The Linguistic Society of America recently joined more than 60 organizations in calling on Congress to pass a bill providing sustainable funding for the National Science Foundation.

At this point, it seems likely that Congress may pass a continuing resolution (or CR) to fund the NSF and other federal programs for the 2015 fiscal year. A CR maintains funding levels from the previous year; funding the NSF through a CR would lead to stagnation in opportunities for linguistic and scientific research. Another option available would be to pass an 'omnibus' appropriations bill, which would fund the NSF at $7.4 billion, an increase of 3% from 2014.

NSF headquarters

In a letter sent to all Members of Congress and signed by the LSA alongside organizations including the American Psychological Association, the Association of American Universities, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) urges Congress to pass an omnibus bill, rather than a continuing resolution, in order to support America's research enterprise.

The LSA continues to work to represent linguistics and linguists in the political sphere. Feel free to contact your Congressional Representative with your thoughts on supporting the NSF and linguistic research.