End Trump's Systematic Dismantling Of America's Scientific Research

I write to urge you to take immediate action to reverse the Trump administration's devastating assault on America's scientific enterprise. The data is stark and damning: federal research agencies have been hollowed out through coordinated cuts that threaten our nation's competitive position, defense capabilities, and future innovation. The National Science Foundation has withheld over $1 billion in funding and reduced staffing by one-third. The National Institutes of Health has delayed or canceled more than 2,000 grants for critical research on Alzheimer's and cancer while shrinking its workforce by one-fifth. The Energy Department has lost approximately one-quarter of its staff and reduced grant funding by more than $500 million. NASA has eliminated 20% of its Ph.D. holders, including its chief climate scientist. The Department of Defense's own assessment warns that DOGE cuts have degraded its research laboratories and put the defense "innovation engine at risk of stalling." This puts our defensive capabilities at strategic risk. These are not abstract statistics. Researchers like Priti Shah at the University of Michigan lost NSF funding for studies on how people evaluate scientific information. Dr. Randall Engle at Georgia Tech had Navy-funded research on air traffic controller selection canceled, seemingly for no reason other than being at a university. Across the country, universities report that foreign Ph.D. applications have dropped 21%, while other nations aggressively recruit American scientists. Even stupider, the administration says it is championing initiatives like the Genesis Mission, even while simultaneously gutting the Energy Department responsible for executing it. This reveals not only a strategic incoherence in approach but also extreme incompetence in execution. The consequences extend beyond research: China is closing the gap in scientific leadership, Australia and Canada are launching programs to recruit American scientists, and a Nobel laureate has relocated to Beijing. We are witnessing the systematic erosion of American scientific supremacy built over seventy years. Congress must act decisively to restore funding to federal research agencies and protect scientific personnel from political purges. Our economic prosperity, national security, and global leadership depend on it.