The biological sciences research and education community is deeply concerned by the July 6, 2020, guidance from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that would force international students to leave the country if they do not participate in in-person instruction during the fall 2020 semester.

A new plan from the Democratic members of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis was released on June 30, 2020. The report, “Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy, and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America”, includes recommendations provided by AIBS in response to the Committee’s 2019 request for information from the public. AIBS urged the Committee to secure “increased federal investment in the biological sciences to improve our understanding of how living systems are being influenced by climate change, identify novel biotechnology and management practices that promote biological resilience to and mitigation of climate change, and develop innovative strategies for improving agricultural productivity while reducing the energy required to produce food and fiber.”

On June 24, 2020, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced bipartisan legislation to provide emergency relief appropriations for federal science agencies to support the research community during the ongoing public health crisis.

The Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) - a broad-based group of professional organizations, universities, scientific societies, and businesses - wants to thank Congress for its consistent support for fundamental scientific research and educational programs supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). As the only federal agency charged with the promotion of scientific progress across all scientific and engineering disciplines, NSF is the cornerstone of America's basic research enterprise.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a new coronavirus relief package, The Heroes Act, on May 15, 2020. If passed by the Senate and signed by the President, this will be the fifth measure adopted by Congress to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We, the undersigned scientific organizations representing tens of thousands of members of the American biomedical research enterprise, are alarmed by the National Institutes of Health's revocation of a peer-reviewed research grant for studies of coronaviruses by EcoHealth Alliance. Not only is this decision counterintuitive, given the urgent need to better understand the virus that causes COVID-19 and identify drugs that will save lives, but it politicizes science at a time when, if we are to stamp out this scourge, we need the public to trust experts and to take collective action.

More than ever before, the country is relying on the scientific enterprise to help guide our path to recovery. Scientific progress and U.S. economic development are vastly accelerated by bringing the best and brightest minds together. Therefore, we urge you to prioritize the immigration of science and technology talent that will spur the scientific breakthroughs and economic growth of the United States that is needed for rapid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have called for the next coronavirus stimulus package to include $26 billion in funding to address the challenges faced by the U.S. scientific workforce during the pandemic. The proposed funding would cover supplements for research grants and contracts, provide emergency relief to sustain research support personnel and operating costs for research facilities, and fund additional graduate student and postdoc fellowships, traineeships, and research assistantships for up to two years. The Dear Colleague Letters calling for this support has been endorsed by several scientific organizations, including AIBS.

AIBS Public Policy Office has released their analysis of science funding in President Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2021 budget.

As professional scientific organizations, we know the power of collective action to solve problems -- it is how research has advanced for centuries. Today, we stand united in a spirit of diversity and inclusion and offer our support for people of Asian ancestry, rejecting efforts to ascribe fault for the pandemic, and instead urge a focus on leveraging global human diversity to solve today's public health crisis. The organizations below applaud and support your Congressional resolutions to denounce anti-Asian discrimination as related to COVID-19.