The APS Washington Office was established to facilitate communication between physicists, the public, and government on scientific issues of concern to APS members and to the nation as a whole. The office, located in Washington, D.C., coordinates the interaction between APS in the federal government, directs the efforts of the Physics in Government Network our national group of grassroots scientist-activists and sponsors Congressional and Media Fellowships. The Washington Office's activities are overseen by two APS standing committees: the Panel on Public Affairs (POPA), which addresses public policy issues that have a technical dimension of interest to physicists; and the Physics Policy Committee (PPC), which focuses on those issues that affect the resources available to physics and the health of the institutions in which physics is practiced.
Latest News from the APS Washington Office
Current Budget Status
FY08 budget for key physical science research funding agencies.
Cover by AAAS
Increasing Need for Nuclear Forensics
The appearance of nuclear weapons material on the black market is a growing global concern.
APS - AAAS Study Group on Tracing Unidentified Nuclear Materials
Nuclear Forensics: Role, State of the Art, Program Needs Report by Joint Working Group of APS and AAAS 
"After a Nuclear 9/11" Jay Davis Op-Ed in Washington Post
Advocacy at March Meeting 2008
During the 2008 APS March Meeting in New Orleans, more than 1,700 APS members wrote to their congressional representatives at the Washington Office’s Contact Congress booth.
View Contact Congress photo gallery.
APS Pushes for Emergency Funding
The fiscal year 2008 omnibus bill had a disastrous effect on science, causing irreparable harm to the nation’s science and technology enterprise. Research programs have been slashed; scientists have lost their jobs; and grants have been cut, among the cutbacks.
For the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, increased funding provided in the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and the spending bills originally passed by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, was cut by 91 percent, or $548 million.
For NIST, the funding was pared by more than 70 percent, or $72 million excluding earmarks.
To read more about the impacts, click here for DOE-SC, NSF and NIST.
Write to your Member of Congress to help restore funding to these key scientific agencies. [Click here to Write]
Congress Members Ask President Bush to Include $300M for DOE-SC In FY '08 Supplemental Request
Citing the need to keep the U.S. economy strong, U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL 13th) recently sent a letter to President Bush urging him to include $300 million for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science in his FY ’08 supplemental appropriations request. The letter was also signed by U.S. Reps. Ralph Hall (R-TX 4th); Vernon J. Ehlers (R-MI 3rd); Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-MD 6th); Robert J. Wittman (R-VA 1st); and Michael T. McCaul (R-TX 10th). "Federal investment in research and development has proved critical to keeping America's economy strong by generating knowledge and tools upon which new technologies are developed," the letter stated.
Read more about it in a letter sent by Congressional members to President Bush (pdf).
Public Affairs Press Releases
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Fellowships
Congressional Science Fellowship ProgramIt is the aim of the APS and AIP in sponsoring these fellowships to provide a public service by making available individuals with scientific knowledge and skills to Members of Congress, few of whom have a technical background.
Mass Media Fellowship Program
In affiliation with the popular AAAS program, APS will sponsor two ten-week fellowships for physics students to work full-time over the summer as reporters, researchers, and production assistants in mass media organizations nationwide.
