Policy Blog

The AAS Public Policy team uses the Policy Blog to communicate with the membership about current events in the science policy world. Most policy blog posts are written by the John N. Bahcall Public Policy Fellow.

Take the AAS COVID-19 Impacts Survey

12 Oct 2020
The AAS's Committee on Astronomy and Public Policy issued a survey to the AAS membership to evaluate impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic in May. We now have a second round of the survey as the pandemic continues to spread...

AAS Congressional Visits Day (CVD) Goes Virtual

1 Oct 2020
Our annual members' visit to Capitol Hill had been planned for mid-March this year, but due to the coronavirus pandemic we postponed to September and decided to try a virtual CVD. It went reasonably well!

Summary of CAPP COVID-19 Impacts Survey

23 Sep 2020
Back in May, the AAS's Committee on Astronomy and Public Policy (CAPP) issued a survey to the AAS membership to evaluate impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is a summary of the survey results.

House Appropriations for FY 2021

22 Jul 2020
The House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittees met to finalize their fiscal year 2021 markups. Here are some details on the funding for NASA and other federal agencies that support the astronomical sciences.

Visa Policy Changes and the AAS

16 Jul 2020
US immigration and visa programs have been experiencing an accelerating crisis these past few weeks, and the AAS public policy team has been working, along with other professional societies, on these issues.