Advocacy Archive
Travels Down Tobacco Road (cont.)
May 18, 1998
Dear Colleague:
If you've been reading the paper or watching national news, you know the U.S. Senate is taking up the tobacco bill this week. One part of the bill involves an annual payment of $2.5 billion to NIH. Previously, I wrote about earlier events that shaped this NIH fund in favor of behavioral research: how we worked with different legislators, especially Sen. Jim Jeffords (R-VT), to give behavioral research a share in the NIH money, and to dedicate one-third of the NIH fund to smoking-related behavioral research. I also told you how these provisions were preserved in the version of the tobacco bill (S. 1415) that was cleared by the Senate Commerce Committee chaired by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
The explanatory report that accompanied the McCain bill emphasizes behavioral research in preventing and treating addiction to tobacco, saying "The Committee believes a narrow biomedical approach to tobacco addiction is shortsighted. We must expand scientific inquiry into the behavioral aspects of smoking in order to prevent children from smoking in the first place and to treat nicotine addiction more effectively." The Committee report also lists a number of basic behavioral science questions as examples of what should be addressed (S. Rpt. 105-180, pp. 55-58).
Now, as the tobacco bill moves to the floor of the full Senate, there are things to watch for, although they may not make headlines since the NIH portion is still small (That's small as in $2.5 billion -- only in Washington, huh?). We are expecting that unlike the Commerce Committee version, which directed NIH to spend its money on tobacco-related research in general, the version that Sen. McCain will bring to the floor will not specify how NIH should spend its money. This is due to strong opposition from NIH and its Senate supporters, notably Sen. Connie Mack (R-FL), to requirements that the research be tobacco-related. The good news, however, is that behavioral research is among the areas specifically mentioned for the NIH money, even if the specific set-aside is no longer there. Also, the Commerce Committee report is the historical record indicating Congressional intent. Still, that is not the same as 1/3 of $2.5 billion.
We are working with Sen. Jeffords, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other groups to reinsert some targeted funds for behavioral research on smoking. This may take the form of allocations to specific institutes, particularly the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or possibly some kind of coordinating authority for the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. There is also the possibility of an amendment that would partially restore the requirement that a specific portion of the funds for NIH be used for Aepidemiological, behavioral, health services, and social science research related to the prevention and treatment of tobacco addiction.@ At this writing, the exact percentage of the funds that would go to these areas has not been decided.
The amazement is that so large, complex and controversial a bill has come so far so quickly. In fact, there is some concern that a backlash is in the offing. And who knows what the House is going to do. Right now, though, time is the main obstacle. Senate leaders wanted to finish the tobacco bill before the Memorial Day recess, which is coming up at the end of this week. There will be a frenzy of activity to try to meet that deadline, but almost no one thinks it will happen.
More as it does or doesn't happen, Alan