Just as there exist striking differences in orientation, scope, and longevity among gerontology programs based in universities, so too the uses made of research on aging by federal agencies vary greatly. As the previous chapter documents, there is no consistent pattern in the ways that the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government sponsor, consume, and produce knowledge. The aims and impact of scientific work underwritten by public funds, which has exploded since the 1960s, have generally been targeted to particular constituencies for specific purposes. Fields and customers do not overlap greatly. Nor is there yet much centralized coordination of research activities – despite the efforts of the Federal Council on Aging, an assistant HHS secretary for aging, and several congressional oversight committees. Each unit tends to define its mission to older Americans its own way and to operate with considerable autonomy. Rarely by design do two or more federal agencies voice the same rank-order list of concerns for aging people and share the same research aims for an extended period of time. Interagency cooperation is as difficult to negotiate as it is to sustain interdisciplinary research teams.

Maintaining intra-agency consistency, as this chapter illustrates, is also a daunting challenge. With few exceptions, institutional memories in federal agencies with a mandate to address the needs of elderly Americans are not long. So as priorities change and staff move on, old issues are revisited as if for the first time.