Federal Agencies
President Biden unveiled a $2.5 trillion jobs plan focused on infrastructure and the climate. In the American Jobs Plan, Biden aims to tackle some of the nation’s most pressing problems — from climate change to decaying water systems to the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
ASA, CSSA, and SSSA has sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team outlining priority areas within USDA for the incoming Biden administration. The letter focused on the need for USDA to address agriculture research through the lens of systems science. It also highlighted the role that agriculture - and the farmers, ranchers, and researchers who support it - can play in addressing climate change through mitigation, adaptation, and management strategies.
ASA, CSSA, and SSSA responded to a request for comments from the Environmental Protection Agency regarding regulatory exemptions proposed for certain plants created using gene-editing technologies. EPA’s proposed rule was decades in the making and was written to complement USDA’s recent rule on the matter.
ASA, CSSA, and SSSA submitted comments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) voicing concern over a proposed change to end the longstanding “duration of status” visa policy that allows international students to stay in the United States until they complete their degrees.
ASA, CSSA, and SSSA joined 82 other scientific and educational groups in supporting the House Science Committee’s call for the National Academies to study systemic racism in academia.
USDA requested input on the Agriculture Innovation Agenda, its vision for the future of agriculture that includes increasing agriculture’s productivity while decreasing its environmental footprint. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, as a part of an intersociety Task Force, responded that the Agriculture Innovation Agenda goals first depend on keeping Americans farming.