Public Policy Office

AIBS provides a variety of public policy services for our members and the biological community at large. At our current staffing level, we focus on research funding, research policy, and education policy.

The Public Policy Office tracks and analyzes events in the legislative, regulatory, and related public policy arenas in the U.S.A. and, to the extent that resources permit, in other countries such as Canada. Working with the AIBS Board of Directors, the AIBS Executive Director, and the AIBS Public Policy Review Committee, the Public Policy Office develops and articulates AIBS's public policy positions in the interest of its members and other researchers and educators in the biological sciences.

AIBS members: Learn how to support and benefit from AIBS Public Policy Office operations.

AIBS Public Policy Report for 9 May 2008

• European Report Outlines Future of Taxonomy
• Range Expansion: Threats to Science Education Spread
• Employment Opportunity: AIBS Public Affairs Associate
• Mikulski Includes $200 Million for NSF in Supplemental Appropriations
• Court Rules for Polar Bears
• EPA Board Seeks Candidates for Committee
• New in BioScience: "Big Bucks for Biosecurity Research - But Who's Doing What?

AIBS Public Policy Report for 28 April 2008

• AIBS Supports Amendment to Protect Federal Research Budgets
• Rejected: Creationists Lose Bid to Offer Education Degree in Texas
• AIBS Testimony Supports EPA Research Funding
• Evolution Threat Persists in Louisiana
• Fisheries Society Issues Evolution Statement
• Unemployment Rate Drops for Most Scientists, Slight Increase for Environmental life Scientists and Social Scientists
• Survey of EPA Scientists Finds Political Interference
• Soil Scientists Seek Input on Research Priorities
• New in BioScience: "Political Science"
• AIBS Congressional Directory
• Communicating Science: A Primer for Working with the Media

Position Statements

• AIBS Sends Letter to House Regarding Bioenergy Research
• AIBS Writes Oklahoma Governor about Science Education
• AIBS Sends Letter to Hill Regarding SBIR and STTR Reauthorization Act
• Senate Testimony in Support of Increased FY 2009 Funding for the EPA
• AIBS Letter to Oklahoma Senate Rules Committee

What We Do

• Collaborate with scientific societies, research institutions, and coalitions—including AIBS member societies—to work with Congress, the White House, and federal agencies to improve science policy.

• Review federal legislation, regulatory notices, and calls for hearings and expert testimony, alerting our members to important developing issues and making the necessary contacts with public policy professionals so that biologists' interests are well represented.

• Write and disseminate the biweekly AIBS Public Policy Report, an electronic newsletter providing policy analysis, legislative alerts, and other information about science policy developments, including funding for federal research grant programs and threats to the teaching of evolution in states and local communities.

• Report on issues related to public policy and the biological sciences through the monthly Washington Watch article in the AIBS journal, BioScience.

• Help contributing societies reach their policy goals and support scientists' efforts to engage in the public policy process through Congressional briefings, Capitol Hill visit days, and information exchange tools such as the AIBS/NCSE State Evolution List Serve Network.

• Produce the weekly AIBS Federal Register Resource, which reports proposed federal rules and regulations on biological research and science education, allowing researchers to stay apprised of federal actions that could impact their work.

Recent Accomplishments

• Worked independently as well as through coalitions to ensure that recently passed legislation authorizing the programs and funding levels for the National Science Foundation did not include provisions that would hinder biological, environmental and social science research.

• Contributed to numerous national and state level efforts to defend the teaching of evolution in public school science courses. AIBS has submitted legal briefs in key cases and has worked to educate the media and the public about the nature of science.

• Assisted the Association of Ecosystem Research Centers in planning and conducting science briefings on Capitol Hill, including a very successful briefing, "Ecosystem Science: Informing a Sound Bioenergy Policy".

• Launched and co-chairs the USGS Coalition, designed to bring awareness to the US Geological Survey's crucial work in biology and other disciplines. In 2005 the Coalition won the USGS's John Wesley Powell Award for its efforts.

• Launched and co-chairs the Biological and Ecological Sciences Coalition (BESC), which helped to persuade Congress to authorize a doubling of the National Science Foundation budget.
• Provided policy and media training programs for researchers, educators, and students. Representatives of the Public Policy Office have conducted workshops at AIBS annual meetings as well as those of many member societies.
• Established the Emerging Public Policy Leader Award for graduate students. Recipients of the award are brought to Washington, DC, to attend Congressional and White House briefings and participate in meetings with members of Congress.
• Delivered testimony before Congress, organized Congressional briefings and one-on-one meetings with legislators, and developed action alerts and society responses to proposed legislation and regulations.

The teaching of evolution, the funding of the Biological Sciences Directorate of NSF, the development and maintenance of university natural science collections and national research infrastructure for biology, and legislation that would significantly affect the ability of society publications to keep the presses rolling—these are only a subset of the issues that need attention from the AIBS Public Policy Office staff.

Help us keep the momentum: Support the AIBS Public Policy Office so that, working together and speaking with one voice, we can better and more effectively promote the biological sciences.

Contacts

Dr. Robert Gropp, AIBS Director of Public Policy, , 202-628-1500 x 250