1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

Federal research funding cuts are already doing real damage, and I need you to act. MIT has seen a 20% decline in federally funded campus research, a 20% drop in new federal research awards, and is projecting a 20% decrease in graduate student enrollment for 2026–2027. These aren't abstract statistics — they represent the erosion of the research pipeline that has driven American innovation, medicine, and national security for generations. Basic research is not a luxury. The technologies powering today's economy trace back to federally funded science that had no guaranteed payoff at the outset. Gutting that investment now means ceding ground to competitors who are not making the same mistake. MIT President Sally Kornbluth put it plainly in a May 26 Boston Globe op-ed: America built the world's greatest research engine — and right now, it's shrinking. Please fight to restore federal research funding. Oppose further cuts, support appropriations that protect university research grants, and make clear to your colleagues that dismantling this infrastructure has long-term consequences no short-term budget calculation can justify.