In the first year of a federally mandated “sequestration”, budget cuts to federal programs are already having an impact; the 5% cut in federal funding can amount to 25, 50 or even 100% cuts to individual programs and agencies. Among these are major losses for STEM funding and education programs, which are highlighted in a new report released by NDD United called “Faces of Austerity: How Budget Cuts Have Made Us Sicker, Poorer, and Less Secure”. NDD United refers to a coalition supporting the funding of nondefense discretionary budget items. On November 13th they released a special report to emphasize the wide impacts of federal austerity measures. The report combines budget numbers with individual stories of people dealing with the effects of federal budget cuts; for scientists, the effects – and outlook – are particularly alarming.
Scientific research stands to take particularly heavy blows from unpredictable and reduced funding. Sequestration has not only reduced the budgets of funding agencies, but is also trickling down to the next generation of STEM researchers; federal financial aid is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, making it harder for students to obtain degrees in STEM fields. Summer research positions funded by federal grants are being eliminated. One Cal State Fullerton student surveyed for the report said, “It is disheartening to be at the start of what I hope will be a strong and successful scientific career and have to wonder if I will even get a job, be able to fund my research and have hope of being a competitive scientist.”
Stream gauges maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey help predict floods and monitor drought conditions, support ecosystem research, and regulate water usage agreements. As a result of sequestration, hundreds of these important tools have been shut down because there are no funds to operate them. Gaps in data from the missing gauges mean that scientists and communities will have a harder time monitoring local weather events, helping to maintain the water quality of municipal supplies and responding to the impacts of climate change. Funding losses have inflicted similar blows to programs throughout the USGS and other research agencies, and have just as much impact on the scientists themselves. Jared Bales, the Chief Scientist for Water at the USGS, emphasized that furloughs and cuts on environmental programs “mean some scientists can’t work on the things they love working on.”
The report noted that NOAA’s National Weather Service faced more than $150 million in sequestration cuts, meaning that aging weather satellites cannot be updated or replaced in a time when 1/7th of the country’s economy depends on weather data. Staff who interpret that data and use it in weather forecasting models are in danger of losing their budgets and jobs, and as a result U.S. weather predictions now rank third or fourth place behind European leaders. It’s now not unusual to see European forecasts used to interpret United States weather patterns, when in years past the US lead the world in the quality of its modeling. In our National Parks, where visitors also support small local businesses, rangers and staff are increasingly being paid less to do work far beyond the capabilities of their numbers. Hiring freezes mean that parks are making do with less than half the ideal number of staff and have had to eliminate much-needed maintenance and interpretive programs.
The impacts of sequestration are far-reaching and will only grow worse if the cuts are not eased. GSA recently signed a letter drafted by NDD United, joining a number of scientific societies, including the American Geophysical Union and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, in urging legislators to end sequestration and apply common-sense policies to future budget decisions. A toolkit to help individual and organizational efforts may be found at http://www.nddunited.org/#!toolkit/c1wfv.
-- Jessica Ball, GSA Science Policy Fellow