hi all, new blog post on the kafka pandemic. it is related to my 2016 open letter to francis collins. http://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com/2018/04/nih-reply-to-my-open-letter-and-legal_24.html many nih employees will read it, so comments on the blog itself might be useful in getting across your comments and concerns, in addition to being appreciated by me to know what you're thinking.
I think whether something counts as lobbying congress depends on the context and is up to interpretation. I think telling congress about ME would only be appropriate if they didn't know about it or it wasn't well known. Given that many members of congress and their staff members are already aware of ME and its rough situation, I think that there wouldn't be much justification in Francis Collins going out of his way to tell congress since it would plausibly be seen as encouraging them to do something (which would be lobbying), or even criticizing them, since they already know about it, and outside the imperative of just providing them with information. I think that he would be quite careful about not overstepping his political bounds. At the same time I think what Francis Collins can do is limited. The NIH has to choose grant reviewers and review grants according to particular processes (https://public.csr.nih.gov/ReviewerResources/BecomeAReviewer/Pages/How-Scientists-Are-Selected.aspx and https://grants.nih.gov/grants/grants_process.htm). In order to influence whether particular grants get selected he'd have to use his powers in a ridiculous and super inappropriate manner or he'd have to have 100% of everyone else at the NIH on board with funding as many ME grants as possible - both of which are basically impossible. It might be within his power to do something exceptional, but that would have to have the support of congress or the executive branch.
He's just saying how it is (in my view) I like it. Thanks for your analysis, @Samuel. Obviously, Francis Collins looks for excuses.
By doing his job and letting congress know the areas where increased funding is needed. He doesn't increase the funding, congress does. But he does present his expert opinion for their consideration.
