This letter was sent to our members on January 28, 2025, and last updated on February 5, 2025. 

To the GSA Community,  

We are carefully monitoring the changes coming from the new United States Presidential administration, including the communications pause and travel ban affecting employees of federal agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services umbrella, preventing travel to scientific conferences. Organizations affected include the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, among others. We are also looking into the recent order from the White House to pause grants, loans, and other federal financial assistance, which greatly impacts research and other important efforts within our community—we will continue to seek clarity on this matter.

We recognize these mandates have significant consequences for our members and the field of genetics as well as the scientific community and create an uncertain environment. We will work with affected federal employees who have registered for upcoming GSA Conferences to update their registration as needed.  

More importantly, our commitment to inclusivity is unwavering and we will continue to advocate for scientific research and the advancement of the field. GSA is dedicated to supporting the genetics and genomics community and will provide updates as news is made available. We encourage you to follow institutional updates as universities and other research organizations are also processing rapidly-changing and emerging information to provide faculty, students, and staff with clarity. 

Advocacy is most effective through coalitions of organizations like the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and the Coalition for Life Sciences (CLS), whose leadership and staff have deep ties and trusted relationships with federal agencies as well as members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. FASEB, composed of more than 20 scientific societies working to advance health and well-being by promoting research and education in biological and biomedical sciences and through collaborative advocacy and service to our societies and their members, has an extensive policy arm.

GSA is a founding member of CLS, which includes several other societies like HHMI, the Rockefeller Institute, HudsonAlpha, and Nobel Laureates and other scientists, including two GSA representatives and other GSA members. CLS Chair Jo Handlesman on Friday, January 24, communicated to members that they are gathering information and determining the most effective approach to addressing the challenges we’re facing. Both CLS and FASEB provided members of the Senate Finance Committee with suggested questions to ask RFK Jr. in his January 29 confirmation hearing. On January 29 in a news update, FASEB expressed concern about restrictions to federal grants issued on January 27 and linked to useful resources for advocacy, including their Federal Funding Factsheets.

We will do our best to keep you updated as more information becomes available and are working on developing resources to help you advocate for basic science research funding.

Sincerely,

Brenda J. Andrews

President, Genetics Society of America

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