ARRA funding offers chance to curb obesity

By Christine Ferguson
Senior Advisor 

Americans have been becoming increasingly and exponentially obese and overweight since the mid-1980s. While many debate where responsibility for the problem lies, as the gateway to chronic illness such as diabetes and heart disease, it continues to be a driver of costs in both private and public insurance. The problem must be addressed on a number of fronts, from what we serve for lunch in schools and our built environment to more effective community prevention and treatment programs. 

To that end, the Department of Health and Human Services has released $373 million in competitive grant funds for local communities to adopt and implement evidence-based policies and programs to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, decrease obesity and decrease tobacco use. According to a press release, these funds are the first of the $650 million for prevention and wellness from ARRA funding. 

This newly-created program, “Communities Putting Prevention to Work,” will operate through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where communities and tribes are able to apply for funds to address healthy eating and active living and/or tobacco use among people of all ages and across all community sectors. Businesses that offer healthier alternatives should look to partner with schools and communities and participate in this initiative. 

This is a big opportunity for communities and business to work together to attack obesity among both children and adults. These grants can be used to administer programs that could help people reach achievable and measurable weight management goals via healthy school lunch programs, community-administered wellness programs and infrastructure plans such as bike paths or parks. Let’s not forget the National Hearth Lung and Blood Institute research from the late 1990s that showed a weight reduction of as little as 5 to 10 percent leads to significant health improvements. Such outcomes would bring welcome relief to our local economies as well. 

One of the largest expenditures in most state and local budgets is health care costs through Medicaid and state or municipal employee health plans. We are paying for obesity as it leads to costly chronic disease. “Communities Putting Prevention to Work” is a chance to help struggling state and local governments trim their costs. 

This article was originally published at GovConExecutive.com. Christine C. Ferguson, JD serves as Senior Advisor for NSI’s Health Care sector providing expertise and strategic insight to NSI’s health care clients. In addition to her senior advisory role with NSI, Ms. Ferguson currently serves as a research professor at the George Washington School of Public Health and Health Services. Ms. Ferguson has been engaged in the development of an educational program in state health policy and concentrates her research on health reform, health services for vulnerable populations, overweight and obesity, and health systems reform. Prior to her academic role, Ms Ferguson served in executive positions in state government.

ARRA remains crucial for renewables

By Bruce Gruenewald
Director, Energy and Environmental Operations

The Department of Energy recently announced another round of funding from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help accelerate the development of conventional renewable energy generation projects.

Such loan guarantees allow access to capital for advanced renewable project development as credit markets continue to struggle and remain crucial for this reason. As part of the latest effort toward that end, the Department of Energy has created the Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP), which offers a streamlined set of standards designed to expedite DOE’s loan guarantee underwriting process and leverage private sector expertise and capital for the efficient and prudent funding of eligible projects.

The DOE funding will cover the cost of loan guarantees which could support as much as $4 to 8 billion in lending to eligible projects and invite private sector participation to accelerate the financing of these renewable energy projects. The first solicitation under the new program will seek loan guarantee applications for conventional renewable energy generation projects, such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydropower.

The department’s Loan Guarantee Program provides a much-needed source of funding to ensure continued investment in renewable technologies in a struggling economy. NSI continues to believe these are crucial elements to get for-profit companies to embark on energy efficiency efforts that will later lead to cost savings but require investment at the outset.

Bruce Gruenewald is the Director, Energy and Environmental Operations for NSI. He runs the day-to-day operations of the sector and works with the vice president to help clients develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions for state and local governments. Prior to joining NSI, Mr. Gruenewald served as a program manager on several US EPA contracts. He provided technical leadership for the contracts, supervised multi-disciplinary consulting staffs, and managed the business and contractual relationships with the government. He also positioned his employers for new business opportunities in federal, state, and local markets, evaluated potential teaming partners, and wrote proposals and developed pricing and cost strategies in response to RFPs.