Policy Statements » Letters from the President:

May 1, 2006

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

The Biological Ecological Sciences Coalition (BESC) appreciates your Administration’s efforts to bolster the nation’s research and science education capabilities through the American Competitiveness Initiative. BESC especially supports the inclusion of the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science in the Initiative.

Our members also applaud the goals of ACI to strengthen the United States’ education system by providing important resources to improve K-12 math and science instruction. Indeed, mathematics is an important critical thinking skill and tool that benefits all students and all fields of study.

The National Science Foundation is particularly well-suited for this significant investment because the agency supports the broad spectrum of formal and informal science education, and all fields of scientific research. Thus, the NSF fosters the necessary cross-fertilization between the physical, social and biological sciences that continues to propel the country’s innovation power and quality of life. Similarly, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science supports and fosters multidisciplinary research; as we know, the best minds across all disciplines of science will be needed to solve the nation’s energy challenges.

BESC is pleased that ACI will strive to attract the best and brightest individuals from around the globe. Foreign scientists and engineers have long viewed the United States as an attractive and welcoming place to study and work. Contributions from these individuals have been vitally important to our nation’s ability to remain a global leader in science, engineering, and technology fields.

We thank you for giving the nation’s science enterprise such a visible public platform through the ACI and look forward to working with the Administration and with Congress to ensure the vitality of the American science and education enterprise.

Sincerely,

American Society of Agronomy
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Museum of Natural History
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
American Society of Plant Biologists
Crop Science Society of America
Ecological Society of America
Institute of Food Technologists
Soil Science Society of America