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S-TAC Supports Dr. Lander Confirmation, Calls for New Funding for OSTP

April 29, 2021

The Science and Technology Action Committee today released a statement declaring their support for the confirmation of President Biden’s nominee for the Director of the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), Dr. Eric Lander.

Ahead of Dr. Lander’s congressional confirmation hearing this morning, Keith Yamamoto, Vice Chancellor for Science Policy & Strategy at UCSF and co-chair of the Science and Technology Action Committee, released the following statement on behalf of the Committee:

Dr. Lander is a world-renowned scientist whose research achievements embody the promise and excitement of scientific discovery. Under his leadership, the country’s science and technology enterprise will be positioned to address the myriad challenges facing our nation while also helping create remarkable economic opportunities. We enthusiastically support Dr. Lander’s confirmation to the position of Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), which President Biden has wisely elevated to his Cabinet.

Along with Dr. Lander’s confirmation, we encourage Congress to provide $1 billion in mandatory funding, nearly all of which would be passed through to federal departments and agencies to incentivize and support cross-agency collaborative programs that help address societal challenges in public health and health care, environment and climate change, food and water security, and energy production, utilization and storage. As proposed in the Science and Technology Action Plan, this additional OSTP funding would appropriately support this Cabinet post as a strategic and efficient investment in science and technology leadership, enabling the U.S. to out-innovate both existential threats and our global competitors.

The Science & Technology Action Committee is a group of 22 non-profit, academic, foundation, and corporate leaders working to dramatically strengthen U.S. science and technology. The Committee is co-chaired by: Keith Yamamoto, Vice Chancellor for Science Policy & Strategy UCSF, Sudip Parikh, CEO, The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Mary Woolley, President & CEO, Research!America, and Bill Novelli, Professor & Founder, Business For Impact Center, Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business.