May 8, 2003

This morning:

- Last night, legislation to authorize $2.4 billion in new funds for nanotechnology research sailed through the House of Representatives by a vote of 405-19 (see first news item, below). The bill must be approved by the Senate and signed by the President before it becomes law. The actual allocation of new funds, however, relies on decisions made by the Appropriations Committees.

- Congress continues today to focus on issues such as the President's tax cut proposals, counter-bioterrorism, and national energy policy.

- In the news:

$2.4 BILLION AUTHORIZED FOR NANOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH
By Joseph C. Anselmo, CQ Today, May 8, 2003

The House on Wednesday passed the first major legislation in Congress addressing the emerging field of nanotechnology. The measure (HR 766), passed 405-19, would authorize $2.4 billion over the next three years for federally funded research into nanotechnology, a revolutionary science that involves manipulating matter on the scale of a billionth of a meter. "Nanotechnology will be the key to future economic prosperity," said Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., the sponsor of the bipartisan bill.

A similar bill (S 189) is pending in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. "I'm optimistic that [a final] bill will be sent to the president's desk in the near future," Boehlert said.  A National Science Foundation adviser projects the market for products the carry nanocomponents could reach $1 trillion annually by 2015.

[This morning's Chronicle of Higher Education added these details: President Bush has pushed for expanding nanotechnology research, asking Congress to spend $849-million for it for the 2004 fiscal year -- a 9.7-percent increase from this year's appropriation. Observers expect a companion bill to be passed easily in the full Senate. But even if the bill passes and the president signs it, Congress may still have trouble finding enough money to pay for the grant program, because of the growing deficit.]

*** CQ Today and the Chronicle of Higher Education are available online to subscribers only.

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CDC OFFERS UNIVERSITIES ADVICE ON SARS
From the Association of American Universities, May 7, 2003

In a May 6 teleconference, Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offered general advice to universities about dealing with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and discussed the "unusual predicament" faced by the University of California Berkeley. [Earlier this week, Cal-Berkeley announced it was barring from its summer session students from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. The university cited concerns about severe acute respiratory syndrome. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Cal-Berkeley may be the first major institution to have adopted such a policy.] Excerpts from the teleconference follow:

"The advice to colleges and universities is the same advice that we're giving to everyone," Gerberding said. "That is, first of all, to recognize that we are taking many steps to prevent importation of SARS in United States and I've outlined those steps already, which include the quarantine that the host, or that the original country is implementing, the steps at the airport, the active meeting of planes here, and the delivery of health alert messages.

"I had an opportunity to speak with the chancellor of UC-Berkeley this morning and I understand full well the unusual predicament that they are facing there, in that they were expecting an unusually large contingency of students arriving from countries where SARS is actively being transmitted, and the university needed some time to make sure that they had in place the appropriate measures, should they need to isolate an individual or potentially monitor exposed persons," Gerberding said. "So because they didn't have those systems in place, up front, they made the decision for students coming in from countries where there was a travel advisory . . . that they would temporarily not have those students arrive on campus."

*** The full transcript of the teleconference is available on the CDC Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/transcripts/t030506.htm

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'HEAD START' REFORM STILL UNDEFINED
By Cheryl Wetzstein, Washington Times, May 8, 2003

The Head Start reauthorization bill upcoming in the House will probably contain key Bush administration reforms, though not exactly what the White House has proposed, a House Republican said yesterday. "There's still room for improvement" in the $6.6 billion federal Head Start program, said Rep. Michael N. Castle, R-Del. Castle is chairman of the House Education and the Workforce subcommittee on education reform, which is writing the legislation. Ticking off several Bush administration proposals, Castle yesterday told a Head Start seminar hosted by the Brookings Institution that improving Head Start's educational quality "will be a major focus" of the reform. Gains are needed in Head Start students' vocabulary, writing and math.

Head Start's renowned social, health and nutrition services to low-income 3- and 4-year-olds must also be maintained, and Congress should set higher professional standards for Head Start staff, Castle said. But he hedged on the Bush administration's most-debated proposal -- allowing governors to redesign Head Start programs when doing the same to their own early-childhood-education programs. Under current law, Head Start programs, which involve nearly 1 million children, operate outside state control. Congress should be able to create a mechanism that would allow for "collaboration" with state programs, Castle said.

*** Complete article at http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20030508-84181221.htm

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NIAID EXPECTED TO DIVERT $233 MILLION TO VACCINE PROCUREMENT
From the Association of American Universities, May 7, 2003

The National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases is likely to have to take an unexpected $233 million out of its $3.7 billion budget in FY2003 to support the purchase of anthrax vaccine for the national vaccine stockpile, according to the on-line version of Science magazine.

The article says that the Office of Management and Budget has directed NIAID to commit $233 million this fiscal year to buy 25 million doses of a next-generation anthrax vaccine. "This has caused NIAID, the second-largest branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to put a hold on funds for an untold number of new grant applications until it reshuffles its budget, sending shock waves through the research community," says the article. It quotes NIAID director Anthony Fauci as saying the requirement was a "big surprise," but that the funds can be found without "a major impact on people's grants."

According to the article, the White House last year asked Congress to allocate $250 million to NIAID to fund the procurement of an anthrax vaccine that would work better than the one now in use. "Many inside and outside NIH sounded alarm bells," says the piece, because NIH is not a procurement agency. The article adds that Congress agreed with NIH and its advocates and removed the $250 million from NIAID's fiscal year 2003 budget request. But Congress did not specify who should pay for the anthrax vaccine procurement.

It is not clear how the OMB requirement will affect NIAID grants, but if NIH takes the $233 million ($250 million minus general reductions) out of non-bioterrorism grants, the impact on that portion of NIAID's portfolio could be substantial. The article says that Fauci plans to "minimize the damage" by cutting new grants from 4 to 3.5 years and restructuring payments on existing contracts. "We're still working out the numbers, but it's very unlikely we will be funding fewer people," he says.

*** Science magazine is available online to subscribers only.

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