We now know why the Senate Appropriations Committee zeroed out the CDC’s $5.4 million budget for chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) for next year. It wasn’t because someone was out to get ME/CFS. (It also wasn’t because someone was trying to help ME/CFS :)) It was for the most banal of reasons.
It was because nobody on the Committee knew about ME/CFS.
Inattention may have cost us the CDC CFS program.
The Senate Appropriations Committee expects to be contacted by disease groups lobbying for their cause once the budget process starts in February. Senate Appropriations Committee staffer Chol Pak reported, in a call with Carol Head of the Solve ME/CFS Initiative and Charmian Proskauer of the Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association, that he’d talked to about 100 disease groups since then. Pak evinced great frustration that the Committee was not aware of the ME/CFS communities needs.
Once the Senate Appropriations subcommittee brought out its red pen to slash $2 billion from the budget ME/CFS was apparently a sitting duck. So far as they were concerned ME/CFS was a dead-weight item that they could cut easily without any fanfare. That obviously turned out not to be true.
Pak is now very aware of the importance of the CDC’s CFS program. (Carol Head said she got a response from the Senate committee that day after their advocacy message went out.) He said he read every email sent to him. He now get’s it. He’s an ally and he’s providing guidance to ME/CFS advocates to ensure that this does not happen again. (If the CDC line-item funding request remains).
He was unable, however, to change the language in the Senate Appropriations bill. It’s going to the conference with a recommendation that the CDC’s CFS program not be funded next year. The House version of the bill, on the other hand, retains the CDC’s CFS programs funding. Carol Head and Charmian Proskauer said they were cautiously optimistic the CDC’s CFS program would be funded but nothing is certain.
(There is no need, by the way, and, in fact, it would probably be counterproductive to email Senate staffers anymore – they got the message.)
If the line-item for ME/CFS is deleted the CDC could presumably still fund the program but they would have to take monies dedicated to other programs to do that. That might not be an easy thing to do. The CDC, like most government agencies, however, is in a difficult fiscal situation. Two years ago the CDC’s approximately $7 billion dollar budget was cut by $430 million. Last year it was cut by $345 million. This year it may be getting a small portion of that back with a proposed $113 million dollar increase in funding.
The Obama administration also, however, is also proposing to more than double spending on antibiotic resistant bacteria across the DHHS. That includes an $264 million dollar increase in funding next year at the CDC. Other winners in the proposed CDC budget include vaccines for children (+$128 million), drug overdose prevention (+$55 million) viral hepatitis (+ $35 million), bioterrorism (+$55 million).
With the CDC’s budget projected to increase only slightly next year, though, there are inevitably some big losers. They include “Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grants” (-$160.0 million), the Immunization Program (-$50.3 million), Cancer Screenings (-$41.6 million) and others. All funding for prostate cancer is expected to be cut (-$13.2 million). These dramatic shifts in funding indicate how volatile the CDC’s budget can be. It’s not a great time for a program to be in limbo.
Oops! We forget to advocate :)…It’s a learning experience.
It’s ironic to see a program that the ME/CFS community fought so hard to retain in the late 1990’s possibly lapse due to inattention today. I was told that it was that line-item in the CDC budget – apparently inserted by Sen. Harry Reid at one point – that got the CDC in so much trouble back then. Advocates tracking the spending realized the CDC couldn’t be spending all the money Congress had designated for ME/CFS. Their outcry lead to the scathing GAO report, a new leader for the program, and the recovery of the funds.
(That victory may have done more than that. By highlighting the difficult environment ME/CFS found itself in – and the need it had for more protection – it may have paved the way for the creation of two unusual entities, a federal advisory committee (CFSAC) and grant review committee (CFS SEP) devoted to a single disease.)
ME/CFS advocates fought off an attempt to “zero out” CFSAC at one point about ten years ago. CFSAC has had many critics but the federal committee proved it’s worth when it birthed IOM and P2P reports this year. Without CFSAC it’s hard to imagine those reports getting written, or serious discussions about ME/CFS moving to an Institute taking place now.
It’s not clear when the last advocate talked up ME/CFS to staffers in charge of the CDC’s budget, but in retrospect it seems remarkable that the program lasted this long given the budget cuts the CDC has endured recently.
The price of progress is vigilance. We saw recently what happened at NIAMS with fibromyalgia when advocates took their feet off the pedal. Now the same has happened to us.
The really good news is that more members of the ME/CFS community are engaged in advocacy efforts than I can remember. Lobbyists are being engaged. The CFIDS Association of America (now SolveME/CFS Initiative) used to be the water-carrier for the great majority of advocacy efforts. It’s not anymore; it still has access that no one else has – but the broader community is creating its own initiatives – and that’s a good sign.
There’s obviously so much to learn and we’ll see how effective and what staying power the different groups have, but it’s clear that sites like MEAction are giving advocacy new life. Hopefully, we will retain the CDC’s CFS program and come out of this stronger, smarter and more committed.
MEAction is a great place to get engaged in these issues. You can join MEAction here.
One step up and 666 steps back. Optimism needs some progress. I still hope! Hipjaven@gmail.com
This comes as no surprise. How can we expect our less-than-functional Congress be aware of our disease when it has 3 different names.
You are spot-on with your reply. They can’t run the country, economics, Isis,etc….why should we even begin to think they should be able to help with funding for Fibro, CF, or MS. Obviously, they or no one in their extended families have to deal with any of these illnesses!
🙂
Lots of issues to deal with….We have no end of issues it seems (lol).
Thank you so much for your intelligent and thorough article on this topic. Of course, the senate committee hadn’t heard of it, why would they know about it? I know, I never knew any such illness ever existed until I became horribly ill over 20 years ago. I think it’s absolutely silly for us to not have hard core, serious lobbyists on the payroll. Time to be grownups and cut a measly million or so that SolveCFS spends on teeny tiny little research projects that amount to nothing and spend that money on lobbyists so we can get proper government funding that draws in talented people. At the rate we are going, it will be 500 years before any treatment is found. It isn’t conspiracy and it isn’t that people don’t know how serious the disease is once they read about it, it’s politics and it’s logic. This illness isn’t contagious, it isn’t sexy, it effects mostly women and people just want to get rid of you if you are terribly ill but not dying. There hasn’t been enough money invested in research for the pharma companies to invest their money yet. Once some leads are found, then more pharma will get interested. They are corporations so if they can’t show enough profit forecast, they can’t invest. You’ve got to get people in there making connections, find someone who can make beautiful and scary commercials on the illness, get a good PR agency working on it. You’ve got to work within the system if you want to see progress.
Well, that’s my not so humble opinion. 😉 hehe…. No one is going to take us seriously if too many people keep acting crazy though, talking about conspiracies or screaming that SEID isn’t ME or that CFS isn’t ME. People need to shut down the idea that thoughts are magic and stories about recovery from having magic thoughts through something called “The Lightening Process.” Anyone who reads that ME is solved by going to a con artist for a week end workshop on positive thinking will of course, think the disease is bogus and that we are all crazy. We need to be smart about this.
” This illness isn’t contagious, it isn’t sexy, it effects mostly women and people just want to get rid of you if you are terribly ill but not dying.”
So true- hopefully burden of disease advocates will have their way at the NIH and this will help – this is a darn burdensome disease…for the people who have it and for society.
Exactly! Well said Bunny.
Everything you said is so on point. We need to be united, even if we don’t all agree on details, and we need to concentrate all our (pathetic) energy on the important thing – getting government to fund real medical trials.
We need at least a few million dollars a year in research and we can’t get that with just charity no matter how much good will people have.
Hi Cort,
Hearing yet more situations like this leaves a sufferer with such incredible intense frustration it’s hard to think straight. When I have my moments of strength or clarity, I wish to somehow do what I can in the path towards this unbearable illness receiving more funding and research. I’d be grateful for any suggestions on some worthy places to start, as, like everything with this illness, it’s hard to know where to.
It is hard to know. I think things and actions and groups in ME/CFS advocacy are kind of congealing now. I would definitely, though, sign up for MEAction – http://www.meaction.net/ – get on some lists, participate in some petitions and we’ll see how it all comes together.
Maybe I am missing something but what puzzles me is: When it was proposed that the CDC ME/CFS program was to be slashed, wasn’t there anyone at the CDC itself in position to know immediately about this decision and caring about this issue and react to it, such as Dr Unger? Prior to any “outer” advocate?
I have no idea. I did hear from someone that Dr. Unger said that she was basically barred from doing anything about it…We also heard about this, if I have this right – AFTER it was all done…I’m getting the sense that the bill was finished and published and THEN we found out about it…At that point it was done and there was nothing to be done about it…I could be wrong but that’s the sense I’m getting…
I don’t know if the CDC was privy to the bill as it was being produced. You would think they would be….I just don’t know. It’s a good question! There’s a lot to learn 🙂
“she was basically barred from doing anything about it” is the MOST ridiculous thing I have ever heard.
If she wasn’t allowed to do anything positive there, I can’t believe she didn’t let SOMEONE know, oh, btw, they’re voting on appropriations tomorrow and you are probably going to get slashed, maybe a lot.
ANYONE who does nothing allows evil to reign.
Well Yipppe because that means he read MY email sling with all the others and it helped!!
Oh yes….Pak was not happy how this all turned. He was not happy that an program that meant so much to people was inadvertently erased…That was not his intention at all.
Not contagious – I am not so sure about that. Too many spouses than normal contract it, including mine.
I have to agree that there is an infectious component to this disease, both my husband and I have been fighting it for nine years.
It’s very difficult for me to understand how they can just cut the CDC funding, just as they are finishing up their study. Very sad and frustrating, for those of us that struggled to participate in the study. Keeping my fingers crossed that the House listens. Is there something that we can do to make sure we don’t get lost in the House shuffle, or did all the emails get to the right people of the there?
They are saying that the committee needs no more reminders – but i can’t imagine it would be a bad thing to contact your own Congressional representatives in both the House and the Senate. Personally, I think they should know about this little sleight of hand from CDC (and it was obviously CDC who contributed to their thinking ME/CFS was … a silly disease that did not need funding.
Mary, you always see through the mess, to the heart of a situation. Love your understatement, a silly disease that did not need funding.
The reason that the CDC’s budget has been slashed in the recent years is sequestration (see link below). Sequestration required mandatory cuts in most areas, each year. The Obama administration’s budget proposes doing away with these mandatory, yearly cuts. It would better our funding chances if Congress agreed to end sequestration. It wouldn’t hurt to contact Congress members and request an end to these mandatory, across-the-board cuts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_sequestration_in_2013
It’s somewhat good news that the staffer is now aware of the great need for ME/CFS. I wish there was a way to influence the house/senate negotiations, but there will also be a white house/congressional round of negotiations after this. Maybe that’s the next pressure point. I like that there’s some hope now, but we really need more funding, not just a return to the previously low level we had before.
Thanks for the detailed reporting.
Thanks for shedding light on what’s happening A 🙂
What sort of a system is it where funding is allocated to diseases according to lobbying rather than need?
The Senate Appropriations Committee should take a good look at itself.
I didn’t know about the ME Action site. I’ll get right on it. Thanks again for all your work, Cort.
Regarding my other (pending?) comment, the briefer explanation would be that sequestration (mandatory, yearly, indiscrminatory budget cuts) is the illness. Cuts to CDC funding and zero-ing out our funding, are the symptoms. We’ve got to go after the disease.
There WAS advocacy in Washington and senate. http://www.meaction.net/2015/08/30/cdc-funding-update-the-importance-of-lobbying/
“This spring, MEadvocacy organized and accomplished successful demonstrations in DC. http://www.meadvocacy.org/me_patients_visible_at_the_capitol_pictures_and_videos
But more importantly, MEadvocacy sent in written submissions to the Senate as well as the House appropriations committees in a timely fashion.
Please see here, the submission to the Senate Appropriations Committee by MEadvocacy.org. https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/meadvocacy/pages/9/attachments/original/1430839607/Copyofwrittentestimonytothesenateappropriations_(1).pdf?1430839607
In addition, MEadvocacy had an advocate attend both the Senate and House Appropriations Committee meetings in person. This advocate also visited with and talked with key members of the appropriations committees. Please note, this advocate is paying dearly for this advocacy work and had a subsequent decline in her health from all these activities. She gave them extensive information packets, carefully prepared by MEadvocacy.
I also know of two other advocates that visited appropriation committee members during this time. Please read about it here on MEadvocacy’s blog – http://www.meadvocacy.org/want_to_get_250_million_for_me_let_s_reach_congress_now
Yes indeed – glad to hear it. (Not on this particular issue but no one else was – it was no on anyone’s radar? So why am I promoting MEAction and not MEAdvoacy?
Because MEAdvocacy started out slamming the P2P and IOM reports and the CDC multisite study and it’s still slamming the P2P and IOM study and the CDC multistite study (which is the main reason for keeping the CDC going).
While MEAdvocacy is doing that – other groups are trying to use those very reports to get more funding. Those reports may be getting us into an Institute. When one group is saying those reports are no good while other groups are trying to use them to get more funding – that;’s a really mixed message.
Even if you don’t like aspects of the reports I suggest that’s its best to overlook their perceived faults and use them to get more funding.
MEAdvocacy is trying to get the federal government to ignore the IOM report recommendations – produced by a year of work by experts – but it’s asking the federal govt to use PEM as the key criteria for a definition using the CCC, ICC, etc. as a foundation. That’s actually exactly what the IOM report did.
I think the last objective listed by the MEAdvocacy should be the first one.
“Getting government funding to study this devastating disease, similar to the amounts being spent on diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Autism, Lupus, Crohn’s Disease, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease.”
Funding ultimately clears up everything – the definition, the name, etc. That’s what we need to focus on.
MEAdvocacy has a great site – you’re working hard and getting out there – that’s great. Your efforts to increase funding are very laudable. I respectedly submit, though, that some parts of your message are getting in the way..
Bc they were against IOM, p2p, … You don’t mention (“promote”???) them?!
That’s quite shocking.
I thought You were giving objective Information to patients.
This needs to be known then, no? It Means senate is maybe lying.
Never – never?! – heard of ME? Do You believe that?
Rather, Never heard of Jenny Spitola who uncovered the senate plans to cut all funding for ME (cfs).
That i Will believe.
???? I actually have no idea what you’re saying…
Bc they were against IOM, p2p, … You don’t mention (“promote”???) them?!
That’s quite shocking.
I thought You were giving objective Information to patients.
This needs to be known then, no? It Means senate is maybe lying.
Never – never?! – heard of ME? Do You believe that?
Rather, Never heard of Jenny Spitola who uncovered the senate plans to cut all funding for ME (cfs).
That i Will believe.
Thanks for the detailed update on this.
If nobody in appropriations took ME/CFS seriously in the CDC budget, I think you have to blame CDC. And if Unger was actually silenced, as you say she was, that’s REALLY bad.
Couple of comments: No, CFSAC was not the result of the GAO study finding that CDC had spent funds allocated for CFS on other diseases (actually, Congress was not angry with CDC for putting the money somewhere else – they were angry because CDC LIED about it to them, hence the remedy for most of the CDC employees involved – they had to go to a seminar about accounting!)
CFSAC was the natural heir of CFSCC, but it lost privileges for both patients and representatives in the “advisory” committee, as opposed to the older “coordinating” committee. There should have been no transition between the Clinton and Bush administrations with regards to a committee such as this – but after Bush came into power, CFSCC was not renewed, and it was three years before CFSAC came into being. CFSAC began in 2003, which was more than three years AFTER CDC had its wrist slapped for lying about CFS funding. What came out of the reinstated funding was not the three studies Congress had asked for (on minorities, children, and pregnant women), but the Reeves definition, aka the “empirical” definition for CFS.
Second – there is considerable evidence that this disease is contagious in the beginning (as was also true of polio). While it is possible that the cluster outbreaks were environmentally caused, most of them were connected to the perception of a viral outbreak (in many cases EBV, but not always). And, to repeat, as in the case of polio, the contagious phase appears to be in the beginning, not later on.
That there is evidence of other “doors” into the illness does not mean there isn’t a disease that is spread in outbreaks – or that at least a subset of us fit that profile. There has been evidence for years that atypical polio and ME were contagious – since CFS can mean different things to different clinicians or observers, perhaps cluster outbreak “CFS” is the closest the US has to pure ME.
Finally, I guess the part of the budget I would look to at least get a pittance out of is the increase they wanted for preventing household accidents – if for no other reason that those of us with this disease (especially the ones with balance problems and/or ataxia) are an accident looking for a place to happen …
Caveats aside, thank you for the thorough description of the apparent reasoning behind the secret budget cut for ME/CFS. 35 years, over a million American adults, too many deaths – and they STILL don’t know about it. Doesn’t say much about CDC’s “educational” efforts, does it?
I agree that it is only infectious initially and those that believe they spread it to a partner many years after have probably spread a EBV/HPV because now as a co-morbid a small subset does have activated EBV/HPV. If these diseases CAUSED ME/CFS the world would be overrun with ME/CFS patients.
And that is if that is how your ME/CFS came on because in cluster outbreaks, most overcame whatever viral infection they got caught up in. Only a small percentage never got well again and I believe that is because ME/CFS patients have a genetic default. That is why any type of outbreak, such as what is thought to have happened in the Incline Village cluster, toxic mold, or chemical/environmental, severe viruses, Mono, bacterial, can cause ME/CFS to set in. And I believe that is why it can run in families. My friend’s sister and her daughter have it. My family has all kinds of “weirdo” diseases in it. Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, POTS, etc. Overall we are Cancer free in a HUGE family except for my aunt who had breast cancer in her 70’s, one Diabetic, 2 with dry eye and one with wet eye degeneration. Overall there is nothing going on.
I don’t believe what we have is infectious, I believe it is genetic and “something” comes along and sets us off. Causation could be why some become so severe and others can still function perhaps getting worse over the years.
And I know what you are saying about Ebola. If they want a cure and prevention they will have it. I believe that AIDS should already be CURED and PREVENTABLE not just a lifelong expensive treatment protocol. Diabetes should have been a thing of the past 10 years ago. Many cancers should have been on the cusp of cure 10 years ago, not our being on the cusp now.
And yet THIS year, when a significant (what – 10?) number of AMERICANS contracted EBOLA, a vaccine was found quickly.
I am disgusted.
I want to throw something – but that would take too much energy.
Thanks for the info, Cort, but this is on the level of genocide and Tuskegee: just let them quietly die away.
I know longer see my previously submitted comment as under mediation. It had disappeared.
So I am submitting again.
Second Submission:
Els, thank you for sharing information about MEadvocacy.org.
MEadvocacy’s goals have been very clear from the start. We are 1) advocating for patients who suffer from the historical disease ME but who are misdiagnosed in the US as CFS, 2) fighting to regain the true name myalgic encephalomyelitis as well as ME criteria created by ME experts who know and understand the disease, and 3) advocating for increase in research funding.
We do not support US government constructed names and criteria that were specifically created in order to murky the waters and waste money studying a syndrome that is way too broad to be meaningful. Clearly, the government’s mishandling and malfeasance of this disease has blockaded any meaningful scientific advancements leading to a cure or treatments that substantially improve the quality of our lives. It is only with the proper historical name and a tight criteria that we will have an effective chance to find a biomarker and hopefully FDA approved treatments.
This past month, the working group assigned by CFSAC to study the IOM and P2P reports, came to the same conclusions. They have recommended the name ME as well as improvements to the inadequate IOM criteria to align it more with the CCC. We have had three decades of debating the name issue. It is time to take the quote mentioned at CFSAC to heart: “Please don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”. Myalgic encephalomyelitis is the name used worldwide as well as in the WHO under neurology. It is the preferred name chosen by a majority of stakeholders. It is time to make it official in the US as well.
Our priority is championing for ME patients, not about being favored by government health agencies. Advocates and patients have tried to work with the government agencies for 30 years to no avail. We do recognize some government workers are trying to prioritize the patients but they are hindered by numerous political roadblocks from policy makers. Even the latest CFSAC meeting resulted in illegal actions by the DFO. It is evident that a change in tactics is needed. The government health agencies’ mindset must be changed and that will take a directive from Congress. But to get Congress to listen, the organizations and patients need to speak up to get myalgic encephalomyelitis on the political landscape in order to get the biomedical research funding we need.
For US citizens this is an easy way to get your voice heard: http://www.meadvocacy.org/tell_congress_to_increase_funding_for_me_research
Sincerely,
Tracey Smith, MEadvocacy.org volunteer
The first couple of posts for everyone automatically go under moderation.
This is why I don’t support MEAdvocacy. I believed you’re focused on the wrong issues and that you’re tilting at windmills. I don’t agree with the conspiracy tinge either.
We have two excellent reports – we need to use them to get more funding. The focus on the name is understandable but please understand this – fibromyalgia has an excellent name and it gets considerably less funding per person than ME/CFS. While changing the name is near and dear to people with ME/CFS doing so will will make no difference in funding. Nor will changing the definition.
What has the possibility of making a difference in funding is using two federally funded report to boost our case that ME/CFS or ME or whatever you want to call it is a serious and seriously underfunded disorder.
MEAdvocacy’s continued critiques of those reports only gets in the way of making that happen. ME Advocacy’s attempts to change the name for the definition by Congressional fiat is simply naive as well. Congress is not interested in the technical aspects of diseases such as names or definitions nor should they be. They are politicians – not scientists. They defer to the NIH on these matters.
Where Congress can help us is with broad issues of funding. Getting more funding what we need. That will clear up everything. That’s what MEAdvocacy should, I believe, be focusing on.
Yes, unfortunately too much time & effort is wasted in fighting the wrong battles in the US & UK.
As a group, we have little energy so need to conserve our energy for the causes eg funding for research, training for doctors & appraise treatments.
The political battle is something that needs to be handled delicately. Glad to MEAction seem to doing things the right way.
In the 1990s and earlier, Rep John Porter of Illinois was our advocate. He began that advocacy because one of his constituents, Ted Van Zelst, had a daughter, and that daughter had CFS. The constituent spoke to the House committees whenever asked.
It was Porter who got angry when the CDC was not spending the money in the way the Congress had authorized, calling people on the carpet for lying to Congress. Congresspeople are not fond of people lying to them.
I do not know what was happening in the Senate back then. But I was following Rep John Porter, who stopped advocating for us only because he retired from Congress after 30 years. He is still alive, 80 years old, and was that now rare bird, a moderate Republican. Maybe I noticed him more because I live in Illinois, too, and in my other life as an engineer, I met Ted Van Zelst, as he went to the same college I did. My worlds (of health and of disability) were crossing at an event honoring one of my classmates.
We could use another John Porter, and another Ted Van Zelst, for that matter
Here is somebody’s page showing the issues being fought in the 1990s
http://wwcoco.com/cfids/yuppieflu.html
and more of our own history, showing Harry Reid’s role, along with Porter:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17134990/ns/health-health_care/t/pain-meets-politics-focus-chronic-fatigue/#.VegrhJe0cpk
Thanks Sarah for reminding us about Porter – getting him was so important….
Thank you Cort, for making things easy to understand.
In terms of your congressional representatives –
Actually, this is one of the things they do well – they like helping individual constituents. Never hurts to try.
mary
Cort, I have alot of respect for your reporting. I do not believe that any Congressman, Senate or House, can cut this cohort of severely ill constituates out of the Budget claiming that the did not know what it meant. First, since we have NO term Limits many who are heads of these budget committes have been in Office since this horrible disease was first investigated by the CDC back when the Tahoe investigation happened….but not reported to Congress appropriately. They know! Second, I find it disingenuous to believe that anyone in Congress, or the head of any of the HHS Agencies would deny knowledge of ME et al simply because in the last 10 years of my affliction, the past 5 of which I have been watching this immoral medical/political charade very closely, they all have been bombarded with the multiple FAX/e-mail/mail campaigns. All this with persistant petitions sent to them begging for our human rights to fair and equal health care. And finally, the fact that this controversy of finding us both a quality place of a health care home within HHS that would truly respect our Humanity. Instead we get Office of Women’s Health Care where everyone points their little Authoritarian fingers at the few ill people who show up at CFSAC meetings and tell use that “WE need to….!” Believe me, in the 15 years I had a privilege to advocate for my clients issues, never once did I say to someone that they should do something out of their possibility without setting up their success to guide them. We are too ill to carry the burden. That budget slash for CFS was simply an in-house (Senate) retaliation for the efforts we made because HHS did not appreciate that though we are ill, our numbers are growing stronger. There would be no budget cuts if this disease was taken seriously because the Government would be receiving weekly Income Tax payments from the paychecks that the afflicted could all be earning.
All I can say is that I hope to God the funding is restored and that we finally end up in an Institute. The good thing about this imbroglio is that they certainly know a lot more about us now. Crossing my fingers. It would be too weird to have funding cut right after the IOM and P2P reports.