Joint Society Thank You to Appropriators for Funding Research
The Honorable Tom Cole
House of Representatives
Chair, Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
House of Representatives
Ranking Member, Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Susan Collins
Senate
Chair, Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Patty Murray
Senate
Vice Chair, Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Cole, Chairwoman Collins, Ranking Member Delauro, and Vice Chairwoman Murray:
As seven leading organizations representing more than 310,000 people in computing, information technology, and technical innovation across industry, academia, and government, we write to thank you for protecting the US research enterprise by safeguarding research funding for critical federal research agencies. Your continued support of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY2026) appropriations process will help ensure that the U.S. maintains its position at the forefront of science and engineering.
We remain optimistic that, as the FY2026 budget process continues, important research funding at the Defense Department and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as other critical technology and innovation-driven agencies, will be protected as well.
As you know well, the United States currently leads the world in critical and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. This leadership is built upon a robust research ecosystem; what the National Academies described as “an extraordinarily productive interplay of U.S. universities doing federally funded research, industry and federal labs, and the flow of people and ideas between them.” History has repeatedly shown that breakthroughs supported by federal research agencies yield substantial returns, fueling new economic sectors. A study by the Dallas Federal Reserve estimates the return on investment of non-defense government R&D to be between 150 and 300 percent. In computing alone, a federal investment in research of just over $10 billion annually across 24 agencies and offices underpins a technology sector that contributes more than $2 trillion to the U.S. GDP each year.
In particular, we are pleased that H.R. 6938 will continue research funding at NSF at approximately the same level as FY2025, and that computing research at DOE’s Office of Science will see a funding increase. That funding will enable critical computing research in AI, Quantum computing, and cyber security, as well as in the fundamental areas of research that will enable the next generation of key technologies. We hope that additional effort will be made moving forward to support investments in computing talent pipeline programs such as NSF traineeships and important computing education efforts, both of which saw their funding levels decline in this bill. We would be pleased to help advance those efforts.
Thank you for standing up in support of the federal investment in fundamental research at a time when that investment is threatened. We stand with you and urge you to maintain your oversight and protection of this critical investment. We appreciate your leadership and the encouragement you provide your colleagues in Congress to protect science and technology research. Please let us know how we can be of help to you moving forward.
Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA)
academicdatascience.org
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
aaai.org
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
acm.org
Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation (CASC)
casc.org
Computing Research Association (CRA)
cra.org
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)
siam.org
USENIX – The Advanced Computing Systems Association
usenix.org
CC:
Hal Rodgers, Chair, House Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee Grace Meng, Ranking Member, House Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee
Chuck Fleischmann, Chair, House Energy & Water Appropriations Subcommittee Marcy Kaptur, Ranking Member, House Energy & Water Appropriations Subcommittee
Jerry Moran, Chair, Senate Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member, Senate Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee
John Kennedy, Chair, Senate Energy & Water Appropriations Subcommittee
