Statement of Joint Council of Allergy and Immunology Presented before the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Environment

Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the Committee, thank
you for the opportunity to testify before you today on the NIH
Revitalization Amendments Act of 1993. I am Dr. Joseph A.
Bellanti, Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology, Director of the
Immunology Center of Georgetown University School of Medicine, and
Program Director of one of the six NIAID Centers for
Interdisciplinary Research on Immunologic Diseases (ICIDR's),
established by former Congressman George O'Brien. In addition, I
am a co-investigator of the Washington, D.C. Consortium Pediatric
AIDS Clinical Trial Unit (ACTU).
I am testifying on behalf of the Joint Council of Allergy and
Immunology, and serve as the immediate Past-President of the
American College of Allergy and Immunology. The JCAI is a nonprofit organization representing over 4,000 members of the American
Academy of Allergy and Immunology and the American College of
Allergy and Immunology, which are professional organizations
comprised of researchers and clinicians from across the country.
The JCAI appreciates the efforts of the Committee and your
colleagues to bring forward and pass an NIH reauthorization. This
bill has been subject to debate and scrutiny over the past several
years and its passage, which will be welcomed by the research
community, is long overdue. We are grateful for your leadership on
this critically important legislation.
I would like to address my comments today to TITLE XVIII, an
18-page amendment to the Senate bill, which was made during Senate
Committee mark-up last week. TITLE XVIII represents a significant
departure from the current structure and operation of AIDS research
at the National Institutes of Health. We believe that changes to
the NIH of this magnitude should receive a full and open discussion
by all interested parties, and regret that an opportunity for full
participation in the Senate was not available. We are pleased that
you have afforded the scientific community this opportunity as the
first step in addressing some of the worrisome provisions included
in the Senate-passed amendment prior to its final consideration by
the House and the Senate.
We understand that the intent of this 18-page amendment is to
strengthen the coordination, improve planning and insure
accountability in AIDS research supported by the various components
of the NIH, as well as improve flexibility in meeting the evolving
research priorities associated with AIDS infection. This is a
laudable objective, and one which the scientific community
supports. However, we believe that some of the very provisions
included in this amendment would be to the detriment of this
objective: not its achievement. Further, we believe that many of
the provisions are unclear and nebulous with regard to their
ramifications and raise more questions than they solve. Let me be
more specific.