GAO Testifies on Impact of
DHS Proposal on Research
July 12, 2002 - At a July 9 hearing
before the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations
Subcommittee, the General Accounting Office's (GAO) director
of health care and public health issues, Jan Heinrich, expressed
concern over the impact that the proposed Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) would have on federal biomedical research.
Ms. Heinrich noted that the GAO is supportive of moving oversight
of select agents to the new department, because its mission
fits with homeland security. In her written statement, Ms.
Heinrich also stated that while GAO believes that the new
Department could improve coordination of bioterrorism research
programs by setting a broad research strategy, they are concerned
that transferring control and priority-setting of this research
from NIH to DHS "has the potential to disrupt some programs
that are critical to basic public health responsibility."
Specifically, the GAO is "concerned that control and
priority-setting responsibility will not be vested in those
programs best positioned to understand the potential of basic
research efforts or the relevance of research being carried
out in other nonbiodefense programs."
Ms. Heinrich also emphasized that "some research programs
have broad missions that are not easily separated into homeland
security and research for other purposes. We [GAO] are concerned
that such dual-purpose research activities may lose synergy
arising from their current placement." Sharing the same
concerns at the hearing were Gail Cassell, Ph.D., representing
the American Society for Microbiology, and Margaret Hamburg,
M.D., Vice President of Biological Programs at the Nuclear
Threat Initiative.
Jerome Hauer, M.P.H., director of the HHS Office of Public
Health Emergency Preparedness, also testified before the subcommittee,
outlining the president's proposed transfer of HHS responsibilities
to DHS. Answering questions from the subcommittee members,
he explained that, under the proposal, DHS will oversee and
coordinate terrorism-related research performed by the NIH.
Members noted that this worries many groups, as does the transfer
of the new Assistant Secretary for Emergency Preparedness
from HHS to the new department. Mr. Hauer insisted that the
conducting of biomedical research will remain at NIH and public
health research and implementation will remain at the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
Erica Froyd, Director, Public Health and Research Legislative Affairs
AAMC Office of Governmental Relations
efroyd@aamc.org
(202) 828-0525
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