.
The Area Poverty Centers will provide a focused agenda expanding the understanding of the causes, consequences and effects of poverty in local geographic areas or specific substantive areas, especially in states or regional areas of high concentrations of poverty. ASPE expects to provide between $300,000 and $400,000 for up to three years for each of three area centers.
The deadline for applications is August 19, 2002. You must e-mail Audrey Mirsky-Ashby at Audrey.Mirsky-Ashby@hhs.gov by July 18 of intent to submit an application. For further information go to http://aspe.gov/funding.htm or contact Michael Loewe at 301/435-6995.
Women’s Health in Sports and Exercise
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculosketal and Skin Diseases, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Office of Research on Women’s Health are seeking investigator-initiated research grant applications to study women’s health in sports and exercise. The program announcement (PA-02-115) is designed to stimulate and foster a wide range of basic, translational, and patient-oriented clinical research.
Research areas issues include, but not limited to: surveillance/patient-oriented research, social/ psychological, epidemiologic, neuromuscular, basic science, and coaching/training/equipment.
Inquiries are encouraged. For more information contact: James S. Panagis (NIAMS) at jp149d@nih.gov; Carol Sheredos (NICHD) at sheredc@mail.nih.gov or see http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-02-115.html.