National Postdoctoral Association

UPDATE**December 14, 2009

The Senate approved the Conference report on Dec. 13, 2009.

UPDATE**December 10, 2009

On the evening of Dec. 8, a House-Senate subcommittee reached agreement on an omnibus appropriations bill, H.R. 3288, combining six of the unfinished FY 2010 measures, including H.R. 3293, the bill that was to fund NIH.  According to the Conference report (H.Rept. 111-366), the increase in research training stipends was reduced to 1% for FY2010. Here is that language: "The conference agreement includes funding for a one percent increase in research training stipends instead of a two percent increase as proposed by the House. The Senate did not identify a specific training stipend increase."

According to the information that we currently have, the conferees were not appointed until Dec. 8, which allowed an impossibly small window for advocacy efforts. Thanks to everyone who had previously sent letters to their Senators--and special thanks to Congressman Dave Obey (D-WI), the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, for getting the 2% stipend increase into the House language for H.R. 3293. Without that, there might not have been any increase in FY2010 funding for the stipends.

Now, we begin work on advocating for a greater increase in the stipends in FY2011. Stay tuned!!

UPDATE**September 16, 2009**

Thank you to all who sent this message to their Senators between Sept. 5 and Sept. 15.

Want to check on the status of the bill yourself? Please go to www.thomas.gov and look for "Search Bill Summary & Status" (in the middle column); then type in H.R. 3293, click "bill number," and hit "Search."

Stay tuned for more developments! We'll need your help when/if it goes to conference.

September 4, 2009

Dear NPA Members and Supporters,

The Senate will soon be voting on H.R. 3293, which is the appropriations bill for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2010 budget. After the Senate vote, the bill will go to "conference" to resolve the differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill.

Currently, the House version contains a 2% increase in the NRSA stipend levels, but the Senate version does not include an increase in the stipends. The NPA is asking the Senate to accept the House language and include the 2% increase in the final version of the bill.

Please send the message inserted below to your Senator(s) to support the language in this bill. Copy and paste this letter into a form on your Senators' Web sites.

You can get to your Senator's name and Web form by clicking here.

To ensure the greatest impact from this campaign effort, please use this letter with little or no editing, so that your Senator and his/her staff will identify this effort as a campaign.

This effort is just the first step in advocating for increases in the NRSA stipends. The next step will be to advocate for a greater increase for Fiscal Year 2011.

Thank you for your support of postdocs!

--The Advocacy Committee

--The NPA Executive Committee

--The NPA Staff

Copy and paste this text in your Senator's Web form:

Dear Senator [insert name],

The United States must take care of its early career scientists today if we are to remain a global leader in scientific research tomorrow. These scientists are often referred to as postdoctoral scholars, and they do the bulk of the work in the U.S. scientific research enterprise. The majority are underpaid and overworked, and thousands of them are funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) training programs.

I am writing today to ask you to urge the Senate to adopt the language in the House Report 111-220 for H.R. 3293, the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, to increase research training stipends (specifically the National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award stipends) by two (2) percent for 2010.

Currently, the NIH training stipends begin at $37,368. In stark contrast, the entry-level salary for scientists in comparable positions in government and for postdoctoral scholars in many of the government's national labs is $59,383 (General Schedule, Grade 12-Step 1).

The NIH leadership has been aware that these stipends are too low since 2001, after the publication of the results of the study Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers conducted by The National Academies' Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPUP). In response, the NIH pledged (1) to increase entry-level stipends to $45,000 by raising the stipends at least 10 percent each year and (2) to provide automatic cost-of-living increases each year thereafter to keep pace with inflation.

Without sufficient appropriations from Congress, the NIH has not been able to fulfill its pledge. In 2007, the stipends were frozen at 2006 levels and since then have only been raised once: by one percent in 2009. The 2009 entry-level training stipend remains far short of the promised $45,000 and is certainly not reflective of any cost-of-living increases.

Please support fair wages for new scientists by including a two-percent increase for research training stipends in H.R. 3293. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

[your name]
[your address--to emphasize that you live in your Senator's state]