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Today’s Science Policy News for August, 12th 2009
A look at today’s science and health policy news:
Salmon Test
NY Times (Opinion) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration must notify a federal court next month whether it will do what is necessary to save endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest. The decision will tell us a lot about how the administration sees its obligations under the Endangered Species Act. The Bush team evaded its responsibilities with amazing acts of legal casuistry.
Scientists Launch The First Standard Graphical Notation For Biology
Science Daily — Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and their colleagues in 30 laboratories worldwide have released a new set of standards for graphically representing biological information — the biology equivalent of the circuit diagram in electronics. This visual language should make it easier to exchange complex information, so that biological models are depicted more accurately, consistently, and in a more readily understandable way.
Old-fashioned bartering helps pare medical bills
Washington Post — Hillsborough, N.J.-resident Robert Josefs traded his Web site designing skills for nearly $1,000 in dental work last year when he had no insurance, and many other patients are learning that health care debts don’t always have to be settled with sometimes-precious cash.
Free online textbooks are now available
LA Times — Earlier this year, Schwarzenegger launched an effort to make free digital textbooks available statewide and invited publishers to submit sample high school math and science texts. But an accompanying report on the online texts released Tuesday shows that the texts appear to meet far fewer of the standards than officials suggested.
Hoosier Senators Feeling Heat, May Be Hard Sell on Climate
ClimateWire — In interviews last week, Republican Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.) and his Democratic colleague Evan Bayh (Ind.) expressed serious concerns about a mandatory cap on greenhouse gases, with unease about China, the economy and state utilities prevalent in their minds. Both did not rule out eventually voting for a bill, but each voiced the need for changes in global warming legislation that passed the House 219-212 in June.
US CO2 emissions from fuels to fall 5 pct in 2009
Reuters — “The economic downturn, combined with natural gas displacing some coal as a source of electricity generation, is projected to lead to a 5 percent decline in fossil-fuel based (carbon dioxide) emissions in 2009,” the Energy Information Administration said in its monthly forecast. It was the first time the EIA, the statistics arm of the Department of Energy, published the predictions on carbon emissions from the burning of coal, natural gas and petroleum.
Maized and confused
Economist — How green is ethanol? The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), an American lobby for the stuff, obviously wants voters and politicians to think it is very green indeed. The association’s cool-coloured website plays down claims that ethanol may actually harm the environment.
Chevrolet Volt should get 230 mpg in city, GM says
LA Times — The Volt is designed to run on electric power only for about 40 miles, after which a small gasoline engine kicks in to recharge the battery, giving it a total range of more than 300 miles. The battery can be recharged by plugging in to a home outlet.
FDA Medical-Device Regulator Resigns
Wall Street Journal –Daniel Schultz said his move comes “by mutual agreement” with FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, who took office in May. The departure follows internal dissent over device-approval decisions that the regulator’s critics said were too friendly to industry.
Scientist Tackles Ethical Questions of Space Travel
NY Times — A Conversation With Paul Root Wolpe – NASA does hundreds of research studies. Every astronaut who goes into space is, essentially, a human research subject. NASA’s looking at the effects of weightlessness, of G-forces and radiation on the human body.
The Earth Is Warming? Adjust the Thermostat
NY Times — The National Academy of Sciences and Britain’s Royal Society are preparing reports on climate engineering, and the Obama administration has promised to consider it. But so far there has been virtually no government support for research and development — certainly nothing like the tens of billions of dollars allotted to green energy and other programs whose effects on the climate would not be felt for decades.
Isotope shortage means a healthcare crisis
LA Times — The abrupt shutdown of two aging nuclear reactors that produce a radioisotope widely used in medical imaging has forced physicians in the U.S. and abroad into a crisis, requiring them to postpone or cancel necessary scans for heart disease and cancer, or turn to alternative tests that are not as accurate, take longer and expose patients to higher doses of radiation.
Dem healthcare talking points: Change over status quo
The Hill — A set of talking points, “Responding to Opponents of Health Insurance Reform,” were obtained by The Hill and represent an effort to push back against conservative critics and activists. The four-page series of talking points is also intended to arm senators against the questions they are most likely to face during this month’s forums.
At N.H. forum, Obama hits back at ‘wild’ criticism of health bill
Boston Globe — As demonstrators waved signs and shouted across police tape outside, President Obama tried to dispel the emotional argument foes have voiced over the airwaves and in local meetings across the country. He also fought back on points about costs and fears of a government takeover of the healthcare system.
Today’s Science Policy News for July, 22nd 2009
A look at today’s science and health policy news:
Seeking Advice on Women in Science
Inside Higher Ed — The landscape of scientists and engineers is certainly a lot more diverse than it was 20 years ago, but serious gender gaps remain. That was the consensus here at a hearing of the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Research and Science Education Tuesday. The hearing focused on finding ways to attract more female science students.
Governors say climate policy could create jobs
AP — Three Democratic governors told a Senate panel Tuesday that efforts to curb global warming and spur the development of cleaner sources of energy have created jobs and new businesses in their states, a trend that could expand nationwide if Congress passes federal legislation.
Conservative Democrats Push Health Bill Changes
NY Times — Fiscally conservative House Democrats forced leaders of their party on Tuesday to slow the pace of work on major health care legislation so Congress and President Obama could address their concerns about the cost of the bill, its impact on small businesses and the shape of a proposed new government health insurance plan.
U.S. Withheld Data on Risks of Distracted Driving
NY Times — In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel. But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.
House OKs $150 million natural-gas car program
Detroit News — By a vote of 393-35, the House passed the bill that authorizes the Energy Department to conduct a five-year program of natural gas vehicle research, development and demonstration, authorizing $30 million annually starting in the 2010 budget year.
Costly Drugs Known as Biologics Prompt Exclusivity Debate
NY Times — A bitter Congressional fight over the cost of superexpensive biotechnology drugs has come down to a single, hotly debated number: How many years should makers of those drugs be exempt from generic competition?
Mammoth Telescope to Be Built in Hawaii
Wired — Hawaii beat out Chile to become the site of the Thirty-Meter Telescope, which is scheduled to be completed in 2018. The giant telescope will have a single primary mirror that measures 30 meters across and is made up of 492 segments, giving it nine times more collecting surface than the the biggest telescopes on Earth today.
UN climate expert warns against carbon tariffs
AP — The head of a U.N. panel on the science of climate change says trade tariffs in a House-passed bill to limit heat-trapping pollution have only served to irritate international negotiations and could undermine U.S. efforts to persuade developing countries to enter into a new global warming treaty.
Emergency IT authority for FERC gains support
Federal Computer Week — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission needs more legal authority to protect the country’s electric grid from cyberattacks and other threats, a senior official from the commission told a House subcommittee Monday.
Education Department Report Examines Qualities of Successful Pell Grant Recipients
Chronicle of Higher Education — Receiving a Pell Grant is associated with faster degree completion when variables such as parent’s education and undergraduate risk factors are controlled simultaneously, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, the Education Department’s statistical arm.
University of Michigan, Amazon offer 400,000 titles with print-on-demand
San Jose Mercury News — The University of Michigan said Tuesday it is teaming up with Amazon.com to offer reprints of 400,000 rare, out-of-print and out-of-copyright books from its library. Seattle-based Amazon’s BookSurge unit will print the books on demand in soft cover editions at prices from $10 to $45.
NASA Cannot Sustain Current Path, New Chief Says
Space.com — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden displayed the softer side of his management style while promising strong leadership at a critical time for the space agency during a Tuesday address to agency employees broadcast from NASA headquarters here.
Today’s Science Policy News for July, 20th 2009
A look at today’s science and health policy news:
Alliances In Health Debate Splinter
Washington Post — Months of relative cooperation among disparate interest groups in the heath-care reform debate appear to be coming to an end, as the major political parties and their surrogates unleash dueling television advertisements, e-mail campaigns and grass-roots protests.
Circumcision Doesn’t Lessen HIV Transmission
ABC News — Circumcision doesn’t reduce transmission of HIV from infected men to women, says a study that included 922 HIV-infected men in Uganda.
IT costs central to Real ID, PASS ID debate
Federal Computer Week — States have bristled at provisions of the Real ID Act that require them to upgrade their driver’s licensing programs with new technology at their own expense, and that frustration is forming the nucleus of a movement to repeal the 2005 law in favor of a less expensive alternative.
South Africa launches AIDS vaccine clinical trials
AP — South Africa announced the launch of clinical trials of the first AIDS vaccines created by a developing country with assistance from the U.S. on Monday.
Meeting Shows U.S.-India Split on Emissions
NY Times — In a meeting with Mrs. Clinton, India’s environment and forests minister, Jairam Ramesh, said there was “no case” for the West to push India to reduce carbon dioxide emissions when it already had among the lowest levels of emissions on a per capita basis.
Agencies riddled with security holes, GAO says
Federal Computer Week — A continued lack of sufficient information security controls at major federal agencies puts sensitive data at risk, the Government Accountability Office said today. GAO also said the process agencies use to report progress on information security needs to be improved.
Legislation Would Restore Hydrogen Research Funds
Penn Energy — Congress is closer to restoring money for hydrogen research to the federal budget after the Obama administration originally submitted an executive budget request that cut it to $60 million from $160 million.
Conflicting Priorities Endanger High-Tech Army Program
NY Times — The Obama administration began scaling back the Army’s Future Combat Systems program late last month and breaking it into pieces, as part of a broader effort to overhaul expensive weapons contracts and focus more on fighting insurgencies.
As Media Grow, FCC Looks Ahead
Washington Post — In his first interview since taking over the federal agency, Julius Genachowski talked about the importance of “edge” Internet and software companies in pushing forward technological advances. He suggested that these companies might play a key role in boosting the economy and in helping the agency meet its mandate to bring high-speed Internet access to all Americans.
A New Enforcer in Buildings, the Energy Inspector
NY Times — Climate scientists and architects say that no single policy change could do more to save energy over the long run — and reduce the nation’s contribution to global warming — than building codes that make saving energy the law.
Today’s Science Policy News for April, 29th 2009
A look at today’s science and health policy news:
First 100 days of Obama: What’s happened so far
Salt Lake Tribune–A look at the first 100 days of President Obama’s administration.
Interior, Commerce Departments Overturn Rule That Cut Science Out of Endangered Species Act
Union of Concerned Scientists–Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rescinded eleventh-hour Bush administration changes to Endangered Species Act regulations that allowed federal agencies to decide for themselves if their own projects would threaten imperiled species.
Obama plans to enforce mining limits
Lexington Herald-Leader–The Obama administration is moving to tighten a coal-mining rule loosened by his predecessor, but it might not be enough to satisfy environmentalists.
Obama May Get ‘Hands a Little Dirtier’ Pushing Campaign Agenda
Bloomberg–For President Barack Obama, it’s the second 100 days that may define his presidency.
Top White House Aide Voices Pragmatic Approach on Health Care, Energy
N.Y. Times–Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, sounded a decidedly pragmatic note on President Obama’s health care and energy initiatives in an interview marking the new administration’s 100 days, by pointing toward compromises in which the overriding principle would be “don’t make perfect the enemy of the essential.”
Sebelius confirmed as HHS Secretary
Boston Globe–Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius won Senate confirmation yesterday as the nation’s health and human services secretary, thrusting her into the middle of a public health emergency with the swine flu sickening dozens of Americans.
Two senators offer bipartisan healthcare proposal
L.A. Times–Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) want to pay more to hospitals and doctors meeting quality standards — and penalize those who don’t.
Senators look for proper model for managing cybersecurity
Government Computer News–A panel of experts testifying before a Senate committee today agreed that the country’s cybersecurity is inadequate and needs to be fixed.
House Democrats ‘moving ahead’ on climate bill, majority leader says
N.Y. Times–House Democrats will not abandon plans to pass global warming and energy legislation this year despite concerns that similar proposals may fail to win the 60 votes needed for Senate approval, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said yesterday.
Kosmas wins battle for shuttle extension
Daytona Beach News–U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL) announced today that the House and Senate conference agreement on the budget removes a deadline to retire the space shuttle.
Space Junk Forcing More Evasive Maneuvers
Wired–American spacecraft had to dodge space debris four times in 2008, NASA revealed Tuesday, a fact that highlights both the extent of the space junk problem and the primary mitigation option open to NASA.
US more optimistic about climate deal after talks
AP–The top U.S. negotiator on climate change said Tuesday that he is slightly more optimistic about striking a new international agreement to curb global warming after a two-day meeting with the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases.
Where federal energy research money should go
CNet (Opinion)–So where should this money go? While it’s impossible to say what specific programs could land a slice of the ARPA-E funding, there are significant categories that don’t generate many headlines but bear watching beyond more established green technologies.
Climate scientist fired for talking to media
Nature–A prominent New Zealand climate scientist has been fired by a government-funded research institute, allegedly for talking to the media without authorization.
At Last: FY 2009 Budget Cycle Complete
By Richard Jones at AIP
After operating with essentially flat budgets for almost six months after the start of FY 2009 last October 1, most federal departments and agencies received their new budgets yesterday. President Obama signed the 218, 448 word Omnibus Appropriations Act for 2009. As this bill became law, the $410 billion in the legislation started flowing to all of those departments and agencies whose appropriations bills were stalled because of an impasse with former President Bush.
Passage of the omnibus bill took more time, and was more difficult, than first expected. After last November’s election, some optimistic congressional leaders predicted that this bill would be waiting for the new president when he took office. That did not happen, in part because the congressional leadership decided to concentrate on the passage of the economic stimulus bill.
After that bill was passed, Senate leaders found that they lacked the necessary sixty votes to cut off floor debate and allow the omnibus bill to come up for a vote. There was objection to the overall level of spending in the bill, and to what has been calculated to be more than 8,500 earmarks worth $7.7 billion. (According to the Washington Post, $4.6 billion of these earmarks were sponsored by Democrats; $3.1 billion by Republicans.) After several days of debate and consideration on the Senate floor of amendments, none of which were successful, the Senate passed H.R. 1105 by a voice vote on March 10. The bill was signed into law yesterday.
As previously reported, H.R. 1105 provides significant increases in many science budgets. Below is a summary of these changes. Readers wishing additional detail may consult the cited issues of FYI. A printed version of the all-important Explanatory Statement accompanying this bill has been printed in the Congressional Record. To access this Statement, see this site. In the text at the top of this page see “Note” where it provides the two sections of the Congressional Record having this Statement. It will take a bit of searching in the “table of contents” on the first page of each of the sections of the Statement to find a desired heading with a link to the specific page of the Explanatory Statement.
The following is a recap of major funding changes as compared to FY 2008:
Department of Energy:
Office of Science: Up 18.8% to $4.8 billion
(Further detail)
National Science Foundation:
Up 5.9% to $6.5 billion
Research and Related Activities: Up 7.0% to $5.2 billion
(Further detail)
National Institute of Standards and Technology:
Up 8.4% to $819 million
Scientific and Technical Research and Services: Up 7.1% to $472 million
(Further detail)
NASA:
Up 2.2% to $17.8 billion
Science: Down 4.3% to $4.5 billion
Aeronautics: Down 2.3% to $500 million
Exploration: Up 11.5% to $3.5 billion
Space Operations: Up 4.3% to $5.8 billion
Education: Up 15.3% to $169.2 million
(Further detail)
U.S. Geological Survey:
Up 3.7% to $1.0 billion
(Further detail)
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering:
Up 2.8% to $308.2 million
(Further detail)
Department of Education – Math and Science Partnerships:
Level funding at $179.0 million
(Further detail)
FY 2009 Omnibus Funding Bill: NIST
By Richard Jones at AIP
The FY 2009 budget for the National Institute of Standards and Technology would increase 8.4 percent, or $63.2 million in the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill that was released Monday following an agreement by House and Senate appropriators.
The House is continuing its debate on H.R. 1105, a $410 billion bill consisting of the nine appropriations bills that were not finished by October 1, 2008, the start of FY 2009. Passage of this bill is expected, although it is not certain it will be by March 6 when a resolution providing flat funding expires.
A hand-annotated copy of this bill, and its accompanying Joint Explanatory Statement are available here. Explanatory Statement language regarding NIST can be viewed in Division B – Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2009, which is found on pdf pages 12 through 14. A table with specific line item funding amounts can be viewed at pdf pages 341 and 342. (Important notes: consult the Explanatory Statement and not the bill text language, and use the pdf and not the typed page numbers.)
The following are the recommended levels of funding for various NIST programs in H.R. 1105, taken from the above cited table:
Total National Institute of Standards and Technology:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $755.9 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $636.0 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $819.0 million. This is an increase of $63.2 million or 8.4 percent over FY 2008.
Scientific and Technical Research and Services:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $440.5 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $535.0 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $472.0 million. This is an increase of $31.5 million or 7.1 percent.
Construction of Research Facilities:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $160.5 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $99.0 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $172.0 million. This is an increase of $11.5 million or 7.2 percent.
Industrial Technology Services:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $154.8 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $4.0 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $175.0 million. This is an increase of $20.2 million or 13.0 percent.
Industrial Technology Services consists of the following two programs, both of which the Bush Administration had sought to be terminated:
MANUFACTURING EXTENSION PARTNERSHIPS:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $89.6 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $2.0 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $110.0 million. This is an increase of $20.4 million or 22.7 percent.
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION PROGRAM:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $65.2 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was zero.
The omnibus bill recommends $65.0 million. This is a decline of $200,000 or 0.3 percent.
NiMH Batteries, Chevron Patents and the Future of Plug-in Hybrid Cars
By Paul M. Rybski
Auto manufacturers interested in producing plug-in hybrid or battery-powered vehicles are facing two problems. First, they are determined to use Li Ion battery technology that remains unproven for automobile traction applications. Why are they not using the long-proven NiMH traction batteries that are still in use today? Secondly, these auto manufacturers will be buying their batteries from foreign manufacturers because there are no domestic manufacturers. In our rush to develop vehicles that will free us from petroleum acquired from foreign countries, are we not swapping one foreign dependence for another? Let’s examine both of these issues.
Every hybrid automobile in production today uses NiMH batteries, all of which are produced outside of the United States. As pointed out in a recent Union of Concerned Scientists newsletter, these NiMH batteries have been performing extremely well, even though most are far smaller in capacity than drivers would like. However, nearly every auto manufacturer that has announced future production of a plug-in hybrid or fully electric automobile claim their vehicles must run on Li Ion batteries. With the exception of the Tesla and AC Propulsion limited implementations, Li Ion batteries have no track record in traction applications. Yet the Panasonic EV-95 NiMH battery packs used in fully electric Toyota RAV4 EV mini-SUV’s have demonstrated lifetimes in excess of nine years and average vehicle miles in excess of 100,000 miles. Some technologists anticipate only a 50,000-mile lifetime for Li Ion batteries.
If NiMH batteries are being used so successfully, why are American manufacturers fixated on Li Ion batteries? Part of the reason is that petroleum company Chevron owns the patent for the Ovonics NiMH traction battery. Under the ruse of saying they have not had sufficiently convincing proposals brought to them, Chevron continues to deny licenses to any company proposing to manufacture new NiMH traction batteries. Equally aggravating is Chevron’s having filed suit against Toyota in 2003 after Chevron had acquired the Ovonics patent. Part of the settlement reached in this suit enjoined Toyota-Panasonic from manufacturing any additional EV-95 batteries. So every RAV4 EV on the road today (about 320 in private hands and an unknown number of fleet use) is running on its original NiMH battery pack. There were some NiMH battery companies “grandfathered in” at the time of the Chevron/Toyota settlement, but their products are either too small to use in place of the EV-95 or they are inferior in performance.
Surprisingly, Chevron’s legal constraints on NiMH traction battery manufacture are never mentioned as reasons for American manufacturers’ choice of Li Ion chemistry for their batteries. For example, GM has argued that NiMH batteries are substantially heavier per kilowatt-hour than Li Ion batteries. While this claim is true, such weight had not been a barrier to using NiMH batteries to power the more than 500 Toyota RAV4 EV’s currently on the road for more than 110 miles per charge and for a fleet-average use of over 80,000 miles. Nor was it a barrier when they powered about 400 EV-1’s for more than 110 miles between charges before 2003. Ironically, the Li Ion traction pack proposed by GM for the VOLT will weigh more than an equivalently performing EV-95 battery pack because GM has derated the Li Ion pack’s state-of-charge range compared to that used by Toyota for the EV-95.
Finally, regardless of technological base, there are no NiMH or Li Ion batteries manufactured in the United States. One of the reasons many people are pushing for the manufacture of plug-in hybrid and fully-electric vehicles is to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign oil. With such advocacy, are we not merely switching problems here: from dependence on oil extracted from Middle Eastern countries, whose populations are hostile to Western countries, to dependence on batteries manufactured in the volatile economies of the Asia? SEA should lead the much-needed discussion of how we can obtain an adequate supply of NiMH or Li Ion batteries from American, not foreign, manufacturers for our hoped-for next generation of automobiles.
SEA and other “green” organizations, interested in bringing to market as quickly as possible the next generation of hybrid and electric automobiles, should be holding Chevron’s feet to the fire over Chevron’s deliberately blocking the licensing of Ovonics-derivative NiMH technology. They should also be advocating federal subsidies to encourage American industries, such as Johnson Controls and Ovonics, to develop the battery manufacturing plants needed to supply the traction batteries for this next generation of vehicles. The sooner this advocacy begins and stakeholders are engaged, the sooner plug-in hybrid and battery-powered vehicles will appear in auto dealer show rooms.
Paul M. Rybski is an associate professor in and former chair of the Department of Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He joined UW-Whitewater in 1987 after having been a research scientist at Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago.
FY 2009 Omnibus Funding Bill: National Science Foundation
By Richard Jones at AIP
The National Science Foundation would receive a 5.9 percent or $362.9 million increase in its FY 2009 budget in the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill that was released Monday following an agreement by House and Senate appropriators.
H.R. 1105 is now being debated on the House floor. This $410 billion measure consists of nine appropriations bills that were not completed by the start of FY 2009 on October 1, 2008. Following the expected House passage of this legislation it will move to the Senate. While passage of H.R. 1105 is expected, opposition by some Republican senators could delay the enactment of this bill by March 6. The current flat funding for departments and agencies covered in this bill expires on March 6.
A hand-annotated copy of this bill, and its accompanying Joint Explanatory Statement are available here. Explanatory Statement language regarding the National Science Foundation can be viewed in Division B – Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2009, which is found on pdf pages 153 through 156. A table with specific line item funding amounts can be viewed at pdf page 345. (Important notes: consult the Explanatory Statement and not the bill text language, and use the pdf and not the typed page numbers.)
The following are the recommended levels of funding for various National Science Foundation programs in H.R. 1105, taken from the above cited table:
Total National Science Foundation:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $6,127.5 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $6,854.1 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $6,490.4 million. This is an increase of $362.9 million or 5.9 percent over FY 2008.
Research and Related Activities:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $4,844.0 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $5,594.0 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $5,183.1 million. This is an increase of $339.1 million or 7.0 percent.
Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $220.7 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $147.5 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $152.0 million. This is a decline of $68.7 million or 31.1 percent.
Education and Human Resources:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $725.6 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $790.4 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $845.3 million. This is an increase of $119.7 million or 16.5 percent.
FY 2009 Omnibus Funding Bill: DOE Office of Science
By Richard Jones at AIP
Funding for the Department of Energy’s Science programs would increase by 18.8 percent or $754.9 million in the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill that was released yesterday by House and Senate conferees.
This bill, H.R. 1105, is scheduled for House and Senate consideration in coming days, as Congress attempts to get this legislation to President Obama before funding expires on March 6. The funding for the Office of Science is one component of this $410 billion bill that wraps up the FY 2009 budget cycle. A stalemate between the Democratic congressional leadership and President Bush last year lead to an agreement to flat fund programs in nine bills that remained unfinished when the fiscal year started on October 1. The 218,000 word omnibus bill that was filed yesterday combines all of these unfinished bills into a single bill.
A hand-annotated copy of this bill, and its accompanying Joint Explanatory Statement are available here. Important Explanatory Statement language regarding various Office of Science programs can be viewed in “Division C – Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,” which is found on pdf pages 79 and 80. A table with specific line funding amounts can be viewed at pdf pages 105-107. (Important notes: consult the Explanatory Statement and not the bill text language, and use the pdf and not the typed page numbers.)
The following are the recommended levels of funding for Science programs in H.R. 1105, taken from the above cited table:
Total Science:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $4,017.7 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $4,722.0 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $4,772.8 million. This is an increase of $754.9 million or 18.8 percent over FY 2008.
Advanced Scientific Computing:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $351.2 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $366.8 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $368.8 million. This is an increase of $17.6 million or 5.0 percent.
Basic Energy Sciences:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $1,269.9 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $1,568.2 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $1,572.0 million. This is an increase of $302.1 million or 23.8 percent.
Biological and Environmental Research:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $544.4 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $568.5 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $601.5 million. This is an increase of $57.1 million or 10.5 percent.
Fusion Energy Sciences:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $286.6 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $493.1 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $402.6 million. This is an increase of $116.0 million or 40.5 percent.
High Energy Physics:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $688.3 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $805.0 million
The omnibus bill recommends $795.7 million. This is an increase of $107.4 million or 15.6 percent over FY 2008.
Nuclear Physics:
The FY 2008 enacted budget was $432.7 million.
The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $510.1 million.
The omnibus bill recommends $512.1 million. This is an increase of $79.4 million or 18.3 percent over FY 2008.
Other categories of funding include science laboratories infrastructure, safeguards and security, science program direction, ARPA-E, workforce development, and congressionally directed projects.
Scalable Personalized Medicine
By Bruce Schatz and Richard Berlin
People are different, so different lifestyles have different effects. Some doughnut eaters get diabetes, some do not. Some smokers get heart disease in their thirties, some never do. Some women with BRCA gene markers get breast cancer, but some never do. The fundamental approach to viable healthcare is to give each person only what works for them and nothing else. This would maximize the quality, but minimize the cost.
Personalized Medicine is being realized by the technologies of genome biology, where a profile is measured for each individual then used to choose treatments targeted to the individual person. Current treatments are for whole populations without individual variation, since there is no effective method for determining population stratification. Personalized medicine pushes protein profiles for each individual. But current technology can only screen a population of a hundred at this level. Much like current clinical trials, it costs $100M to screen 100 persons. It is known that this number is far too small for effective stratification, since the population helped by a drug cannot be distinguished from the population hurt by the drug, and many patients take medications without documentation of any significant clinical benefit. This phenomenon produces medical errors and unnecessary deaths, as happened with blockbuster drugs such as Vioxx or Resulin. There is no practical way to examine the protein and gene profiles of the entire population in a periodic and verifiable manner at the present time.
Population Health deals with large numbers of persons, to measure their health and assess their risk. The measurement is necessarily done across all activities of daily living, because health risk has major effects from both genes and environment. Thus, diet and exercise or stress and sociality must be considered equally with genetics and inheritance. Current health measurement records tens of features, to assess risk for acute conditions. Future health measurement must record thousands of features, to assess risk for chronic conditions, which must be managed rather than cured. A comprehensive national health survey would record daily values of thousands of features for millions of persons. Current commercial systems for social networking, such as FaceBook or MySpace, already record features for millions of persons. Current research systems already record thousands of features, which are explicitly extracted from persistent conversations like health messages and implicitly extracted from ubiquitous sensors like home motes. Thus information systems at the requisite scale will soon be technically feasible.
Scalable Personalized Medicine will be realized through revolutionary technologies that can effectively screen an entire population of 100M persons. Information technology for health measurement can cover social and environmental effects, while integration with electronic medical records covers demographics and diagnosis. Such a system is scalable since each screen costs one dollar instead of one million dollars, yet personalized due to the number of features considered. A scalable technology for population measurement performs an inexpensive screen with computers for whole populations, using this to place persons into cohorts, then performs the expensive genetic and proteomic profile only for representatives from each cohort at highest risk for a particular condition. The coarse comprehensive population survey will filter out most people for any condition, making the genomic testing economically feasible. Only a few persons should be tested for cystic fibrosis, only mature women at significant risk should be tested for breast cancer to optimize BRCA screens, only susceptible persons living in detrimental environments should be tested for asthma. With many more measured features of personal health, there will be many finer categories of disease risks appropriate for finer testing, well beyond these simple examples.
We need to implement scalable technologies for personalized health across whole populations now. This is a rare instance of biomedical research into basic science that would be immediately practical as clinical application. There is common ground between genome medicine and healthcare infrastructure. The integration of social and environmental cohorts with genetic and proteomic profiles must be implemented at a large scale, while leveraging the national efforts towards electronic medical records. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act just signed into law allocates stimulus monies of $1B specifically for comparing the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness and $10B specifically for new biomedical research relevant to practical healthcare. It also includes $20B specifically for national development of electronic medical records. To save the economy by creating viable healthcare, we urge NIH and other appropriate government agencies to use these funds to put major funding into practical research on Scalable Personalized Medicine, towards individual variation for whole populations.
Bruce Schatz is the Director of the Bioinformatics Laboratory in the Institute for Genomic Biology and the Head of the Department of Medical Information Science in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Richard Berlin is a general surgeon at a local hospital in south central Illinois and former Medical Director of the regional HMO. They are writing a book on healthcare infrastructure for the 21st century.
