Action Alert
25 April 2001

Dear IEEE-USA Volunteer:

Your help is urgently needed to convince House of Representatives and Senate Budget Conference Committee members to boost funding for science, space and technology programs. If your Representative or Senator is on the Budget Conference Committee, please call and ask him or her to "support the Bond-Mikulski-Domenici Amendment to increase Function 250 (space, science, and technology)." The following is a list of the Members of Congress who are serving on the Budget Conference Committee:

House Budget Committee Conferees:

• Jim Nussle, R-Iowa-2nd District Chair (202-225-2911)
• John Sununu, R-New Hamphsire-1st District, Vice Chair (202-225-5456)
• John Spratt, D-South Carolina-5th District, Ranking Member (202-225-5501)

Senate Budget Committee Conferees:

• Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, Chair (202-224-6621)
• Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (202-224-3744)
• Don Nickles, R-Oklahoma (202-224-5754)
• Phil Gramm, R-Texas (202-224-2934)
• Kit Bond, R-Missouri (202-224-5721)
• Kent Conrad, R-North Dakota, Ranking Member (202-224-2043)
• Fritz Hollings, R-South Carolina (202-224-6121)
• Paul Sarbanes, R-Maryland (202-224-4524)

This select group of Members are currently meeting in a joint House-Senate Conference to work out differences in their respective versions of the FY2002 budget plan. At issue is an amendment that the Senate passed in its budget resolution to add $1.44 billion in R&D funding above the level recommended by President Bush for the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and science programs in the Department of Energy. Without this amendment, most non-health related federal research programs will face budget cuts or flat funding.

Across the political spectrum, experts agree that scientific research and development is critical to promoting long-term economic growth and maintaining America's role in world leadership:

• "The phenomenal performance of the U.S. economy? is due in large part to the technological innovations that have caused productivity growth to accelerate." -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
• Eighty-six percent of all Americans believes that it is "Very important for the United States to maintain its role as world leader in scientific research."
• The bipartisan Hart-Rudman Commission on National Security in the 21st Century found that, "The inadequacies of our system of research and education pose a greater threat to U.S. national security over the next quarter century than any potential conventional war that we might imagine."
• "The proposed cuts to scientific research [in the 2002 Administration budget] are a self-defeating policy. Congress must increase its investment in science and technology. No science, no surplus. It's that simple." -- D. Allan Bromley, Science Advisor for the (first) Bush Administration.  March 9, 2001 NY Times Op-Ed.

The conferees' decision on this matter will be crucial to the outcome for funding of physical science, mathematics, and engineering research this year. Time is of the essence, as the member-level conference negotiations are expected to be completed quickly. To find out if your Representative or Senator is one of the conferees, consult the attached list. You can also use the IEEE-USA Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/ieeeusa to look up your Representative (using your zip code) and obtain contact information. Please contact IEEE-USA Legislative Representative Bill Williams at 202-530-8331 or bill.williams@ieee.org if you have any questions or need any assistance.

For additional background information on the FY 2002 R&D budget request, you can consult:

AAAS R&D Budget Project
http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/rd/rdwwwpg.htm

House Science Committee's Views and Estimates on the FY 2002 R&D Budget
http://www.house.gov/science/views.pdf

President Bush's FY 2002 Budget Request for General Science, Space and Technology
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2002/bud04.html