What is a late-breaker?
A late-breaker is a proposed policy statement that is related directly to events that occur after the regular policy statement proposal submission deadline has passed. All late-breakers should be submitted as soon as possible and no later than the deadline indicated on the Policy Statement Development and Review Calendar. Late-breakers are reviewed based on the following criteria:
- Emergent event: Does the evidence/arguments represent a development since this year’s policy statement deadline (in February)?
- Necessity: Does APHA have an existing policy statement that already addresses the issue?
- Utility: Are the action steps in the proposed policy statement directly related to, and appropriate for addressing the issue/ problem outlined in the policy statement?
- Format: Late-breakers are held to the same format guidelines as other policy statements. For more information on policy statement format, check out the APHA Proposed Policy Statement Submission Guidelines.
Late-breaker submission
Late-breaker proposed policy statement for 2023 must be submitted to policy@apha.org by 11:59 p.m. ET on Oct. 20, 2023.
When submitting a late-breaker proposal, authors must complete and attach:
- 250-word cover letter explaining rationale for why proposed policy statement qualifies as a late-breaker, addressing, in particular, the relevance and utility of the proposal
- Policy Statement Proposal Checklist (Word file)
- Author Disclosure Statement (Word file) for each author
- Sponsorship and/or Endorsement Letters (if applicable)
Review Timeline
- Following the submission deadline, JPC co-chairs will review late-breakers based on above criteria to determine eligibility.
- Authors will then be notified if the late-breaker is accepted. If the late-breaker is accepted, authors will be informed of the public hearing date, time and location (Public hearings for accepted late breakers will be Nov. 2, 2023 from 3:30-5 p.m. ET via Zoom).
- Following the public hearing, late-breakers will be reviewed with other policy statements during the JPC executive session (closed) on the Sunday of the Annual Meeting. This session will result in a recommendation to the Governing Council.
- The Governing Council will vote on all proposed policy statements, including late-breakers during their Tuesday meeting at the Annual Meeting on Nov. 14.
- Approved late-breaker policy statements will be considered valid, but interim for one year. Late-breaker policy statement authors will need to revise, update, and resubmit their policy statements to the standard proposed policy statement review process by the February deadline the following year. Late-breaker policy statements will be subject to full review and reaffirmation in the next annual policy statement development cycle. If the late-breaker is not resubmitted, it will expire after one year.