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By Andrew Noyes
© National Journal Group, Inc.
Reps. Rush Holt, D-N.J., and Judy Biggert, R-Ill., the co-chairs of the Congressional Research Caucus, joined scientists, engineers and graduate students Tuesday to push for additional funding of major science agencies as lawmakers consider President Bush's FY09 budget request.
The event, sponsored by the Science Engineering and Technology Working Group, was part of a two-day lobbying blitz that brought hundreds of stakeholders from the science and technology arena to Capitol Hill. They want more money for NASA, the National Science Foundation, Defense Department and the Energy Department's Office of Science.
Congress has been "underinvesting significantly in research in virtually every sector of our economy," said Holt, a physicist and former assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The recently passed economic stimulus package "might not even have been necessary if we'd been making in past years the investments we should have been making in research and development," he added.
White House science adviser John Marburger told the House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee last week that the requested $147 billion for research and development reinforces Bush's commitment to the America Competes Act, which authorized increases in science, math and technology funding.
"Unless we take a drastically different approach this year, I think we'll slip further and we'll miss many opportunities," Holt said. Appropriators failed to fully fund the initiative for FY08 and Biggert said she and others are angling for a $500 million supplemental.
Federal scientists and researchers have been "drowned out" in recent budget cycles and "partisan rhetoric" that has stymied those investments must not prevail, she said. "Their work is simply crucial to American competitiveness over the next century."
The American Chemical Society's immediate past president, Catherine Hunt, said funds for a number of discontinued initiatives -- including the National Institute of Standards and Technology's exploratory science program -- should be reinstated through a supplemental. "It's now time for us to do the hard work of ensuring the future and ensuring the funds are appropriated," she said.
Russell Lefevre, president of the technology standards body IEEE, said the group's message is clear: "Research is an investment, not an expense."
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