Funding for the next year would take about $69 million, Scheidt said. Once field work starts, it will rise to about $150 million nationwide. But that's small change, advocates maintain, if the study can boost understanding and perhaps lead to prevention of common childhood health problems like injury, obesity, diabetes, asthma and neurobiological disorders. Last year, those five health problems alone cost Americans $758 billion.

The U. vanguard center has a core team of 10 people working across the spectrum from environmental and biological sampling to building a political base in the community — that's "politics with a big P and a little P," Clark said — and talking to citizens about what they view as their important needs.

Scheidt said Congress has talked about a continuing resolution to maintain the same level of funding for National Institutes of Health, Health and Human Services and other programs, including the study, through 2007. If that happens, there "may be no budget this year" but the study funding would be secure for at least another year.

It's also possible that they will pass a budget that includes the study when Congress reconvenes, he said. Or not.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com