Write Congress

[Your information will be inserted here]
Prefix Firstname Lastname
123 Street Address
MyCity, St 12345

October 12, 2008

[The Official's information will appear here]
The Honorable Firstname Lastname
123 Street Address
CapitolCity, ST 12345

Dear [Official's Title and Name will be inserted here]:

As a scientist, I write to draw your attention to the devastating blows basic research received in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008. The funding levels for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Office of Science at the Department of Energy (DOE) in the bill will cause irreparable harm.

I urge you to rectify the damage by providing emergency supplemental appropriations for FY08 and sustaining the American Competitiveness Initiative in your FY09 request.

The cuts to our nation's scientific facilities and to university research force industry to look abroad for scientific talent and facilities; they tell students to avoid science and engineering fields or to pursue those fields abroad; and they lay off scientific staff whose expertise will be permanently lost.

For America's long-term economic prospects and our children's future, the 2008 budget ignores the urgent calls found in such reports as "Rising above the Gathering Storm" to address our competitiveness and innovation challenges. Instead of increasing the investments so critical to our innovation economy, the bill you signed into law has slashed vital fields of science. As Norm Augustine, the chair of the Gathering Storm Committee recently said, "We are going to increasingly see the need for stimulus packages if we don't invest in basic science."

Furthermore, as we as a nation strive to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, mitigate global warming and put a lid on escalating energy costs, the 2008 budget abandons the long-term transformational research that is necessary to achieve all these essential goals. The damage to science is bad for our energy future and economic future.

The White House and Congress both recognized the importance of basic research, particularly in the physical sciences, and incorporated increases for research funding at key agencies into their budgetary actions last summer. The broadly supported increases acknowledge the strong connection between basic research and economic growth, a connection that other countries have also accepted and are acting upon vigorously.

The specific amounts that would rectify the damage from the FY08 budget are $180 million for NSF, $30 million for NIST STRS account, and $300 million the DOE Office of Science, for a total of $510 million. Please deliver the message of supporting science in the supplemental to your colleagues in leadership and appropriations.

Sincerely,

[Your name will appear here.]