leadership meet

PS Leadership Meets with Congress

APS Past-President Irving Zucker, President-elect Peter Wagner and President Gary Sieck in front of the Capitol Building

On July 7, 2009, APS President Gary Sieck, Past-President Irving Zucker and President-elect Peter Wagner came to Washington, DC to meet with Members of Congress to discuss federal funding for research at the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, NASA and the department of Veterans Affairs.

Drs. Sieck, Zucker and Wagner thanked Members of Congress for their support of federally funded research, particularly in the stimulus legislation passed earlier this year. While the stimulus money will fund many exciting research projects and improve infrastructure over the next two years, they also outlined concerns about what will happen to scientists when the stimulus funding expires in FY 2011. The APS leadership recommended predictable, sustainable growth in research budgets rather than the current pattern of “boom and bust” cycles, where rapid budget growth is followed by periods of flat funding. In addition to the challenges that labs have finding continuous funding sources, they explained that concerns about the sustainability of research funding may discourage young scientists from pursuing careers in academia, leading to the loss of a generation of talented researchers.

In the Senate, Drs. Sieck, Zucker and Wagner met with Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE), and staff in the offices of Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Ben Nelson (D-NE). In the House of Representatives, they met with staff for Representatives Brian Bilbray (R-CA), Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) and Frank Wolf (R-VA). The meetings took place at a critical point in the appropriations process, as lawmakers will consider funding levels for most government agencies and programs in the next several weeks.

APS Presidents with Senator Mike Johanns (R-