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ASN Health and Nutrition Policy Newsletter
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| American Society for Nutrition Newsletter |
April, 2017 |
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Congressional Action
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Federal Government Funded through September 30, 2017
On May 5, the President signed the
Consolidated Appropriations Act 2017
(HR 244), which funds all agencies and branches of the U.S. government. The Senate passed the measure on a 79-18 vote and the House on a 309-118 vote. This action represents a strong bipartisan effort and strong leadership of Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to capture the funding priorities of both parties and remain within the funding limits of the Budget Control Act. Of particular interest to health and nutrition policies and programs, the bill:
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Increases funding for research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $2 billion, for the second year in a row, for a total of $34 billion in FY 2017.
The top-line NIH funding level includes $352 million designed for projects funded by the 21st Century Cures Act.
;
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Adds new funding to combat the opioid epidemic;
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Provides FY 16 level funding for the National Center for Health Statistics in FY 2017 at
$160.4 million
;
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Provides an increase of $26 million
over FY 2016
for research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
for a total budget of 1.17 billion
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Provides
$25 million over FY 2016 for
the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
for a total budget of $375 million
for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative; and
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Increases Food and Drug Administration (FDA) funding for food safety and medical product reviews.
Several specific provisions of the new funding law address topics of interest:
- Requests the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), within 90 days of enactment of this Act, to enter into an arrangement with the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) to develop a dietary reference intake report for sodium that takes into consideration studies on all-cause mortality and submit a copy of the charter with NAM to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees and include an update in the FY 2018 budget justification on the timeline for the report.
- Requests the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provide an update in the FY 2018 budget justification on the current state of the science around vitamin D including what health benefits, if any, vitamin D offers other than bone health and an update in the fiscal year 2018 budget justification on any plans for an update of the DRI for vitamin D.
- Includes $1 million for an independent study to identify the best means of consolidating and coordinating reporting requirements under Child Nutrition Programs.
- Provides flexibility in school nutrition standards by continuing the whole grains waiver requirement, delaying Target II for sodium requirements, and adding a new waiver authority for flavored, low-fat fluid milk which Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue intends to implement.
The bill also places spending controls on Federal agencies and makes more than 150 rescissions, consolidations or program terminations. The President has also announced
directives
to reduce the federal agency manpower. Full details of funding levels are
here
.
Gottlieb Confirmed FDA Commissioner
By a vote of 57 to 42 on May 9, the Senate confirmed Dr. Scott Gottlieb as commissioner of the FDA. Opposition to his confirmation was related to potential conflicts with previous work at pharmaceutical companies, but he has promised to divest himself from several health care companies and recuse himself for one year from decisions involving those businesses.
First Step of Repeal and Replace of Affordable Care Act Completed
On May 4, the House of Representatives passed the
HR 1628 - American Health Care Act of 2017
on a narrow vote of 217-213 without Democratic support
. HR 1628,
previously described in the April 1 ASN Policy Brief and in this
report
, had been withdrawn earlier in April from House consideration.
To gain enough votes from the conservative Republicans without losing moderate Republicans, the initial bill was amended
to include two provisions:
- Permits States to submit a waiver application to the DHHS Secretary that would permit increases of insurance rates above limits set by the Affordable Care Act for older Americans and allow states to specify their own essential health benefits, such as maternity care, beginning in 2020, along with changes in the penalties for non-coverage. States automatically receive waiver, unless DHHS acts within 60 days.
- Provides states with $8 billion to cover individuals with preexisting conditions because the bill weakens protections for insurance coverage for the consumers and allows insurers to charge people significantly more if they had a pre-existing condition, if coverage is interrupted. The bill also repeals the $1 billion Prevention and Public Health Fund, which represents about 12 percent of the CDC's budget, by the end of FY 2018.
Senate Holds Second Farm Bill Hearing
On May 6, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing at the Saginaw Valley Research & Extension Center of Michigan State University, in Frankenmuth, Michigan, the home state of the Committee's Ranking Minority Senator Debbie Stabenow. There were multiple comments on the need for the federal government to increase
investment in international development, improve crop insurance, conservation incentives, and a steady agricultural workforce. Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts reminded witnesses that the budget for the Farm Bill will be extremely limited. Full hearing video is
here
.
House Leaders Considering Budget and Tax Next Steps
The House Budget Committee intends to approve the budget resolution by June. Once the House and Senate adopt the same spending and revenue targets for FY 2018, the committees that oversee the programs are tasked with deciding how to achieve them. President Trump is expected to release his budget recommendations on May 22nd. There is some speculation that the House will have a two-part process that begins with
$500 billion in cuts
to mandatory spending programs (i.e., Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, SNAP, and agriculture subsidies) that accounted for $2.4 trillion in FY 2016 to
reduce the deficit. The second part would use budget reconciliation to rewrite the tax code.
Clinical Care Commission Act Passes Key Senate Committee
The Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted April 26th to approve the National Clinical Care Commission Act (S 904/HR 309), which works to ensure that federal programs provide the most efficient and effective care for people with diabetes and related diseases.
Congressional Action on Child Nutrition Legislation
As mentioned in the previous ASN Policy Brief, Senator Roberts sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asking for changes in the National School Lunch and Breakfast nutritional standards that permit higher fat chocolate milk, cessation of the additional reductions in sodium levels, and elimination of the requirement for all grain items to be from 100% whole grains.
On May 4, Representative Kristi Noem (R-SD) introduced
HR 2382
, a bill to
eliminate similar Federal nutrition requirements, and for other purposes. Secretary Perdue announced his intent to issue regulations that make these changes. Recent news reports have indicated "lunch shaming" has occurred in lunchrooms when some children are unable to pay for school meals. In response, Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced
S 1064
and Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) introduced
HR 2401
, bicameral bills
to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to prohibit the stigmatization of children who are unable to pay for meals.
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Administrative Action
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NIH Grants Policy Change
On May 2, NIH Principal Deputy Director, Larry Tabak, DDS, PhD, led a stakeholder conference call to introduce a
grants policy change
to be implemented called the Grant Support Index (GSI). The purpose of this change is to allow NIH to address concerns regarding the long-term stability of the biomedical research enterprise. While Dr. Tabak noted several key grants policy changes put in place in the wake of the 2012 report of the Biomedical Workforce Working Group of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director, these changes have had only moderate success in addressing the balance of funding across career stages. While NIH is still developing the specific parameters of the GSI and plans to actively engage the stakeholder community in this process, Dr. Tabak outlined several key components, listed below:
- GSI will assign a point value based on grant complexity or size;
- Investigators will not be defunded if they hit the GSI cap; NIH anticipates rolling out the policy so that a new grant submission would trigger a process in which the applicant would have to provide a plan for how to balance their NIH funding portfolio;
- GSI would automatically be calculated by ERA, minimizing administrative burdens;
- NIH anticipates that the "cap" score will be 21, but they are still working on the scale and specific point values for grant types/roles;
- The cap is anticipated to affect only 6 percent of NIH-funded investigators but will free up approximately $500M - $650M (= 1,500-1,600 new awards);
- Details of the implementation plan to be informed by stakeholders, including all IC Councils (all will discuss this during May meetings) and requests for input from community.
Comments Requested on Government Reorganization
On March 13, the President signed an
executive order
directing the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to recommend ways to reorganize the executive branch and
eliminate unnecessary agencies
. The White House is
taking comments
on ways the government can be reorganized to be more effective through June 12th on WhiteHouse.gov.
2017 USDA Competitive Funding Opportunity Workshop Webinar
The USDA NIFA
workshops
on May 25 are designed to assist both new and veteran applicants with optimizing their chances of successfully competing in a peer-reviewed grant application process. Writing an effective grant application takes hard work, practice, and skill to communicate science ideas into a successfully funded peer-reviewed grant award.
As a result of attending this webinar participants should be able to gain a better understanding of the breadth of competitive programs offered by NIFA. In addition, attendees will be able to: Increase comprehension of the NIFA grant award types; Increase knowledge of the grants submission process; Increase understanding of NIFA's peer-review grant process; and Identify approaches shared by successful grantees for seeking grants.
Menu Labeling Compliance Date Extended
The FDA
extended
the compliance date for the final rule requiring disclosure of certain nutrition information for standard menu items in certain restaurants and retail food establishments. In the Federal Register of December 30, 2016, they stated that the compliance date for the final rule would be May 5, 2017. The FDA is extending the compliance date to May 7, 2018. This action is being taken to enable the FDA to consider how it might further reduce the regulatory burden or increase flexibility while continuing to achieve its regulatory objectives, in keeping with the Administration's policies.
FDA Denies Petition to Restrict Use of Sodium Perchlorate in Food Contact Articles
The FDA Denies Petition to Restrict Use of Sodium Perchlorate in Food Contact Articles
The FDA denied a petition, submitted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Food Safety, Clean Water Action, Children's Environmental Health Network, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Breast Cancer Fund, Center for Environmental Health, Environmental Working Group, and Improving Kids' Environment, requesting that it revoke the Threshold of Regulation (TOR) exemption for the use of sodium perchlorate monohydrate in finished articles in contact with dry foods; issue a new FDA regulation to prohibit the use of perchlorates in antistatic agents for use in food-contact articles; and amend its food additive regulations to no longer provide for the use of potassium perchlorate as an additive in closure-sealing gaskets for food containers.
NIFA Adds New Administration Requirements to Create Centers of Excellence USDA NIFA published as a final rule, a set of general and specific administrative requirements applicable to competitive and non-competitive non-formula programs. The purpose of this final rule is to implement changes to Subparts A-General Information, B-Pre-award: Solicitation and Application, C-Pre-award: Application Review and Evaluation and D-Award of the administrative provisions in order to add a new section for the centers of excellence identified in the 2014 Farm Bill. Although this final rule becomes effective on the date of publication, NIFA is requesting comments until June 5, 2017.
New CDC Vital Signs Report
The CDC has released a new
Vital Signs report
which found that African American death rates dropped by 25 percent from 1999 to 2015. They also found that African Americans are twice as likely to die from heart disease than whites and that they are 50% more likely to have high blood pressure.
Green May Lead USAID
Mark Green is a top choice to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Apparently,
Green has asked the Trump administration
for assurance that the department will not be underfunded or absorbed by another department before he accepts the position.
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National Initiatives
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FASEB Webinar: The Trump Budget: How Scientists can Fight Proposed Cuts to NIH
The Trump Administration proposed deep cuts in funding for the federal science agencies in 2018. Congress is now considering the President's proposal. FASEB Legislative Affairs staff will provide an overview of the recommended cuts, the timeline and key steps involved in the federal budget process, and guidance on what individual scientists can do to urge lawmakers to reject the President's plan. Please join the FASEB webinar on Tuesday, May 23 at 2:00 pm EST. You must
RSVP by Monday, May 22
to participate in the webinar.
Co-Chairs Selected for Science Breakthroughs 2030 National Academies Study
The Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced the appointments of Dr. Susan R. Wessler, University of California, Riverside, and Dr. John Floros, Kansas State University, as co-chairs of
Science Breakthroughs 2030
, a project to identify compelling future directions for research in food and agriculture.
The year-long study will explore novel scientific approaches suggested by members of the scientific community, with special attention to those ideas empowered by insights and tools from disciplines of science and engineering not typically associated with food and agriculture.
Soda Taxes
Soda taxes have had some recent movement with Santa Fe, New Mexico
voters rejecting
a city-wide tax on sugar sweetened beverages. In Massachusetts, public health groups are
pushing for a bill
to create a tax on soda and other sugar sweetened beverages and in Seattle, the mayor
expanded
his plan to tax sodas to include diet drinks.
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| Meetings |
APLU Addresses Global Food and Nutrition Security
On May 16, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the Challenge of Change Commission will
release
the findings of their report
examining contemporary challenges to global food and nutrition security and making recommendations on the actions required by universities to accelerate their discovery, learning, and engagement in order to meet the challenges associated with a food and nutrition secure
.
BPC Full Obesity Care Competencies Release
On June 7, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) will hold an event titled "Preparing Health Care Providers for Obesity Care" to release
first-of-their-kind
full obesity care competencies.
To address this critical gap, educators from over 20 organizations representing a dozen health professions have collaborated to develop the first ever set of interdisciplinary educational competencies for the prevention and treatment of obesity.
RSVP
to attend the June 7th event in person or via webcast. Speakers include: Bill Dietz, Lisa Howley, Jeanne Blankenship, Kofi Essel, and Joe Nadglowski.
Improving Population Health: Collaborative Strategies That Work
The
2017 Practical Playbook National Meeting
is a forum for national dialogue on best practices for cross-sector collaborations, while rising to meet the challenges of the changing healthcare landscape. The meeting is
sponsored by the de Beaumont Foundation, Practical Playbook and Duke Community and Family Medicine and will be held May 31-June 2 in Washington, DC.
Build Power for Health Equity: Strategic Practices for Local Health Departments
In a Dialogue4Health June 1
webinar
, panelists will describe a set of "inside" and "outside" strategic practices that public local health departments can use to advance equity. The panelists will provide concrete examples of how they have implemented these practices, their lessons learned, and their practical guidance to local health department staff interested in tackling similar efforts.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Training Institute
Common Health Action is holding a
two-day training
on June 14 - 15, 2017 in Washington, DC. The training will develop knowledge and skills to apply equity, diversity, and inclusion, professionally and personally. Participants in the training will leave prepared to decide and act more equitably through policies, programs, and practices.
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| Funding Opportunities |
AFRI Foundational Program Grants
The USDA AFRI Foundational Program supports
grants
in the six AFRI priority areas to continue building a foundation of knowledge critical for solving current and future societal challenges. The six priority areas are: Plant Health and Production and Plant Products; Animal Health and Production and Animal Products; Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health; Bioenergy, Natural Resources, and Environment; Agriculture Systems and Technology; and Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities. Approximately $22.1 million is available for projects related to
Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health.
Single-function Research Projects, multi-function Integrated Projects, and Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grants are expected to address one of the Program Area Priorities. Application deadlines vary; the deadline for Function and Efficacy of Nutrients is
July 6, 2017
.
See the RFA for more information.
Food Safety Outreach Program Grants
The USDA NIFA
Food Safety Outreach Program
will complement and expand the national infrastructure of the National Food Safety Training, Education, Extension, Outreach, and Technical Assistance Competitive Grants Program. The program will build on national infrastructure, with a sustained focus on delivery of customized training for the target audiences. Awardees will develop and implement food safety training, education, extension, outreach, and technical assistance projects that address the needs of owners and operators of small to mid-sized farms, beginning farmers, socially-disadvantaged farmers, small processors, or small fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers. Applications due
June 6.
Resident Instruction Grants Program for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas
This USDA NIFA
program
promotes and strengthens the ability of insular area institutions to carry out teaching and education programs within a broadly defined arena of food and agricultural sciences-related disciplines. Strengthening and enhancing the quality of instruction and curriculum will help meet their unique needs of insular area institutions. Applications due
June 15.
Distance Education Grants for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas
This USDA NIFA
program
strengthens the capacity of institutions of higher education in insular areas to carry out resident instruction, curriculum, and teaching programs in the food and agricultural sciences through distance education technology. The Distance Education Grants Program is a NIFA-administered competitive grants program focused on improving formal, post-secondary agricultural sciences education. Applications due
June 16.
RWJF HD4A Program
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has launched a
new signature research program
, Health Data for Action (HD4A), that seeks to fund up to five innovative, rigorous research studies that leverage health data to draw actionable insights to help inform health policy and build a Culture of Health. Applications due
May 24.
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