APS President Writes Congress; You Should, Too

March 10, 2016  |  Mark Elsesser

It’s approaching springtime in Washington, DC, which if Congress is following “regular order,” means it’s appropriations season—the time when the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations and its 12 subcommittees begin the congressional work on discretionary spending bills for the upcoming fiscal year (in this case FY17). As you may know, the yearly budgets for the principal funding agencies for physical sciences—the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and NIST and the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Office of Science—are included in the appropriation bills developed by the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Subcommittee and the Energy and Water Development (E&W) Subcommittee, respectively.

This time of year is crucial for APS and its members to reach out and inform members of Congress on the importance of strong and sustained federal funding for scientific research and research facilities. Earlier this week, APS President Homer Neal sent a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the E&W Subcommittee advocating for a 4.2 percent increase for the DOE Office of Science in FY17; Dr. Neal also wrote the chairman and ranking member of the CJS Subcommittee urging they provide a similar increase for NSF.

The APS President has done his part, and it’s time to do yours. APS encourages its members to sign and send a letter to your members of Congress to ask them to support robust and reliable federal funding for science.

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Policy news and viewpoints for the physics community. The analysis and opinions are those of the APS Office of Public Affairs and do not necessarily represent the entire Society.