Biologists in the Public Policy Arena: Fellows or Staff? Education or Policy?
There are at least two ways that scientific organizations like AIBS can be involved in the U.S. public policy arena for the benefit of their members and for the biological sciences in general: (1) sponsor science fellows on Capitol Hill and in the Executive Branch, and (2) hire professional public policy staff. Together, the two kinds of activities are synergistic, though one cannot be equated to the other. The former is an education / training program providing a 12-month Washington experience to individual members; the latter is a program providing ongoing staff services to all of the organization's members.
AIBS has in the past sponsored Congressional Science Fellows through the excellent AAAS fellowship program, often in partnership with AIBS member societies and organizations. AIBS's participation in this program is currently on hiatus awaiting new funding sources. For background on AIBS Congressional Science Fellows, see the BioScience editorial by 2001 AIBS President, Judy Weis (who herself spent a year on Capitol Hill) as well as the public policy section of the AIBS website. Past AIBS Congressional Fellows include Robert Gropp; Rob was the 1999-2000 AIBS Congressional Fellow. A botanist and ecologist, he is now on the AIBS staff as Director of the AIBS Public Policy Office.
AIBS remains extremely bullish on the AAAS program, but about seven years ago, at a summit meeting with the then-presidents of all of AIBS's member societies, AIBS made the strategic decision to focus its funding and fund-raising activities for Hill-based activities into building staffing capacity for the AIBS Public Policy Office rather than fellows. We also began a program for training member society public policy interns at AIBS Headquarters. These days, there are about 19 AIBS member societies who are generously helping support the AIBS Public Policy Office . Together, these member societies contribute more than $100,000/yr, for which AIBS provides a wide array of public policy services and deliverables and through which AIBS has the staff resources to collaborate with other scientific associations that also maintain a public policy office and staff in order to make biology heard in U.S. policy circles.