47th Presidential Transition Letter

President-Elect Donald Trump
Presidential Transition Headquarters
1401 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20230

Dear President-Elect Trump:

I am writing on behalf of the American Physical Society (APS) – the largest physics membership organization in the United States with approximately 50,000 members across academia, national laboratories, and the private sector. As you build out the framework for your Administration, we urge you to prioritize addressing the pressing needs of the nation’s R&D enterprise, which serves as the foundation for U.S. competitiveness.

Throughout our 125-year history, APS members have participated in the federal government. Members have served in both Republican and Democratic Administrations, as Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Energy, Science Advisor to the President, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and as Members of Congress, as well as leadership positions in federal research agencies. We will continue to serve as a resource as you select individuals to serve in your Administration. We also offer our organization as a resource on science issues more generally.

Today, the nation is at a crossroads. Insufficient and unpredictable federal funding, along with decades of complacency, have endangered our global leadership by driving America’s scientific enterprise to the brink of a recession. We see a great opportunity for your Administration to direct a course toward renewed American leadership in science, technology, and innovation. Forging such a path would include championing predictable, robust, and sustained federal investments for physical sciences research; empowering the United States to be a leader in emerging technologies while taking a risk-based approach to legitimate research security concerns; and supporting policies aimed at delivering the STEM workforce required for America to maintain the pace of innovation that has enabled our country and its citizens to prosper.

Countries around the world recognize the importance of science and technology to their nations’ security and economic prosperity. As they increase their strategic investments in scientific research and make their countries more attractive to talented STEM workers, the challenge to U.S. leadership will only continue to grow. The policy recommendations listed below and discussed in further detail later in this letter will direct us toward undisputed global leadership in science, technology, and innovation for decades to come.

• Call for a national workforce strategy that addresses the shortage of K-12 STEM teachers, the retention of undergraduate STEM majors, and support for domestic STEM graduate students.
• Request and support appropriations increases of at least 4% real growth to the agencies that support fundamental scientific research.
• Support updating the F-1 student visa to allow for dual-intent and guarantee a pathway to residency for international students earning advanced STEM degrees from U.S. institutions who secure job offers from U.S. companies.
• Promote American leadership in critical technology areas by publicly supporting the reauthorization and funding of the National Quantum Initiative Act.
• Establish economic and policy frameworks for carbon management to facilitate balancing the costs and benefits of large-scale carbon dioxide removal technologies.
• Require that federal science agencies develop research security policies that are centered on risk-based assessments rather than broad-brush approaches, regularly evaluate their policies to ensure that they appropriately balance benefits and risks, and routinely interface with the scientific community to collect feedback on the impact of current policies.

Securing America’s Future: A Renewed National STEM Workforce Strategy

Your Administration can help address our domestic STEM workforce crisis. Decades of complacency and insufficient funding have created a crisis in the education, recruitment, and retention of domestic STEM talent. We face challenges at all levels, evidenced by a chronic STEM teacher shortage that fails to meet the needs of millions of American K-12 students; a departure of hundreds of thousands of undergraduate STEM majors from their degrees and STEM career paths before graduation; and a nationwide shortage of advanced-degree holding STEM talent. Millions of Americans from emerging groups lack access to adequate pathways to join STEM careers, and many of the programs that support them are under-resourced or under threat.

Recommendation: The administration should call for a national STEM workforce strategy, with full support and funding from the federal government. The strategy should incorporate improvements and expanded funding for the NSF Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, expanded opportunities for undergraduate research experiences, expanded support for graduate students through the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, and continued support for programs aimed at increasing participation for emerging groups in STEM.

Strengthening U.S. Competitiveness by Funding Our Federal Science Agencies

Your administration has the opportunity to pull us back from the brink of a science recession. Federal investment in fundamental research — which forms the bedrock of our nation’s R&D ecosystem — is at its lowest point in six years (inflation-adjusted). The situation for the National Science Foundation (NSF), our largest funder of curiosity-driven, fundamental research, is even more dire; its funding has declined during the last 10 years (inflation-adjusted). The federal science agencies are repeatedly tasked to do more with less, creating a situation where America’s scientific infrastructure is crumbling, highly meritorious research proposals are going unfunded, and our ability to train the next generation of STEM workers is diminishing.

Many groundbreaking scientific discoveries — including those leading to technologies that are now critical to modern daily life — were made possible by funding from the federal science agencies. Yet, despite the significant return on investment of federally funded research, recent and current appropriations are making it extremely challenging for federal agencies to provide world-class researchers with the same support that enabled past scientific and technological breakthroughs. Bold investments in fundamental research are needed to both reposition the U.S. ahead of international competition and bolster our national security. Federally funded, peer-reviewed research creates the American jobs of the future, opening opportunities in emerging technology areas such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, and quantum information science.

Recommendation: Ensure that the presidential budget request and the final appropriations for the next four years provide increases of at least 4% real growth to the agencies that support fundamental research, including the Department of Energy Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Department of Defense research accounts, DOD 6.1 and 6.2.

Retaining the World’s Best and Brightest U.S.-Trained International STEM Talent

Your administration can help restore our ability to attract and retain international talent. For decades, the U.S. was the most attractive destination for global talent, and this talent has driven significant economic growth and innovation. As just one example, as of 2022, one-quarter of the billion-dollar startup companies in the U.S. have a founder who first came to America as an international student. However, in recent years, we are increasingly struggling to both attract and retain the early-career international researchers trained at our universities. Our current visa policies actively push away foreign-born scientists that graduate from U.S. universities instead of encouraging them to stay and pursue their careers in the United States.

While domestic STEM workforce development is essential, the current workforce demands of critical and emerging technology fields (e.g., quantum information science, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, etc.) far exceed the domestic supply and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The small supply of STEM talent relative to demand is evident in recent unemployment statistics: in 2021, STEM workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher had a significantly lower unemployment rate than the general workforce (2.4% vs. 5.3%).

Retaining U.S.-trained, foreign-born scientists is key to filling this gap and providing U.S. companies the talent they need to compete globally. Between 2000 and 2019, international students accounted for more than 40% of the roughly half million STEM PhDs awarded by U.S. universities, including 46% of physics PhDs. Unfortunately, numerous obstacles to launching a long-term career in the United States have made retaining this talent increasingly difficult. With other countries readily improving their visa and immigration policies to better attract these talented individuals, reforming our high-skilled immigration system is paramount. Doing so will immediately help make the United States the premier destination for global talent once again.

Recommendation: Publicly support updating the F-1 student visa for international students pursuing advanced STEM degrees to allow for dual-intent and guarantee a pathway to residency for students earning advanced STEM degrees from U.S. institutions who secure job offers from U.S. companies, while maintaining a strong standardized vetting process.

Empowering the U.S. to be a Leader in Emerging Technologies

American leadership in critical and emerging technologies requires targeted federal investments. Competitor nations are increasing their investments in emerging technologies such as AI, advanced materials, advanced energy technologies, and quantum computing. To maintain competitiveness, please continue to support strategic approaches to programs facilitating national action on emerging technologies. It is imperative that such investments are made in addition to the robust funding necessary for our core research programs.

Two current, rapidly expanding scientific and technological areas that have paradigm-shifting potential and require federal investment and guidance are quantum science and technology and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. These two emerging technology areas have enormous potential to shape our nation's economic competitiveness, energy security, and environmental stewardship for the rest of the 21st century and beyond.

Quantum innovations hold the potential to revolutionize industries such as cybersecurity, defense, and manufacturing. Ensuring that innovations and technology development happens in the United States will provide a strategic advantage in global markets and safeguard national security. In 2018, you signed the bipartisan National Quantum Initiative Act (NQIA) to boost U.S. leadership in quantum science and technology, creating 14 quantum research centers and bolstering core research programs. Reauthorizing and funding NQIA for the next five years is needed to capitalize on the strong success of the past five years, ensuring that America is at the cutting edge of quantum technologies.

CDR technologies are increasingly seen as playing an important role in our nation’s and the world's energy portfolio, with both government and private actors funding both fundamental and applied projects across the world. A recent APS report provides a physical science perspective into the new technologies and outlines specific recommendations to ensure that investments in these technologies are done with full knowledge of the challenges and opportunities they hold. The United States has an opportunity to shape both the future of this set of technologies and climate policy, creating high-tech jobs, driving innovation, and ensuring that we remain at the forefront of global progress.

Recommendation: Promote American leadership in critical technology areas by reauthorizing and funding the National Quantum Initiative Act. Establish economic and policy frameworks for carbon management to facilitate balancing the costs and benefits of large-scale CDR and emission reduction strategies. Ensure that any CDR efforts are powered by carbon-free sources of energy (including nuclear) and that reliable systems for measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) of CDR technologies are put in place.

Balancing Security Concerns with the Requirements for Fundamental Science

For science to advance, it is essential for fundamental research to remain open to the maximum extent possible. While there is a need to consider security, overly-broad security policies have the potential to chill international collaboration, punish honest mistakes, and cause long-term damage to the U.S. scientific enterprise. Thoughtful policy is also important to assure research partner-nations that the U.S. is a reliable partner in international research commitments. The value international collaborations provide to the United States is clear, but we also recognize that there are legitimate research security concerns with unwanted foreign influence. Instituting policies that require making risk-based assessments — instead of relying on non-discerning filters — is an essential step towards appropriately balancing research security risks and the research requirements for open science. As federal agencies establish their risk assessment policies and procedures, it is vital that the agencies provide sufficient education to the scientific community about the issue, while remaining open to feedback.

Recommendation: Require that federal science agencies develop research security policies that are centered on risk-based assessments rather than broad-brush approaches, regularly evaluate their policies to ensure that they appropriately balance benefits and risks, and routinely interface with the scientific community to collect feedback on the impact of current policies.

In addition to the above recommendations, we strongly encourage you to promptly fill and utilize the existing executive branch structures charged with advising on and implementing policies impacting America’s scientific ecosystem, including the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

Please do not hesitate to contact APS through Mark Elsesser (elsesser@aps.org; 202.846.8121), Director of Public Affairs, if you have any questions, require additional information, or would like to discuss our recommendations further.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Young-Kee Kim
President, American Physical Society