Title: Please protect NSF, EPA, NOAA, etc; oppose illegal actions by "DOGE"
Hi Senator Scott,
As a working citizen, the taxes I pay support a variety of federal
programs carefully designed and managed to benefit the public. For example, the
mission of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is "To promote the
progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare;
and to secure the national defense."
As a marine biology professor whose work has received
support from NSF, NOAA, and the EPA, I have been proud to help these important
agencies achieve their missions. My students and colleagues at Florida Gulf
Coast University also work hard to do good science and win competitive,
merit-based funding support from these agencies, or to work for them as
experts. For example, my former student Lisa Rickards (FGCU MS Environmental
Science 2018) now works to protect the environment at the EPA. Brondum Krebs
(FGCU MS Environmental Science 2022) is working on a NOAA-NCCOS funded project
to understand and protect fisheries resources in the Flower Garden Banks
National Marine Sanctuary- an amazing coral reef ecosystem off the coast of Texas.
Matthew Tillman (FGCU MS Environmental Science 2024) has been accepted into the
extremely competitive NOAA Corps officer program and is going through their
rigorous basic training, eager to use his science, boating, and diving skills
to the benefit of our nation.
Because of their importance to the nation, to me,
personally, and to the next generation of scientists who I have helped train,
it is extremely upsetting to see these carefully built federal programs being “thrown
into the wood chipper” as colorfully stated by unelected “DOGE” head Elon Musk.
The reckless and illegal actions of DOGE are not reform and are not in our
national interest; they are national self-destruction. The richest man in the
world is treating our venerable institutions like a personal piñata; whacking
them to pieces and grabbing the spilled loot for himself and his cronies.
Unless Musk and DOGE are stopped, quickly, the programs essential to our
national well-being will fail spectacularly and millions of Americans like
Lisa, Brondum, Cole, and me, will suffer.
I would also like to point out that while a majority of
Floridians voted for you and President Trump, NOBODY voted for Elon Musk. With
that in mind, please do whatever is in your power as a Senator to oppose Musk
and DOGE.
Thank you,
James G. Douglass, PhD
Estero, Florida
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