ACS joins Coalition Urging Completion of FY22 Appropriations

February 4, 2022

The Honorable Chuck Schumer
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Room S-221, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
U.S. House of Representatives
Room H-232, The Capitol Room
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader
United States Senate
Room S-230, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
H-204, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader McCarthy,

On behalf of the undersigned science, engineering, math and public health organizations, thank you for your collective efforts to finalize FY 2022 appropriations. We urge you to continue the push and finish the job to avoid a long-term continuing resolution (CR). Our nation faces ongoing public health, environmental, economic and security challenges, and a long-term CR would harm the historically bipartisan prioritization of funding for research and development (R&D) agencies that play a critical role in addressing those challenges, as well as the ability for these agencies to properly plan for the future.

Lifesaving COVID vaccines are just one particularly timely example of how decades of federally funded research driven by discovery, together with private sector innovation and partnership, has solved problems and yielded incredible benefits to society. Following through on proposed FY 2022 funding levels for key research agencies – including NIH, NASA, NSF, DOE, DOD, USDA, NOAA, EPA, USGS and NIST – will foster new innovations and support STEM talent, including early-career researchers and scientists and engineers from underrepresented groups. It will enable exciting new efforts such as ARPA-H for high-risk, high-reward biomedical research; major boosts in areas such as advanced energy solutions and pandemic preparedness; and growth for programs in multiple agencies to bolster U.S. STEM education and the workforce, just as new NSB data points to stagnant math scores and fewer graduate students with federal government support.

As you know, America is not alone in the quest to tackle the challenges of the future and chart a prosperous path forward. Though we remain the world leader in total R&D, competition with foreign economies to sustain U.S. preeminence in science and technology is real. For example, in 2019, China’s R&D grew by 13%, the largest of major economies, and its R&D intensity – R&D as a share of GDP – also grew rapidly, nearly tripling between 2000 and 2019. The gap has also continued to close in scientific publications and patents. Stop-gap measures seriously undermine our scientific research, delay the development of new technologies, and increase the risk of ceding our leadership to global competitors at a pivotal time when innovative scientific advancements are accelerating.

Investing in S&T is a bipartisan win for everyone. We urge you to complete your efforts and finish the FY 2022 appropriations process with robust support for scientific research and development.

Sincerely,

Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research
American Anthropological Association
American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association of Physics Teachers
American Chemical Society
American Educational Research Association
American Geophysical Union
American Geosciences Institute
American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Mathematical Society
American Physical Society
American Physiological Society
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
American Society for Microbiology
American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
American Society of Agronomy
American Society of Neuroradiology
American Society of Plant Biologists
American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene
American Sociological Association
American Thoracic Society
Association for Psychological Science
Association for Women in Science
Association of Population Centers
Biocom California

Biophysical Society
Coalition for the Life Sciences
Council on Undergraduate Research
Crop Science Society of America
Ecological Society of America
Endocrine Society
Entomological Society of America
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance
Geological Society of America
Infectious Diseases Society of America
Lasker Foundation
Optica (formerly OSA), the Society Advancing Optics and
Photonics Worldwide
Population Association of America
Research!America
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
Society For Biomaterials
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society for Neuroscience
Society for Personality Assessment
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
Soil Science Society of America
SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics
Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR) Foundation
The Gerontological Society of America
The Oceanography Society

cc: House and Senate Appropriation Chairs