Washington (March 18, 2016) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, this week led a group of 24 other Democratic Senators in urging appropriators to provide critical funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in its Fiscal Year 2017 legislation. The requested funding will support NSF-supported advances and innovations, including the Obama administration’s cancer “moonshot” as well as research in biology, nanotechnology, sustainable energy sources and robotics. Basic research facilitated by the NSF is often commercialized by domestic companies, benefitting the private sector and U.S. economy.
“If our nation does not act to increase its scientific research expenditures, we are in danger of losing the advantage America has long held as an engine of innovation that generates new discoveries and stimulates job growth,” write the Senators in the letter. “America’s economic competitors are moving aggressively to increase their own investments.”
A copy of the letter can be found HERE.
Nearly one out of every four basic research projects at colleges and universities across the United States is supported by the NSF. In fiscal year 2015, upwards of 350,000 people were supported directly by the NSF, including teachers, students and researchers. That same year, 1,859 colleges, universities and other institutions received funding from the NSF.
Other Senators signing the letter include Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Cory A. Booker (D-N.J.), Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
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