Letter from Members of the House to House Appropriators Regarding NSF FY 2007 Budget issues
January 17, 2007
| The Honorable David Obey Chairman Committee on Appropriations H-218 Capitol Washington, DC 20515 | The Honorable Jerry Lewis Ranking Member Committee on Appropriations H-218 Capitol Washington, DC 20515 |
Dear Chairman Obey and Ranking Member Lewis,
Thank you very much for your leadership in increasing federal funding for basic science research. As supporters of scientific research and education, we respectfully ask that you single out the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a priority in your fiscal year 2007 Continuing Resolution appropriations legislation. Specifically, we request that you fund NSF at the House-passed, President’s requested level of $6.02 billion in fiscal year 2007. This is essential, because the flat funding for this agency under the Continuing Resolution will directly inhibit our national competitiveness and jeopardize American innovation.
The NSF is an agency that has suffered budget stagnation in recent years and even a budget cut in fiscal year 2005. We have not managed to come close to the doubling path for NSF set out in the 2002 Authorization Act. This year, however, we were heartened that the budget request for the NSF included a substantial increase for the “high-leverage fields of physical sciences and engineering” as part of the proposed American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI). This boost in funding would allow for new innovative technologies to be developed by NSF-funded scientists and engineers. The full House and Senate appropriators supported the requested increase for NSF in the FY07 appropriations bills. Our colleagues understood that the increase represented a significant down-payment toward the goal of enhancing U.S. global competitiveness by investing in basic science research.
The NSF is the major source of federal funding in many fields such as the basic sciences, mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, and it funds approximately 20 percent of all federally-supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. If Congress provides only flat funding, peer-reviewed basic science research will suffer all across the country, NSFfunded researchers have won more than 170 Nobel Prizes and pioneered innovations that have improved quality of life of all Americans. Additionally, NSF consistently earns top scores in all of the Administration’s budgetary performance measures and all grants awarded undergo a rigorous peer-review process.
Completing the remaining fiscal year 2007 appropriations by way of a long-term Continuing Resolution presents significant challenges and will necessitate some difficult choices. We fully appreciate the tight budget constraints that you are operating under, but a small investment in science yields immeasurable results. By including the requested level of funding for the NSF in the Continuing Resolution you would be reflecting the overwhelmingly bipartisan will of the Congress and making a significant investment in the future of our nation. We believe NSF is one of the nation’s most important policy concerns and respectfully request that you fund NSF at the House-passed, President’s requested level of $6.02 billion in fiscal year 2007.
Sincerely,
cc: The Honorable Alan Mollohan
The Honorable Rodney Frelinghuysen
Co-signers:
1 Bart 2 Vernon J. 3 Rush 4 Tom 5 Brian 6 Richard 7 Tammy 8 Howard 9 Judy 10 Timothy 11 Jo 12 Nancy 13 Bruce 14 Lois 15 Michael 16 Steve 17 Elijah 18 Danny 19 Susan 20 Peter 21 Diana 22 William 23 Norman D. 24 John 25 Mike 26 Eliot 27 Bob 28 Chaka 29 Jeff 30 Jim 31 Ralph M. 32 Doc 33 Stephanie 34 Baron P. 35 Maurice 36 Mazie Z. 37 Darlene 38 Bob 39 Jay 40 Sheila 41 William J. 42 Eddie Bernice 43 Timothy V. 44 Dale 45 Ron 46 Tom 47 John 48 Daniel | Gordon Ehlers Holt Allen Baird Baker Baldwin Berman Biggert Bishop Bonner Boyda Braley CaPPS Capuano Cohen Cummings Davis Davis DeFazio DeGette Delahunt Dicks Dingell Doyle Engel Etheridge Fattah Fortenberry Gerlach Hall Hastings Herseth Hill Hinchey Hirono Hooley lnglis Inslee Jackson-Lee Jefferson Johnson Johnson Kildee Kind Lantos Lewis Lipinski | 49 David 50 Zoe 51 Carolyn 52 Ed 53 Doris 0. 54 Carolyn 55 Thaddeus 56 Jim 57 James 58 Mike 59 Michael R. 60 Michael 61 Brad 62 Harry E. 63 Dennis 64 Jerry 65 Jim 66 James L. 67 Frank 68 Bill 69 Deborah 70 David 71 Mike 72 Bobby L. 73 Jim 74 Jan 75 F. James 76 Albio 77 Ellen 78 John 79 Mark 80 Chris 81 Diane E. 82 Lynn 83 David 84 Albert | Loebsack Lofgren Maloney Markey Matsui McCarthy McCotter McDermott McGovern Mclntyre McNulty Michaud Miller Mitchell Moore Moran Moran Oberstar Pallone Pascrell Pryce Reichert Rogers Rush Saxton Schakowsky Sensenbrenner Sires Tauscher Tierney Udall Van Hollen Watson Woolsey wu Wynn |
