ACS Joins Coalition Supporting Robust NSF Funding

November 2, 2021

The Honorable Patrick Leahy
Chairman
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Chair
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Richard Shelby
Vice Chairman
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Kay Granger
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Leahy, Vice Chairman Shelby, Chair DeLauro, and Ranking Member Granger:

On behalf of the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) – an alliance of 137 professional organizations, scientific societies, universities, and businesses united in our advocacy for the National Science Foundation (NSF) – we write in strong support of a robust FY 2022 funding level for the National Science Foundation. Thank you for your efforts to increase funding for NSF in FY 2022 appropriations. We are grateful to see that both the House and Senate bills would provide substantial support for NSF. NSF investments are key to bolstering U.S. innovation and competitiveness by funding highly meritorious curiosity-driven research; building and fostering U.S. STEM education and workforce programs; supporting cutting-edge facilities that enable the work of scientists and engineers; and addressing the most pressing issues of our time.

In April we asked Congress to provide at least $10 billion for NSF to set the agency on a course to advance domestic innovation and to keep pace with investments other countries are making in research and development. We are in a critical time, with myriad challenges that include the ongoing pandemic, climate change, supply chain disruptions, and an increased focus by competing nations on emerging technologies. NSF is a central part of the solution.

Given the need to sustain and increase funding for agency programs, we urge appropriators to approve at least $9.634 billion, as would be provided to NSF in the House FY 2022 Commerce, Justice, Science bill. Congress has significant interest in ensuring that NSF funds priority areas, including technologies that will be key to our national competitiveness. NSF needs enough funding to meet the massive scale of global challenges we face and fulfill Congress’s vision for U.S. leadership in science and technology.

To accomplish this, Congress must also ensure NSF protects core activities that form the foundation of our science and engineering ecosystem. The Coalition urges adequate funding in Research and Related Activities to enable the creation of the new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships and Administration priority areas while balancing the needs of other critical activities. We also strongly encourage Congress to support the House-proposed funding level for Education and Human Resources, which will enable NSF to boost funding for broadening participation programs while also protecting the education research programs that are addressing the impact of lost instructional time from the pandemic, innovating to ensure our K-12 and undergraduate education systems can meet the needs of teachers and learners in a rapidly changing world. Even with the increases proposed in the House and Senate bills, NSF would face difficult trade-offs that could undercut critical agency programs. For example, despite appearing to increase, funding for existing education research programs may receive significantly less funding from FY 2021 in the proposed Senate legislation due to the agency’s plan to move the Graduate Research Fellowships Program into EHR in FY 2022.

We are thankful for the bipartisan support that members of Congress have shown NSF. We hope to see this support continue with strong funding for NSF in FY 2022 appropriations and through other legislation.

Sincerely,

The Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF)

American Anthropological Association
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association of Geographers
American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)
American Association of Physics Teachers
American Astronomical Society
American Chemical Society
American Crystallographic Association
American Educational Research Association
American Geophysical Union
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
American Mathematical Society
American Physical Society
American Physiological Society
American Political Science Association
American Psychological Association
American Society of Agronomy
American Society of Civil Engineers
American Society for Engineering Education
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
American Society for Microbiology
American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
American Society of Plant Biologists
American Sociological Association
American Statistical Association
Arizona State University
Association for Psychological Science
Association for Women in Mathematics
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of American Universities
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC)
Atlanta University Center Consortium
Battelle
Biophysical Society
Boise State University
Boston University
Brandeis University
Brown University
Caltech
Cavarocchi Ruscio Dennis Associates
Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation
Columbia University
Computing Research Association
Consortium of Social Science Associations
Cornell University
Council of Graduate Schools
Council of Scientific Society Presidents
Council on Undergraduate Research
Crop Science Society of America
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Ecological Society of America
Entomological Society of America
Eversole Associates
Federal Science Partners
Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences
Florida State University
Forge Policy Solutions
Geological Society of America
George Mason University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Harvard University
IEEE-USA

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS)
Indiana University
Lehigh University
Lewis-Burke Associates LLC
Linguistic Society of America
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mathematical Association of America
Materials Research Society
Michigan State University
Michigan Technological University
Mineralogical Society of America
Museum of Science, Boston
National Association of Marine Laboratories
National Communication Association
National Postdoctoral Association
Natural Science Collections Alliance
New York University
Northeastern University Northern Illinois University
Optica (formerly OSA), Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide
Pennsylvania State University
Population Association of America
Princeton University
PsySiP: Psychology of Science in Policy
Research!America
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
SACNAS
SAGE Publishing
Saint Louis University
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Society for Neuroscience
Society for Research in Child Development
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)
Soil Science Society of America
SPIE
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stony Brook University
The Bagley Group
Tufts University
UCLA
UNAVCO
University of California System
University of Cincinnati
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Florida
University of Illinois System
University of Iowa
University of Michigan
University of Notre Dame
University of Oklahoma
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of Vermont
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison
US Ignite
Vanderbilt University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Washington State University
West Virginia University
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
Yale University