National Science Foundation Headquarters Move

Open Email to Congress:

Dear Members of Congress,
    I thought that Congress and the public had pretty much agreed that we were supposed to be cutting back on the size of government, because of tremendous over-extensions on annual budgets and the extremely rapidly increasing national debt.

    However, AW reports in the Concentrates Section of the June 17 issue of C&E News that the National Science Foundation (NSF) will move its headquarters in 2017 to a new building in Alexandria, Virginia. The move will involve the transfer of the agencies approximately 2100 person staff and contractors.

    The new building will be 660,800 ft.² and is now under construction. The GSA said that the move will save the taxpayers $65 million over 15 years. There is no indication of how much the NSF is paying in current and future rentals, nor whether the new building will be a rented or owned facility.
    I urge Congress to consider the current spending of the National Science Foundation, and further consider whether we need this agency at all. The Education Department alone spent $2.9 billion last year and is programmed to spend $3.1 billion next year.
    My own opinion is that the NSF is merely another handout program to the universities, which should be able to handle their own financial affairs through tuitions and donations.

    If there is any question about whether the NSF should be shut down, let us have a review of what they really do and decide whether those functions are necessary for the good of the American public.