Science Coalition Letter to Congressional Leadership on Continuing Resolution

Dear Speaker Ryan and Leaders McConnell, Pelosi and Reid:

On behalf of The Science Coalition, we are writing to express our deep concern about passage of a second short-term continuing resolution in December and urge Congress to instead complete the FY2017 appropriations process this year. The Science Coalition is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization of 60 of the nation’s leading public and private research universities dedicated to sustaining the federal government’s investment in basic scientific research as a means to stimulate the economy, spur innovation and drive America’s global competitiveness.

Continuing resolutions are particularly harmful for research. Budget uncertainty puts ongoing research projects in jeopardy and limits the ability of federal agencies to fund new projects. Given all the work done this year to finalize individual appropriations bills, it is disappointing that a string of continuing resolutions might be the final outcome. Moreover, these bills contained some important proposed increases for science agencies including the National Institutes of Health, NASA’s science program, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, ARPA-E and the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

Federally funded scientific research is critical to America’s ability to innovate, compete and create jobs.  We strongly urge Congress to complete the FY2017 appropriations process and provide the proposed increases for America’s science enterprise.

Sincerely,

Jack Cline

University of Kansas

Science Coalition President

Glynda Becker

Washington State University

Science Coalition Vice President

Alexandra Hermann

Rutgers University

Science Coalition Treasurer

Anna Quider

Northern Illinois University

Science Coalition Secretary