Now is the Time: Congress Ready to Write Key S&T Funding Bills

“The appropriations express” is how a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) describes the Senate in May. If all goes as scheduled, appropriations bills funding the Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, NASA, and the National Science Foundation will be written during the next five weeks. Now is the time to contact your representative and two senators about these funding bills for FY 2001.

Congress wants to get its business completed early this year. The thirteen appropriations bills are the main thing standing in the way, and while they represent an enormous amount of work and some very contentious issues, the hope is to get these bills passed and signed by early fall so that Members can hit the campaign trail. An indication of this fast track approach was passage by both the House and Senate of a compromise budget blueprint for FY 2001 on April 13; in previous years Congress has been unable to arrive at such a budget resolution.

The budget resolution will cause difficulty in some of the appropriations subcommittees. Big losers this year are the House and Senate VA, HUD, Independent Agencies appropriations subcommittees, which look like they could have hundreds of millions of dollars less to work with. These subcommittees fund both NASA and NSF.

One of the biggest factors influencing the difficult budget decisions that will be made in the next five weeks is constituent input. Members’ staffs repeatedly stress the importance of communications from constituents in their decision-making process. This is particularly true during an election year.

The AIP Science Policy website - http://www.aip.org/gov - has information that will assist you in this communications process. In this site you will find:

BUDGET INFORMATION: Previously issued FYIs on the requests for DOD Basic and Applied Research, Department of Education Science and Math programs, DOE, NASA, NIST, and NSF are categorized for reference. A companion section, “Latest Congressional Budget Action” provides FYIs on hearings categorized by department or agency. You can also search FYIs by key word or phrase by going to FYI: THE AIP BULLETIN OF SCIENCE POLICY NEWS.

COMMUNICATING WITH CONGRESS: Here you will recommendations for writing an effective letter to a Member of Congress, with the addresses for both representatives and senators. There is another list of recommendations for personal visits. If you are unsure about the name of your representative or senators, links are providing to two congressional web sites that provide an easy way to determine who represents you. Also found in this section are the names of the members of the various appropriations subcommittees listed by jurisdiction.

PHYSICS SUCCESS STORIES: Need examples of how the federal government’s investment in physics-related research has lead to billion-dollar industries and thousands of jobs? This section will link you to 15 “success stories” that you can view on-line for background material for your communications. If you want to include high-quality hard copies of these success stories as enclosures in your correspondence, there is an ordering form in this section. These exhibits are available without charge.

MEMBER SOCIETY PUBLIC POLICY LINKS: If you want to know if one of AIP’s Member Societies has made a statement on a public policy issue, you will find links to available statements at this site.

Earlier this month, White House Science Advisor Neal Lane stated:

“There’s a lot of work to be done if we want a good R&D budget at the end of this appropriations cycle. Each of you needs to become deeply involved in this effort.”

Now is the time.