I received this urgent message from FASEB today, and am sending a portion of it out to everyone I can. If we want to protect the NIH funding, we should call TODAY or TOMORROW MORNING AT THE LATEST (today would be better) our two NJ Senators to support the Hatfield ammendment. The numbers are:
Senator Frank Lautenberg 202-224-4744
Senator Bill Bradley 202-224-3224
FASEB predicted that if the current budget is allowed to procede, the NIH percentile rankings for funded grants will be down to 1%. Clearly, we will not survive with this level of funding, and I urge all of you to "light up the switchboards".
W. Steven Ward, Ph.D Department of Surgery
Thanks to the tremendous response from you and your colleagues in the biomedical research community, a new opportunity has arisen. Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR) has decided to offer an amendment to the Budget Resolution that will restore the proposed $1.1 billion cut in the NIH budget. Senator Hatfield has asked the research community to 'light up the switchboard' with calls urging support of his amendment. This time, the task is quite simple. We need you and as many of your colleagues as possible to phone your Senators with this message:"I urge you to support the Hatfield budget amendment to restore NIH funding."
The amendment will likely be offered on Monday, so calls need to be made today and Monday.