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This article features various views regarding budget accounting in the United States. For at least four decades, there have been experiments with the application of accrual accounting to the federal government. In the last ten years there has been a sharp attack on existing budget and financial management practice by proponents of an accrual based, business type approach the General Accounting Office (GAO) has been in the forefront of this effort. The budget is the single most important financial report in the government's financial management system because it sets forth the plan against which finances are managed. Any other comprehensive financial reporting, including annual financial statements, must be viewed as supplementary to the budget and must support the budget. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has objected to adoption of a government wide accrual based accounting scheme because it could be expected to lead to larger deficits, less financial control by the executive branch and the U.S. Congress, and more confusion in an already complex budget process.

The author discusses the article entitled "Playing the Wrong PART: The Program Assessment Rating Tool and the Functions of the President's Budget" by Professor Joseph White which appeared in Volume 72, Issue 1, of the "Public Administration Review." The author is disappointed with the resource allocation contributions that the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) has made as of January 2012 in U.S. budget process analysis.

Federal regulations prescribe distinct protections for children participating in research studies. Procedures for collecting tissue specimens from children solely for research purposes must pose no more than a minor increase over minimum risk, thereby limiting the approvable correlative biologic studies to evaluate molecularly targeted agents in children with cancer. Ethical issues arise when approvable correlative studies are a mandatory component of an early-phase pediatric clinical trial of new anticancer agents. The National Cancer Institute Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program sponsored a workshop in 2002 to discuss tissue collection for correlative biologic studies in early-phase childhood cancer clinical studies of molecularly targeted agents. Workshop participants recommended the following: (1) tissue specimens for correlative studies should provide vital clinical and scientific results to qualify for early-phase pediatric study consideration; (2) parents should receive a realistic appraisal of the risks, requirements, and potential for benefit of phase I protocol participation; (3) investigators should clearly distinguish clinically necessary procedures from research procedures of no benefit to the child to improve correlative study informed consent; and (4) participation in correlative research studies included in clinical trials generally should be voluntary. The need to acquire important biologic data regarding new molecular agents will challenge the ingenuity of pediatric cancer researchers, necessitating the application of highly sensitive laboratory assay methods, new imaging procedures, and preclinical models of childhood cancer. Such innovative methods can allow necessary scientific information to be obtained while simultaneously respecting the protections appropriately afforded to children participating in research studies and minimizing the burden of research participation for children with cancer and their families.