Immigration Reform Priorities for 2013 President Barack Obama and Members of the 113th Congress agree that the nation’s immigration system is broken and in need of reform. Thus, the Administration and Members of Congress have put forth legislative proposals to reform the nation’s immigration system. Below are key prior

 AAU submits comments to the NIH Working Group on the Future Biomedical Research Workforce.

Saying our "scientific and technical capacity is beginning to atrophy even as other nations are developing their own human capital," 15 leading business organizations called today for doubling the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates by the year 2015. "The critical situation in American innovation threatens to undermine our standard of living at home and our leadership in the world," said John J. Castellani, President of Business Roundtable, which organized the business groups in this effort. "We cannot wait for another Sputnik to propel our energy forward in this area..

A timeline entitled "The Year After Sputnik: U.S. Response (1957-1958)"

List of Competitiveness, Innovation, S&E Workforce and STEM Education Major Reports, Books and Activities..

Under the direction of President Bush, the Secretaries of State, Education, and Defense and the Director of National Intelligence developed this comprehensive plan to expand foreign language education, especially in critical need languages..

The National Security Language Initiative is designed to dramatically increase the number of Americans learning critical need foreign languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi, and others through new and expanded programs from kindergarten through university and into the workforce. An essential component of U.S. national security in the post-9/11 world is the ability to engage foreign governments and peoples, especially in critical regions, to encourage reform, promote understanding, convey respect for other cultures and provide an opportunity to learn more about America and its citizens..

On behalf of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of 60 leading public and private research universities in the United States, I write to thank you for introducing the Right TRACK (The Right Time to Reinvest in America's Competitiveness) Act of 2006 and to express our strong support for the goals of this important legislation. The National Defense Education Act of 1958, along with the substantial federal investment in basic research that accompanied it, was a seminal act of public policy that enhanced our nation’s security and economic prosperity in the latter half of the 20th century..

This statement presents the views of the Association of American Universities (AAU) on proposals to modify the current funding formula for tuition reimbursement on research training grants and fellowships in the biomedical sciences. AAU comprises 60 U.S. and two Canadian research universities. Our member institutions perform nearly 60% of federally funded university-based research and award nearly half of all U.S. Ph.D. degrees in engineering and the sciences..

AAU and the 60 leading U.S. research universities it represents applaud Senate passage of the Kennedy-Collins amendment to the FY06 defense appropriations bill. The technological advantage produced by the work of America’s scientists and engineers has helped make our fighting men and women world’s best..

Throughout my four decades in the military and in industry, and now in government, I have seen the power of ideas. There is no doubt in my mind that America has the brain power, the talent and the drive to generate the next great idea for our warfighters.  What we don’t have is a growing pool of scientists and engineers to draw from. And without a growing pool of talent from which competition and inspiration can be drawn, other nations are beginning to overtake us.  Dr. Shirley Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, very aptly described what we are facing in the science and technology fields. She called it "The Perfect Storm.."

Almost 50 years ago, the Soviet Union shocked Americans by launching Sputnik, the first Earth orbit satellite. The U.S. response was immediate and dramatic. Less than a year later, President Eisenhower signed into law the National Defense Education Act, a major part of the effort to restore America's scientific pre-eminence. Today, our nation faces a more serious, if less visible, challenge. One of the pillars of American economic prosperity — our scientific and technological superiority — is beginning to atrophy even as other nations are developing their own human capital..

AAU and its research university members commend these business organizations, which represent businesses of all sizes and from all sectors of our economy, for urging a national initiative of public awareness and investment aimed at restoring U.S. scientific and technological capacity. No group is more important than the business community in making the case to the American public and its leaders that the United States must do far more to attract U.S. students to careers in science, mathematics, and engineering and to reinvest in the basic research that underlies the nation’s innovation system..

AAU strongly endorses and supports the amendment to be offered by Senators Kennedy and Collins. This amendment will build upon the efforts initiated by the Department of Defense, and endorsed earlier this year by AAU, to launch a new National Defense Education Initiative similar to the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) enacted in 1958..

The nation’s research universities commend Reps. Frank Wolf, Sherwood Boehlert, and Vernon Ehlers for introducing the Math and Science Incentive Act of 2005. There is no more important priority for strengthening our economy and raising living standards than to maintain our nation’s leadership in research and innovation..

Thank you for your past support of efforts to strengthen the federal commitment to K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. As you consider priorities for 2006 appropriations, the undersigned companies and business organizations urge you to increase funding for the Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program at the U.S. Department of Education to $400 million. We recommend that this funding level also include $120 million for the secondary school mathematics initiative included in the President’s budget proposal..

On behalf of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), we write to commend you and the National Science Board (NSB) Task Force on National Workforce Policies for Science and Engineering (S&E) for the draft report that was released for public comment on May 22, 2003.  The draft report lays the foundation for a constructive and critically important discussion about the role of the federal government in helping understand and then to develop and implement policies to meet our nation's current and future S&E workforce needs..

For more than a year, the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) have been concerned about the scientific workforce pipeline. In late April, Congressional staff and NASA officials asked the Space Science Working Group, a group of space scientists and government relations officers from our member universities, to develop a white paper presenting some ideas for closer NASA-university cooperation on this issue..