TRANSFORMING THE VISION INTO REALITY: TIME TO REGISTER

If you have not already done so, now is the time to register for our February 17-21, 2003, Art and Science of Health Promotion Conference which will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. You can register online (www.HealthPromotionConference.org), by phone (248-682-0707), or with the conference brochure mailed with this issue. The conference theme is "Transforming the Vision into Reality." Our vision is of a world in which health promotion is integrated into all health professions, all elements of society, and available to all people. Through conference sessions and our collective advocacy efforts, we are working to make this vision a reality. Conference sessions are organized into five major tracks: Business Case for Health Promotion, Programming Skills, Advocacy/Health Policy, Transformational Processes, and Research Issues. We have confirmed over 40 of the leading experts in health economics, program management, research methodology, government, and health policy to address these topics. We are also offering two-day Summits on Women's Health Promotion, Health and Productivity, and HIV/AIDS on the Job. See our website for details.

Meet Members of Congress on Capitol Hill

An important part of the conference will be meetings on Capitol Hill with members of Congress and their staff to build support for the Health Promotion Research Act. This legislation has been developed through a collaborative process involving hundreds of health promotion professionals and organizations. It will provide new funding to develop the basic and applied science of health promotion, starting at $135 million in 2004 and growing to $286 million by 2008. In 2004, approximately $6 million will be devoted to the development of strategic plans for how to develop the basic and applied science of health promotion, how to best synthesize and disseminate health promotion research findings, how to support and enhance the health promotion profession, and how to best modify resources, policies, and legislation within and external to the Department of Health and Human Services to integrate health promotion into all health professions, all elements of society, and make programs available to all people. An additional $31 million will be allocated to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to stimulate development of the basic science of health promotion and to articulate a research agenda. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will receive an additional $54 million to enhance the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the Prevention Research Centers, and the Extramural Research Program, and to expand research efforts in tobacco control, nutrition and physical activity, school health, aging, health disparities, and workplace health, and to provide structural support for the health promotion field. An additional $15 million will be devoted to synthesizing and disseminating research findings to educators, practitioners, and policy makers. We expect this legislation to be introduced shortly after the conference. For details on the legislation and the process used to develop it, see www.HealthPromotionAdvocates.org.

Impact of the Change in Leadership in the Senate

We expect the change in leadership from Democratic to Republican control to have very little impact on our health promotion efforts in the long run. Key Republicans, including Senators Gregg, Specter, and Frist, as well as key Democrats, including Senators Kennedy, Byrd, and Harkin, are very supportive of our work. In fact, a majority of the members of the two committees most important to our work, the Appropriations Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, were cosponsors of our resolution supporting this concept (Sen. Con. Res. 11). In the House of Representatives, we have support from key Republicans and Democrats, including Representatives Obey, Regula, Brown, and Bilirakus. In the short term, we do expect the change in leadership to slow our efforts by a few months. The change in leadership will mean that all the committees and subcommittees will have new chairpersons and some new committee members. Equally important, when Congress adjourned in 2002, it had passed only two of the 13 Appropriations bills required to fund the operations of the federal government. Temporary funding will expire on January 11, 2003, so much of Congress' efforts in early 2003 will be focused on passing Appropriations bills.