The NSC Alliance has submitted testimony to the House Appropriations Committee regarding fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding for certain programs that curate natural history collections within the Department of the Interior and Smithsonian Institution.
“Preservation of specimens and the strategic growth of these collections are in the best interest of science and the best interest of taxpayers,” noted NSC Alliance. “Existing scientific collections that are properly cared for and accessible are a critical component of the US science infrastructure and are readily integrated into new research on significant questions. Specimens that were collected decades or centuries ago are now routinely used in research in diverse fields related to genomics, human health, biodiversity sciences, informatics, environmental quality, and agriculture.”
NSC Alliance urged appropriators to provide the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution with at least $60 million in FY 2022 and adequate funding for programs within Interior bureaus that support the preservation and use of scientific collections.