2000 EXECUTIVE BOARD
President & CEO
Martin A. Apple
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Chair
Arthur M. Jaffe
American Mathematical Society
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
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Chair-Elect
Jerome I. Friedman
American Physical Society
Massachusettes Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139-8124
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Past-Chair
Christopher F. D'Elia
Estuarine Research Federation
State University of New York
Albany, NY 12222
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Secretary
Barbara Simmons
Association for Computing Machinery
Palo Alto, CA 94301
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Treasurer
Martin E.P. Seligman
American Psychological Association
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3604
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Past-Treasurer
Judge Haskell Pitluck
American Academy of Forensic Sciences
McHenry County Courthouse
Woodstock, IL 60098
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Members-at-large

Gregory J. Anderson
American Institute of Biological Sciences
University of Connecticut
Starrs, CT 06269-3043
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Mary K. Schmidl
Institute of Food Technology
NFNC
St. Paul, MN 55127-7140
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Diana Wall
Ecological Society of America
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
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Edel Wasserman
American Chemical Society
Dupont Central Research & Development
Wilmington, DE 19880-0328
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Dear Senator Lott:

We are current or recent presidents of the major national professional science associations in America that include over 150 scientific disciplines and over 1.5 million in collective membership. We ask you to restore the proposed FY 2001 cutbacks in science in NSF, Dept. Agriculture, DoD, NASA, Dept. Energy, EPA, Dept. Interior and other fundamental research. Without this research we risk our le adership in the highest growth industries of the future and miss opportunities for opening many new exciting vistas of undiscovered knowledge.

We are grateful to the Senate for unanimous passage of S-296, the Senate policy increasing support for science by over 70% over the next 11 years. The payoff to he Nation of your past support has been that new research saved lives, improved our environment, ensured our present and future security, and created millions of new high wage jobs. Research performed for the federal government within universities had the additional effect of increasing our research-trained and technically capable workforce. It is well established that a huge portion of our economic growth and increased productivity, providing us the longest period of sustained prosperity in the last century, was built on the basis of new scientific discoveries. Proposed cuts in NSF, for example, which funds half of all non-health university research will cause thousands of highly qualified people whose research ideas have passed peer review to abruptly cease their further pursuit of frontier discoveries. House investments in FY 2001 science are far below the level of true national needs.

The life expectancy of the average American increased by almost 30 years as a result of breakthroughs such as antibiotics, vaccines, new medicines and new diagnostics. Federal research investment cracked the universal genetic code, developed satellites to solve important problems, invented the Internet, had the whole world watching as Americans first walked on the moon, developed lasers, enhanced foods by transplanting genes, developed mathematics for important new applications, and developed polio vaccine. This year we are facing another unique set of unprecedented opportunities that promise potentially striking and important advances and discoveries significant to the Nation's future. For example, nanotechnology could revolutionize the 21st century in the same way that the transistor and the Internet led to the Information Age. Information technology research could lead to advances such as high-speed wireless networks that bring distance learning and telemedicine to isolated rural areas or supercomputers that more accurately predict tornadoes and hurricanes, and more rapidly develop life-saving drugs. Biocomplexity research could help us understand how to reverse the current decline in our natural resource base that beclouds our national future. As world food demand rises, many exciting new ideas in agricultural research await verification. We need research that finds solutions to our educational deficiencies. The nation needs a growing research base to build our national energy autonomy.

The federal Budget surplus may reach nearly $4 trillion over this decade. Your annual investment of $18 billion in University research produces nearly a trillion dollar annual return to the economy in the high growth industries. Most products propelling that sector have been on the market under two years, so that growth depends on new research every year. The rate at which American companies cite U.S. university-based research in their patent applications has tripled in the last decade. The 300 company Industrial Research Institute urged the Congress this month to continue its critical role of providing reliable and increasing funding for university research.

Cuts imperil this ente rp ri se of unquestioned productivity and national benefits. While we recognize the Budget constraints facing the Congress, we urge you to continue to invest in the Nation's future. The science underlying our economic, infotech, agricultural, security and health progress is the result of Congressional investments made one, even two decades ago. Past investments by the Congress in research have provided a 25-50% annual return on those investments.

We urge the Senate to lead the Nation forward by ensuring that growth in science investment continues.