Scientists Against Sequestration

Flickr, brokentrinketsPetitions started by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student advocacy group, and the company Life Technologies are pressing Congressional leaders to settle their differences and avoid the fiscal cliff.

If Congress can’t agree on ways to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget by the end of the year, $2.4 billion will automatically be cut from the National Institutes of Health budget for 2013, according to an analysis from the AAAS. In a letter sent to Congress and the White House, the AAAS noted that funding for science is “not driving our national deficits,” and that such investments account for only a fifth of the discretionary spending budget, which is where the deepest cuts will be made. Signed by 126 scientific societies and research universities, the letter pleads: “We recognize that the United States faces severe fiscal...