Ecological Society of America voices concern over US fiscal situation On March 1, a series of automatic spending cuts are set to occur unless Congress produces a plan that reduces the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion. These cuts will drastically scale back federal support of scientific research, environmental protections and education and do nothing substantive to address the nation's fiscal problems.
"Scientific research reaches across a broad cross section of society that goes well beyond academia," said Scott Collins, President of the Ecological Society of America, the world's largest organization of ecological scientists. "Cutting costs of federal spending in an area that has helped the nation lower costs associated with natural disaster mitigation, public health threats from pollution and disease, and agricultural cultivation just seems counterproductive to say the least." Non-defense discretionary spending programs would receive a 5.3 percent cut under the sequester, slightly lowered from the 8.2 percent cut due to altered spending caps set by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-240). The American Association for the Advancement of Science notes that our nation's commitment to scientific research is dwindling: "As a share of the economy, federal R&D is 16.7 percent smaller than it was a decade ago and 29.7 percent smaller than it was in the 1970s." Read more on ESA's blog: http://www.esa.org/esablog/ecology-in-policy/ecological-society-of-america-voices-concern-over-us-fiscal-situation/ Nadine Lymn ESA Director of Public Affairs Washington DC 20036 (202)833-8773 x205 www.facebook.com/esa.org http://twitter.com/#!/esa_org
