New legislation designed to reward outstanding scientists might help to keep them in the Public Health Service ranks

Attracting senior-level scientists to Public Health Service jobs in the Department of Health and Human Services and keeping them there has been tough over the past 10 years. Congressmen, policymakers, and other government officials contend that scientists have been leaving government service for better opportunities and agencies have had difficulty replacing them because their salaries have been 50 to 60 percent lower than those in industry or academia. In the past, bills to authorize significant salary increases for select government scientific staff have been introduced in Congress, but have failed. New legislation, however, should finally begin to reverse this trend by offering financial rewards to a few hundred of these Public Health Service (PHS) scientists.

Silvio O. Conte was the man behind the creation of the Senior Biomedical Research Service (SBRS). How...

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