The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a landmark bill on children’s health research after weeks of acrimonious debate over amendments that nearly killed the bill.

Bill sponsor Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R-Fla.) moved to suspend the rules so that the legislation, HR 4365, could be voted on without further amendments. The bill passed by a vote of 419 to 2.

APA and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) support the bill, which, among other things, would create a pediatric research initiative within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and significantly expand epidemiological research on autism and pervasive developmental disorders.

David Fassler, M.D., chair of APA’s Council on Children, Adolescents, and Their Families, told Psychiatric News, "We welcome the bill and applaud sponsors Reps. Michael Bilirakis and Sherrod Brown [D-Ohio] for drawing attention to the need for additional research on childhood illnesses."

Fassler continued, "We are also pleased that the bill includes prevention and funding to train physicians interested in pediatric research careers including child and adolescent psychiatry."

The bill gives the NIH director broad discretion in deciding the most promising areas of pediatric research that should be funded. The director would enhance multidisciplinary collaboration on pediatric research and ensure a sufficient number of clinical trials to promote the "safer and more effective use of prescription drugs in the pediatric population," according to the bill.

To increase data collection and research on autism and pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), the bill requires the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create a national surveillance program and establish between three and five regional centers of excellence for epidemiological research.

In addition, the CDC director would be required to set up an advisory committee to make recommendations on these initiatives and ways to effectively coordinate various governmental and nongovernmental activities regarding autism and PDD, according to the bill.

A clearinghouse at the CDC would be established to coordinate and house the various programs’ data collection, according to the bill.

The bill authorizes sums "as may be necessary" to be appropriated for each fiscal year between 2001 and 2005 for the pediatric research and autism initiatives.

"APA looks forward to supporting the passage of a companion bill in the Senate and collaborating with our pediatric colleagues to ensure the bill’s successful implementation," said Fassler.

At press time, a companion bill had not yet been introduced in the Senate.