Raise the Caps to Protect Funding for Research
On August 1, 2019, the Senate passed the Bipartisan Budget Act. It now awaits the President's signature. See our letter of support for the Bipartisan Budget Act.
Stay tuned for resources on the upcoming appropriations process that will continue through the fall.
Why did we fight to raise the caps?
The return of progress-stifling budget caps place science funding in jeopardy. Under the 2011 Budget Control Act, Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) defense spending must be cut by $71 billion and non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending by $55 billion relative to the current federal budget. Unless Congress passes and the president signs a bill raising the FY20 budget caps, cuts to science agency budgets are inevitable. Realistically, no federal agency that supports research and technology will be spared.
For more background on the caps, click here.
Ten reasons to #raisethecaps:
It’s time for a budget deal!
Out-of-date and out-of-touch “sequestration” budget caps are preventing Congress from advancing national priorities like economic competitiveness and faster medical progress. Strategic investments fuel health, security and prosperity; the budget caps stifle all three.
Here are 10 reasons why it’s time to #RaiseTheCaps:
The budget caps are holding our nation back.
resources:
- CBO Sequestration Update Report: February 2019
- Raise The Caps 2019 Print Advertisement
- NDD United
- CHF Fact Sheet
- Inter-University Council of Ohio Letter (An example of effective raise the caps messaging)
- CRS FAQs on Budget Control Act
- BPC Factsheet on Budget Caps
Partners:
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for Dental Research
American Cancer Society
American Geophysical Union
American Heart Association
American Physiological Society
American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)
American Society for Microbiology
Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC)
Association for Psychological Science
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
American Institute of Physics
American Physical Society
Elsevier
Gordon and Llura Gund Foundation
JDRF
The Optical Society (OSA)
Society for Neuroscience
SPIE, The International Society for Optics and Photonics
[i] Benchmarks 2019: Second Place America? Increasing Challenges to U.S. Scientific Leadership. The Task Force on American Innovation, 2019. (unpublished).