Congressional Visits Day 1998
February 25-26

by Sylvia Wiegand, AWM President

Reprinted from AWM Newsletter, Vol. 28, No. 3, May-June 1998.

Along with President-Elect Jean Taylor, Past-President Alice T. Schafer and about 300 other scientists, we participated in another Congressional Visits Days event in Washington DC on behalf of science. The format, as for last April (see the July/August 1997 Newsletter), included extensive briefing--lawmakers, government personnel and scientists presented arguments and statistics for our use and enlightenment--followed by a day of appointments with legislators and their aides. A year ago our briefings and conversations had a much less optimistic tone: between 1994 and 1998, funding for research and development (R&D) declined by 2.5% in constant dollars. The President's R&D budget for 1998 would have cut the federal investment by an additional 14% by 2002. The success of last April's effort plus the budget surplus and a generally rosy outlook on science by legislators has made increased support quite promising. This year the President has requested a 2.6% increase for overall R&D and 5.8% for nondefense R&D. Senate Bill 1305, introduced by Gramm (R-TX), Lieberman (D-CT), Domenici (R-NM) and Bingaman (D-NM) proposes to double the support for science in a decade.

At the briefings the speakers stressed that the best lobbying strategy is to seek support for science as a whole and to emphasize that scientific research has proven to be a smart investment, not only for our development of a better world and for the pursuit of knowledge, but ifor the cash value---what other investment pays a thirty percent rate and development average 20-30 percent annual return on investment to firms, and approximately 50% to society overall. One study...estimated (returns) to have exceeded 80% per year between 1987 and 1991.") State the obvious, such as, federal investment in science is down. The legislators may not have scientific training, so explain in simple terms. Relate the cause to your state or district. Limit the presentation. Never be negative about politicians; don't whine or lecture. Send a follow-up letter of thanks afterwards offering to be a source of information in the future.

In his presentation, Nobel Laureate (physics) Burton Richter of Stanford emphasized that scientific research is at least twenty years ahead of its applications, whereas in industry research products are at most 3-5 years from development---and industry is cutting back on research. Past federal support has paid off: lasers, telecommunications, the internet, the semiconductor industry, HIV protease inhibitors.... Senator Frist (R-TN), surgeon, scholar and chair of the Science, Technology and Space Committee, said that Bill 1305 (the doubling bill) is important because it gives a focus for efforts and clarifies a commitment to science. Congressman Brown (D-CA): It is "vitally important that we communicate that the American public supports science... It's not only morally good but we'll get rich!"

Senator Phil Gramm, a former teacher, urged those of us at universities to enlist the assistance of the teachers of our congresspersons and senators; no one can resist the appeal of a favorite teacher! So, if any of you once taught a lawmaker, persuade him or her to support science! Although the push of our group was not directly for education, the front page headlines that week about the poor mathematics performance by U.S. twelfth graders in international tests gave politicians an extra reason to take seriously the decline of the U.S. position in science.

At our visits we urged other senators to sign onto the Double in a Decade bill. At the offices of Nebraska legislators-- Senators Hagel and Kerrey and Congressman Bereuter-- all seemed sympathetic and interested in the support of science. We explained that the National Science Foundation and other national agencies have been vital for our department at the University of Nebraska. Jim Lewis invited legislators to visit our department and offered to arrange a group meeting with scientists back home. We spoke of the need to encourage women and left some AWM literature with them.

The CVD was organized by the Coalition for Technology Partnerships, a group of businesses, trade associations and technical societies, led by Kathleen N. Kingscott of IBM (phone: 202-515-5193) and the Science-Engineering-Technology Work Groups, an information network of professional, scientific and engineering societies, higher education associations, institutions of higher learning and trade associations (contact Janis L. Tabor, 202-429-3971). These groups prepared a useful package of materials highlighting the core messages and offering more tips for visiting legislators.

Unlike many other programs and areas, science has no unified constituency; we need to develop a large support group for science. Lobbying does not need to be done in Washington; some legislators are more receptive to visits in their home office. Please, everyone, contact your representatives and senators and urge them to support science research and education. The Association for Women in Science (AWIS) has developed a resource on government relations and science policy at http://www.awis.org/html/government.html.

AWM Newsletter.
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