Columns:: Congressional action supports university’s top-priority programs

since 12/15/98

Columns::January 14, 2002

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Campus News

Congressional action supports university’s top-priority programs

By Tom Jackson
tjackson@uga.edu

Congress completed its work in 2001 just before Christmas after taking action on several items with a direct impact on the University of Georgia. With the action, the university accomplished most of its top priorities for federal fiscal year 2002, says Vice President for Government Relations Steve Wrigley.
With the strong support of the Georgia delegation, the university received a $10 million appropriation for the Paul D. Coverdell Center, which will house, among other programs, the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute. Gov. Roy E. Barnes is expected to recommend the state’s $10 million match in his fiscal year 2002 amended budget, Wrigley says. The university will fund the other $20 million through private sources. A spring groundbreaking ceremony is being planned for the $40 million facility.
The university also obtained a $650,000 appropriation for the new Center for Leadership in Education and Applied Research in Mass Destruction Defense, known by the acronym CLEARMADD. Development of the new center to counter bioterrorism, led by professor Cham Dallas, began more than a year ago, well before the events of Sept. 11. The grant, which put the university at the forefront of developing a national response to bioterrorism attacks, will be used to develop curriculum and provide training to responders to mass casualty events.
“Dr. Dallas submitted an excellent proposal and our congressional delegation worked very hard to obtain funding for CLEARMADD,” Wrigley says. “Both the president and provost met several times with members of the delegation to push for this funding.”
Congress also restored a 25 percent budget cut that had been recommended by President Bush for the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and approved a new five-year cooperative agreement for the project. Finally, more than $2 million was appropriated in special grants for agricultural research projects.
The new budget also includes $250,000 for the university to conduct a feasibility study on a proposed federal program to assist the Southern Black Belt, similar to programs already in place for Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta. Proposed by Sen. Zell Miller, the federal money is matched by a private gift.
Congress also approved an increase in the Pell Grant of $250 and a 15 percent increase in the budget of the National Institutes of Health.
“I want to thank the Georgia delegation for its responsiveness to the university’s needs,” Pres. Michael F. Adams says. “We spent a lot of time with members in 2001 and obviously that work has paid off in one of the better years the university has had in the federal budget.”

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