AIP, APS, OSA Endorse Statement on DOD Science and Technology Funding

The American Institute of Physics and two of its Member Societies, the Optical Society of America, and The American Physical Society, have joined sixteen other scientific and engineering associations in issuing a call to key Members of Congress urging a strong FY 2000 budget for the Defense Department’s Science and Technology Program. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Materials Research Society, and SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering, all AIP Affiliated Societies, were among those endorsing the statement.

Defense S&T spending has been declining, with the FY 2000 request of $7.4 billion down what is approximately 30% in the last six years, with continuing declines projected in the future. Last year, a Defense Science Board Task Force called for DOD to “invest at least $8 billion in S&T” (see FYIs #44 and #48.)

The statement, issued by the recently formed Coalition for National Security Research, was sent to members of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Defense, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Research and Development, and the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threat and Capabilities. The statement follows:

“The leaders of the organizations listed below urge Congress to increase the FY 2000 budget for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Science & Technology Program (S&T Program) to $8 billion. This represents a 2.6% increase over the current FY 1999 budget, and an 8% increase above the Administration’s proposed budget. This increase will help stabilize funding that would decline at a precipitous rate in FY 2000, and in the projected out-years in DOD’s five-year plan. This decrease undermines the science and technology base that is essential to U.S. security in the 21st century.

“DOD’s S&T Program supports research in the nation’s universities that is the bridge between fundamental science discoveries and future military applications. DOD support of university research also plays a critical role in sustaining disciplines where it is a major source of federal funding. These disciplines make essential contributions to national defense by fueling innovation and training the scientists and engineers of tomorrow.

“The S&T Program also funds research in the DOD laboratories, and private sector industries that focus on technologies to support future DOD systems. Increasingly important to DOD, this focus on the longer-term revolutionary changes in military technology will keep U.S. forces ahead of foreign competitors, and enable a quick response to emerging threats such as chemical and biological agents.

"$8 billion in FY 2000 for DOD’s S&T Program would support the scientific and engineering research that has produced today’s preeminent U.S. forces demonstrated most recently during Desert Storm and other peacekeeping missions. It is the continued investment in DOD’s S&T Program that will maintain this technologically superior force for the 21st century.”

This statement was endorsed by:
American Association of Engineering Societies
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
American Institute of Physics
American Chemical Society
American Mathematical Society
American Psychological Association
American Physical Society
ASEE Engineering Deans Council Federation of Behavioral, Psychological & Cognitive Sciences
Joint Policy Board for Mathematics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Materials Research Society
National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant
Colleges National Defense Industrial Association
National Society of Professional Engineers
Optical Society of America
Rutgers University
SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering
University of California