August 27, 2026
NCAR, OMB, and the Power of 30,000 Voices
By: Caitlin Bergstrom This year, our community has stepped up to provide critical feedback on several proposed regulations and calls for public comment. It has been a difficult eighteen months for the science community, with rapid divestments in science research causing uncertainty for both individuals conducting research and the vital research our scientists do. Utilizing our online action campaigns and our deep network of grassroots advocates, we have generated more …
Wins, Losses, and Why We Keep Showing Up
In 2026, AGU’s Science Policy & Government Relations team continued our “Days of Action” initiative to empower our science community to push back against a variety of systemic assaults on the federal science enterprise. This year alone, we’ve seen the U.S. Administration work to shut down critical ocean and atmospheric scientific infrastructure, block congressionally mandated funding from being spent on Earth and space science grants, eliminate government scientific expertise, stymie …
August 25, 2026
Growing a Global Bench of Science Advocates
By: Liz Landau I am incredibly proud of AGU’s global science policy expansion during the first half of 2026. Our current global Voices for Science cohort is our largest yet, with 14 folks from Africa, Asia, Europe, and more coming together to learn and grow their science policy and communications skills. AGU is supporting them through initiatives such as the science diplomacy panel we hosted in April, where experts from …
Defending Science, One Voice at a Time
By: Michael Villafranca Protecting NCAR When the Trump Administration announced plans to dismantle NCAR in December, AGU’s SPGR team moved quickly. Within weeks, we had launched grassroots tools that generated 36,000 emails and more than 2,300 phone calls to Congress, coordinated with partner societies behind a joint letter to the White House, and submitted a formal organizational response to NSF—all while providing individual members a direct channel to submit their …
August 19, 2026
AGU thanks Senate for action on OMB Rule
On August 3 2026, AGU sent a letter to Senate Appropriations leadership thanking them for including language in their continuing resolution that delays implementation of OMB’s proposed rule on federal financial assistance. On behalf of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and our global community of more than half a million Earth and space scientists and allies, thank you for including language in the fiscal year 2027 continuing resolution that …
August 18, 2026
AGU endorses the Earth MRI Reauthorization Act
On 18 August 2026, AGU sent letters to House and Senate committee leadership expressing support for the Earth MRI Reauthorization Act, which will reauthorize the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI), an initiative which has filled a long-standing gap in the nation’s geologic record, producing high-resolution mapping, airborne geophysical surveys, and geochemical data across areas of the country that had never been systematically characterized. Read the full letter.
AGU endorses the ReSCUE Oceans Act
On 18 August 2026, AGU sent letters to House and Senate committee leadership expressing support for the ReSCUE Oceans Act, which will help drive research to understand the effectiveness and impacts of marine carbon-dioxide removal technologies, or mCDR. Read the full letter.
August 17, 2026
Building Science Policy Leaders, One Step at a Time
By: Sophie Mangassarian I’ve spent a lot of time this year thinking about what it really takes for someone to become an advocate—and eventually, a leader. It’s rarely one workshop or one congressional meeting. More often, it’s a series of moments where someone gains confidence, learns a new skill, and realizes their scientific expertise belongs in public policy. In a year when it would have been easy for scientists to …
Rising to the Challenge: AGU Defends Science in 2026
2026 has been just as consequential a year for science policy as 2025. Despite attempts to dismantle infrastructure from NCAR to the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), circumvent peer review through OMB rulemaking, and broadly politicize science, our community has once again risen to the challenge. Almost 200 AGU members came to Washington, D.C. to meet with their legislators in the first half of the year. Through our online engagement system, …
July 29, 2026
Voices for Science 2026-2027 cohort
AGU is pleased to welcome our latest Voices for Science cohort! Click through their photos to learn more about these amazing scientists committing to a year of outreach and policy work.
