Next month, Americans will head to their polling places to cast their votes in the midterm elections. Many states will hold gubernatorial elections and overall, voters will decide which party controls Congress. The stakes are high. The current political environment has in many ways worked to undermine science — singling out climate science for particular ire — and cutting back on legal immigration to the United States, which hampers the free flow of scientific discourse and progress in research. Additionally, the White House proposed budget had recommended significant reductions in the science research budget. While it may seem like the deck is stacked against science, there are reasons for hope.
The 2018 midterm elections have attracted strong interest from the scientific community and many members of our community have thrown their hat in the ring. Science has tracked at least 31 candidates — including BPS’s own former Congressional Fellow Randy Wadkins — who qualified for primary elections, with several advancing to the general elections in November. In our community, many of our BPS members are getting involved with our public affairs efforts. The Public Affairs Committee has redesigned our Advocacy Toolkit, strengthening several of our current programs and rolling out new initiatives. Our members are taking advantage of these efforts.
This August, while the House of Representatives was out on recess, our members James Bashkin and Eric Majzoub of the University of Missouri in St. Louis visited Senator Roy Blunt’s district office to discuss National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and the importance of investments in fundamental research. In Washington, BPS staff worked with Kelsey Bettridge, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, to set up a Hill Day and visited with Maryland’s Senators and Representative Elijah Cummings of Baltimore.
These efforts are vitally important to sharing the positive impact our work as biophysicists has on society. Further, they help to provide Congress the cover it needs to counter budget cutbacks. For example, Senator Blunt serves as the Chairman of the spending panel that controls the NIH budget. In late August, the Senate passed a spending package that contained a $2 billion increase in funding for NIH, compared to FY 2018 levels. This is quite an accomplishment considering a majority of the Senate hails from the same party as the President, yet strongly rejected the Administration’s proposed budget for NIH. Instead, Senators sent a resounding bipartisan message that Congress values investments in biomedical research.
So, you may be wondering, how can you get involved and make a difference in the midterm elections? First, get out there and vote on November 6! Second, if you have not been to our website in a while, visit our Advocacy Toolkit. BPS staff is ready to work with you to develop opinion pieces or letters to the editor touting the benefits of biomedical research and help you host your local member of Congress for a lab tour. And, lastly, consider coming to Washington! Several BPS members just participated in the Rally for Medical Research, which brings the biomedical community to Congress. In the spring, BPS will also participate in STEM on the Hill, which brings together scientific societies, universities, and national laboratories to advocate for science.
In closing, your voice matters. While current policies being followed are largely discouraging, we cannot influence the public policy process sitting at home. I strongly encourage you to support your colleagues running for office and get involved with BPS’s efforts.
—Angela M. Gronenborn