[Letter to Edward Kennedy from Ellen C. Cooper]

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JAN 20 '93 05:17PM SYNTEX DR ELLEN COOPER

P.2/2

be given the responsibility and authority to guide and coordinate the
complex, interdisciplinary research that this disease demands, and to hold
accountable the various Institues at NIH that play a critical role in
carrying out and overseeing various pieces of the research effort. To be
effective, this office must be relatively independent of entrenched
interests, reporting to the Director of the NIH. It must be adequately
staffed with competent scientist managers, and headed by a full-time
director who has the experience and clout to provide the scientific and
social leadership that this challenge requires. It must also be given the
authority to control and disperse the funds that NIH receives for AIDS
research, both through existing Institutes and through a discretionary
research fund. Finally, this office and its director must be advised, both
formally and informally, by broadly representative groups of experts from
all Important areas impacted by AIDS research efforts, for it is as
important that the work of this office be influenced and supported by
those outside government as by those within.
As leaders of a powerful Senate committee, your support for these
changes is crucial. As a result, I look forward, from both a professional
and personal perspective, to a new era in AIDS research, where
government funds are prudently invested in accordance with a carefully
constructed, broadly vetted strategic plan that is revised periodically as
new information and research needs come to light.
Sincerely yours,
Ellen C. Cooper, M.D., M.P.H.