American Astronomical Society Presidents on FY 2000 Funding Bill

In two weeks the House of Representatives will consider the FY 2000 VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill. The bill makes large cuts in NASA’s proposed budget, and essentially freezes next year’s budget for the National Science Foundation.

There is some expectation that a way will be found to increase the amount of money for this bill, allowing program budgets funded by it to increase. If this occurs, there will be a scramble by the many supporters of these programs to get a portion of the new money. Competition will be fierce: AmeriCorp and the Selective Service System have been zeroed-out, while HUD, VA, and EPA did not, according to their supporters, receive sufficient funding.

Some in Washington’s science policy community have great concern about a false sense of compliancy that somehow funding will be found to put the budgets for the National Science Foundation and NASA back on track. While Congress is supportive of both agencies, it is also under great pressure to hold the line on spending. How Congress responds in the next few weeks will largely be influenced by constituent interest. With enough constituent interest, programs are moved up on priority lists.

The current and future presidents of the American Astronomical Society, a Member Society of the American Institute of Physics, have responded to the House VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill with the following statement, dated August 23, 1999:

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Statement on House Appropriations Committee VA-HUD-IA Report
By
Robert D. Gehrz; President, American Astronomical Society
and
Anneila I. Sargent; President Elect, American Astronomical Society

As President and President-Elect of the American Astronomical Society, we are gravely disturbed by the recent Report (House Report 106-286) issued by the House Appropriations Committee. The Report recommends deep cuts for the NASA and NSF budgets -- cuts that will have a devastating impact on astronomical research in the United States, and on US Space Science in particular.

We understand and support the fiscally responsible attitude underlying the Report’s recommendations, but we believe that the specific cuts recommended disregard public enthusiasm for both NASA and NSF programs and overlook the substantial benefits that both agencies generate for our Nation. NASA and NSF scientific programs have revolutionized our world. In applied research alone, the Internet and space-based communication systems are incontestable successes. Nevertheless, the Report suggests abandoning projects developed by the Agencies in collaboration with the broad US scientific and technical communities and approved by the Congress. Incredibly, it calls for the cancellation of hitherto highly praised programs that have great promise, such as NASA’s Better-Faster-Cheaper Explorer missions.

It is particularly shocking to us that the proposed cuts directly target NASA’s Office of Space Science and NSF at a time when both agencies have so dramatically caught the public imagination. As we approach the new millennium, the citizens of the United States are confident that NASA missions will discover other Earths. NASA’s “Origins” program and the Hubble Space Telescope have already produced stunning and widely disseminated images of our Universe. The recently launched Chandra X-Ray Observatory will complement these images with X-ray pictures at unprecedented sensitivity and resolution to help us understand the universe we live in. At the same time, the NSF-driven Information Technology for the Twentieth Century initiative promises to expand the power of the Internet and improve the way we utilize computers in our daily lives.

The House Appropriations Committee Report, if implemented, will effectively cut off the flow of new knowledge from NASA and NSF that the country has come to rely on and value. This will undoubtedly impact the technical readiness of our society as a whole, as scientists at colleges and universities across the country are prevented from transmitting to their students the knowledge and enthusiasm engendered by participating in cutting- edge research. We believe that adequate and stable support for a wide range of fundamental research is necessary for a robust National scientific enterprise. We urge the House of Representatives to amend the VA-HUD-IA bill and fund both NASA and NSF at the level of the President’s FY 2000 request.