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Date:         Sat, 29 Aug 1992 10:52:31 EDT
Reply-To:     Emily Agree <agree@ACPUB.DUKE.EDU>
From:         Emily Agree <agree@ACPUB.DUKE.EDU>
Subject:      NIH Cutbacks

Dear Colleague,

     As you may have heard, the Labor, Health, and Human Service and Education
Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has recently
released its FY '93 Appropriations Report for funding of the National
Institutes of Health.  Unhappily, the overall budgeted levels of spending for
FY '93 came out below even the President's budget request.  This would have
serious implications for programmatic developments at the National Institute
on Aging and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,
the two Institutes that mainly support social, economic and demographic
research.

     The purpose of this letter is to solicit your assistance in urging the
counterpart Senate Appropriations Committee to more fully support several
initiatives of important concern to the scientific community.  This requires
that the Senate Committee specifically include language for these efforts in
their Report.  It has been demonstrated over the past few years that letters
from individual social scientists are listened to in budget deliberations and
strongly influence the final outcomes.  I have attached a statement from the
Population Association of America that should be included in entirety in your
letters.  A sentence indicating your strong support for these initiatives
should accompany the statements.

     Letters should be addressed to:

                 The Honorable Tom Harkin
                 Chairman
                 Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services,
                    Education and Related Agencies
                 SD-186 Dirksen Senate Office Building
                 Washington DC  20510
            FAX: 202-224-7431

     and:

                 The Honorable Arlen Specter
                 Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services,
                     Education and Related Agencies
                 SD-186 Dirksen Senate Office Building
                 Washington DC 20510
            FAX: 202-224-1893

     In addition, letters to your Senator/s can be important, especially
if you are a constituent of a Senator who serves on the Senate Appropriations
Committee.  I have attached a list of the Senate Subcommittee members. In each
case, It would be helpful if a sentence can be added which discusses the
benefits and relevant information policy makers gain from research being
conducted in the given state.

     THESE LETTERS SHOULD REACH THE SENATORS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

     I realize that this type of activity requires some effort on your part,
but it is VITAL to our collective, long-term research success.  Please accept
my thanks beforehand for your attention to my request.  Copies of your letters,
sent to me, also would be appreciated.

                                             Sincerely,

                                             George C. Myers, PhD.
                                             Director & Professor of Sociology
                                             Center for Demographic Studies
                                             Duke University
                                             Durham, North Carolina 27706


Attachments:
===========================================================================

The Population Association of America Supports inclusion of the following
language in the FY '93 appropriations bill:

1)  "Increasing numbers of older Americans will strain the nation's health and
long-term care systems and retirement income programs in the next decade.  The
Committee supports the on-going research program in aging demographics at the
National Institute on Aging.  This program will support research and analysis
into the causes of early retirement trends;  the relationship of health to
reirement and late life impoverishment;  health and retirement decision-making
for women and minorities;  the impact of concentrations of the elderly; and
the factors which increase robustness and healthy life expectancy in the
oldest-old.  The Committee has added $3 million to the budget of the National
Institute on Aging in order to support this research agenda in aging
demographics in 1993."

2) "The Committee is impressed with the contributions being made by the
NICHD Centers program and is particularly pleased with the positive reports
regarding the recently funded Child Health Research Centers, as well as the
new Contraceptive and Infertility Research Centers the Institute has estab-
lished at the direction of the Committee.  The innovative approaches of these
Centers augur well for scientific progress and accomplishing their intended
mission.  The Committee is greatly encouraged by the progress of Population
Research Centers in fostering a demographic perspective on the changing family
and population processes that contribute to healthy children and the
development of productive people.  To continue positive momentum in the
NICHD Centers program, the Committee has added $2 million in the FY '93
appropriation for NICHD to provide necessary funds to support new Centers
in Population Research."

===========================================================================


MAJORITY MEMBERS (DEMOCRATS)

Tom Harkin (Iowa) Chairman
Robert C. Byrd (West Virginia)
Ernest F. Hollings (South Carolina)
Quentin N. Burdick (North Dakota)
Daniel K. Inouye (Hawaii)
Dale Bumpers (Arkansas)
Harry Reid (Nevada)
Brook Adams (Washington)

MINORITY MEMBERS (REPUBLICAN)

Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania) Ranking Member
Mark O. Hatfield (Oregon)
Ted Stevens (Alaska)
Warren B. Rudman (New Hampshire)
Thad Cochran (Mississippi)
Phil Gramm (Texas)
Slade Gorton (Washington)
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU