The U.S. House of Representatives voted 220-211, along party lines, to approve the American Rescue Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319) on March 10, 2021. The Senate had earlier passed the bill on a 50-49 vote, also along party lines. President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion measure into law on March 11.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) presents preliminary evidence indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted women in academic science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) fields in a number of areas, including productivity, work-life boundary control, networking and community building, and mental well-being.

China approved its government’s 14th five-year plan during the annual session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing. The plan describes China’s vision for social and economic development and sets a target of increasing government investment in research and development (R&D) by at least 7 percent annually over the next five years.

AIBS has joined a coalition of science, environmental, and educational stakeholders in urging newly confirmed Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to identify climate and environmental justice as a priority area for the Department of Education and create a new position reporting directly to the Secretary with a mandate to lead and coordinate the Department’s climate work.

The AIBS Public Policy Office has released its annual report for 2020. Read about our achievements in science policy.

A coalition of scientific societies, including AIBS, has requested congressional appropriators to provide at least $600 million in fiscal year (FY) 2022 to the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s largest competitive extramural research grant program.

On March 11, 2021, Congress enacted the latest COVID-19 relief package—the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319). The package includes $600 million for the National Science Foundation and $150 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, but it does not include research relief provisions at the levels requested by the scientific community.

AIBS joined a coalition of more than 130 scientific, academic, and agricultural stakeholders in urging newly confirmed Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack to increase public investment in food and agricultural research and development (R&D) programs.

On March 1, 2021, the American Institute of Biological Sciences joined forces with the Natural Science Collections Alliance and Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) in highlighting to lawmakers the value of mobilizing biodiversity specimens and data in spurring new scientific discoveries.

The Public Policy Report has been released. The report provides analysis and communication on important issues in the scientific community.