The NSF Gets Some Attention

The National Science Foundation rarely gets mentioned in the popular press. After the recent budget cut, the NSF now gets some mention, including a New York Times article, editorial and Thomas Friedman's column and an editorial of the the San Jose Mercury News. Perhaps taking a cut this year will help NSF in the long run as congress should no longer feel it can cut science funding without anyone noticing.

However, the US budget process takes the greater part of a year and we need to put pressure at many points, from the initial proposed budget from the White House to the various committees to the final vote in the fall. Complaining after the fact alone will not help the NSF but instead we need to make the case during each part of the process particularly when the final budget bills get approved starting in September.