| This letter is not an official APSA statement. The is an independent letter issued by former and some current APSA leadership in their personal capacities, shared for members’ awareness. APSA appreciates the continued engagement. |
We, Presidents of the American Political Science Association, write in our individual capacities to express our deep appreciation for your unwavering support of the United States’ science and technology enterprise in the FY2026 federal budget appropriations, including important, if reduced, support for the social and behavioral sciences.
We also respectfully ask for your continued support to prevent the nearly irreparable disruption that is impending at National Science Foundation now, in particular, the apparent dismantling of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, along with the administration’s proposed “zeroing” of the budget for SBE and massive reductions for NSF generally.
The federal government has played the major leadership role in making the US the world’s leader in science and technology since the publication of Vannever’s Bush’s Science, the Endless Frontier (1945) and the subsequent creation of NSF. The social and behavioral sciences have long been a major world leader in their domains, with research supported by SBE leading to massive increases in understanding of humans and our societies and improving the lives of people in the US and around the world. In the current rapidly changing world, whether it is from AI or other advances, continued support for SBE is critical for the US to maintain its position of world leadership.
The social and behavioral sciences are critical elements of interdisciplinary science and technology across all fields. We fully understand that it is your decisions that shape funding for all the sciences. It is therefore with some alarm that we observe action under the leadership of the interim Director of NSF that is seeming to have the effect of eliminating SBE without consideration let alone decisions made by the Congress. We therefore respectively urge that you ensure that SBE maintains its capacity to work through FY2026 and thereby continue scientific advances. We also respectively urge you to ensure substantial funding for NSF in general and SBE in particular in FY 2027.
Respectfully Submitted (year of presidency):
- Robert Keohane 1999-2000
- Robert Putnam 2001-2202
- Theda Skocpol 2002-2003
- Margaret Levi 2004-2005
- Ira Katznelson 2005-2006
- Robert Axelrod 2006-2007
- Dianne Pinderhughes 2007-2008
- Peter Katzenstein 2008-2009
- Henry E. Brady 2009-2010
- Carole Pateman 2010-2011
- G. Bingham Powell 2011-2012
- Jane Mansbridge 2012-2013
- John Aldrich 2013-2014
- Rodney E. Hero 2014-2015
- Jennifer Hochschild 2015-2016
- David A. Lake 2016-2017
- Kathleen Thelen 2017-2018
- Rogers Smith 2018-2019
- Paula D. McClain 2019-2020
- Janet Box-Steffensmeier 2020-2021
- John Ishiyama 2021-2022
- Lisa Martin 2022-2023
- Mark E. Warren 2023-2024
- Taeku Lee 2024-2025
- Susan Stokes 2025-2026
- Beth Simmons 2026-2027
Be the first to comment