American Chemical Society releases public policy agenda

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 2020 — The American Chemical Society (ACS) today announced its public policy agenda for 2020. The agenda maintains the Society’s continued commitment to advancing policies designed to ensure a robust U.S. innovation ecosystem that is safe, inclusive and diverse, while sustainably growing our economy, creating jobs and advancing science on a global scale. In order to achieve this broad policy agenda, ACS seeks to work with Congress, the administration and the stakeholder community in a bipartisan manner to address the recommendations below.

Ensure a Robust Scientific Enterprise and Protect International Scientific Exchange

ACS urges policymakers to invest in long-term economic growth by supporting scientific research and development critical to our nation’s global competitiveness, defense, public health, energy security and environmental progress. Federal investments provide a majority of support for basic research, fostering cutting-edge scientific discoveries, industrial innovation, and the training of future scientists and engineers.

ACS supports the ability of scientists to operate without barriers, impediments or restrictions to travel in the pursuit of scientific collaboration and meaningful discourse. Travel and in-person meetings are crucial to the nature of scientific exchange in the academic community. Congress and the administration must protect scientific education and exchange and welcome foreign scholars, students, scientists and engineers to ensure a robust scientific enterprise and U.S. economy.

Related ACS statements:Freedom of International Scientific Exchange, Fostering Scientific Progress: U.S. Visas for Academic Study & Conference Attendance, Science and Technology in the Budget, U.S. Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Support High-Quality and Inclusive STEM Education and Workforce Training

ACS continues to support investment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teacher training and retention programs, promoting high-quality, hands-on science experiences in safe and modernized learning environments, particularly in rural and underserved communities, to ensure a diverse and inclusive STEM pipeline for current and future generations of students. ACS encourages an expanded vision of scholarship promoting high-quality research within STEM disciplinary fields and ensuring that students have access to deeper study of STEM by guiding the development of programs, tools and methods for improving teaching and learning.

Related ACS Statement: Science Education Policy

Promote Sustainability across the Global Chemistry Enterprise and Environment

ACS continues to believe environmental sustainability and economic growth are not mutually exclusive. The chemistry enterprise stands at the nexus of ensuring a sustainable world for future generations. Developing cleaner feedstocks, biodegradable products and energy-efficient processes promises to unlock exciting new fields of chemistry, grow our economy and create jobs. In the long term, reducing the amount of waste and single-use products should be a societal and industrial goal, and ACS welcomes an opportunity to contribute to this growing dialogue.

ACS strongly urges policymakers to take action to address the changing climate and its significant impact on human health, the environment and our nation’s infrastructure. The physical and atmospheric chemistry underlying anthropogenic global warming is robust and well established, and urgent action is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adopt mitigation strategies to address global climate impacts.

Related ACS statements: Climate Change, Energy Policy, Sustainability and the Chemistry Enterprise

Ensure the Integrity of Science in Policy and Regulatory Decision-Making

As our nation continues to face a broad array of regulatory and scientific challenges, from addressing climate change to ensuring the safety of the chemicals in our daily lives, policymakers need access to the best available science to ensure the widest area of choices and outcomes. ACS strongly believes science works best when free of political interference. Scientists should be free to publicize and discuss their research where appropriate. The Society encourages the development of scientific integrity policies to ensure that the science informing policy is comprehensive, transparent and unbiased. In addition, the Society believes robust peer review and scholarly publications are essential to the scientific process. ACS urges policymakers to reject restrictive unilateral policies preventing scientists from publishing results in the formats and manner of their choosing.

Related ACS statements: Peer Review: Ensuring Federal Support of High Quality Science, Publishing: Ensuring and Expanding Access to High Quality Science, Scientific Integrity in Public Policy, Chemical Risk Assessment and Regulatory Decision Making

The Society’s comprehensive policy priorities, the individual public policy statements and related materials are available at www.acs.org/policy.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. The Society is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a specialist in scientific information solutions (including SciFinder^® and STN^®), its CAS division powers global research, discovery and innovation. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.