The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) froze all outgoing
funding, including new awards and scheduled payments on active
grants. Over 1,000 NSF research projects were abruptly canceled in
a few days, resulting in roughly $739 million in halted research
funding. The directive, issued with little explanation, has created
chaos across the academic research ecosystem.
This is likely be a violation of law (the Impoundment Act) because
it arbitrarily abrogates funding and policy decisions made by
Congress over several years.
The ramifications are profound. Laboratories have been forced to
suspend operations. Graduate students face uncertainty about
completing their degrees. Early-career faculty have lost their first
major grants, sometimes just months after starting their jobs and
labs. Departments are freezing hiring, deferring PhD admissions,
and scrambling to keep core infrastructure afloat. The entire
academic research enterprise is stalling, not because the ideas
aren’t there, but because the support has vanished. What was once
America’s steady innovation engine is now sputtering under the
weight of policy and silence.
The effects are also being felt at the universities and research
organizations in Indiana -- your constituents.
Who loses in this situation? The United States. Instead of being
a leader in science and technology, we will become a follower. China
is already surging in research and in patents granted, and this is
a gift to them. The longer-term ripple effect as we train few
technologists and researchers, and produce fewer innovations will
diminish our defense and prosperity. It has repeatedly been show that
every dollar invested in research results in a many-fold increase in
industrial productivity and national GDP.
Not only is this an issue with NSF, but with NIH, NOAA, NASA, the
VA, EPA, and other agencies that have been funding innovative
research and personnel education. The arbitrary cuts, freezes, and
layoffs at those agencies are breaking our research ecosystem.
Furthermore, many of these actions are adding risk to the lives of
all US citizens: cuts to medical interventions and monitoring,
severe weather monitoring, and environmental protections have all
been drastically damaged.
Please use your influence to save US science and technology research! Push back against the illegal impoundment of funds. Fully fund our research enterprise and protect the US.
Sign Petition
