Biophysical Society Bulletin | October 2018

Public Affairs

Public Affairs

USMidtermElections: Congressional Forecasts before November On November 6, US voters will head to the polls to cast their votes in the midterm elections. Now that we are just a month away from voting, the battle lines for control of the House and Senate are coming into focus. Historically, the party that controls the White House (Republicans) tends to lose con- gressional seats during midterm elections. The vast majority of media attention has focused on the House of Representatives, as the minority party (Democrats), is poised to make gains, and possibly, reclaim control of the chamber. Every two years, all of the House’s 435 congressio- nal seats are up for election. However, only so many are ac- tually competitive or have a chance of changing party hands. But, due to President Trump’s relatively low approval ratings, an energized Democratic base, and a recent spate of Republi- can retirements, more congressional seats are expected to be competitive. The Democrats need to flip 23 Republican-held

seats to take back the majority and, according to forecasters like FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver and the University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato , Democrats are slightly favored to do exactly that. The race for control of the Senate is a vastly different story as only one-third of the chamber is up for election every two years. Currently, Republicans control the Senate by a narrow 51–49 margin, but they are facing a very favorable 2018 map. Democrats are being forced to defend 22 of their seats, while Republicans only have to defend 10 seats. Additionally, Dem- ocrats have incumbents running in 10 states that voted for President Trump in 2016, compared to just one state (Nevada) that Republicans are defending that went for Hillary Clinton . Yet, again, due to President Trump’s relatively low approval ratings, an energized Democratic base, and some surprisingly strong Democratic Senate recruits, Democrats have a path, albeit a narrow one, to reclaim the Senate majority, or, at the very least, minimize their losses in red-leaning states. Fore- casters are mainly projecting a wash, with most outcomes seeing Republicans gaining a seat or two.

Members Are Stepping Up Their Advocacy Earlier in the year, we reported that Congress would be out on recess for the month of August and that the recess is a great opportunity to get involved with BPS. We are excited to share that our membership has been responding and is stepping up to advocate for science!

If confirmed, Droegemeier would focus on improving our STEM education pipeline and encouraging stronger pri- vate-public partnerships, ensuring promising discoveries and technologies are effectively transferred to the private sector and continue to spur job growth across the country. Overall, Droegemeier appeared to be well received by Senators of both parties. While it remains to be seen when his confirma- tion will come before the full Senate for a vote, Droegemeier appears to be on track. European High Court Ruling Seen As A CRISPR Setback On July 25, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in Luxembourg, dealt a major setback to proponents of gene-edited crops, including many in the research and sci- ence communities. The ECJ found that plants created using gene-editing tools such as CRISPR, should go through the same extensive regulatory process as other genetically modi- fied (GM) crops. The ruling will immediately impact the United Kingdom and Belgium as both countries had already approved and launched CRISPR crop field trials. Many researchers are concerned that this ruling is likely to hinder investments in crop research and fundamental science. While we’re off to a great start, we need your help to keep our advocacy momentum going! Congress is expected to be on recess for almost the entire month of October. If you are interested in learning more about our advocacy programs or upcoming events, please contact Sean Winkler at swinkler@ biophysics.org. The next day, BPS staff joined Kelsey Bettridge , a graduate student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, to visit with the Maryland congressional delegation in Washington. Kelsey shared several videos of E. coli research conducted at the Xiao Lab that made an impactful impression as the team shared the importance of fundamental science research with con- gressional staff. By the end of the day, the BPS team had met with staff from the offices of Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD-7).

Senate Begins Consideration of Kelvin Droegemeier asWhite House Science Advisor On July 31, President Trump nominated Kelvin Droegemeier to serve as the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The Office of Science had been vacant for the past 19 months. Droegemeier, vice president for research at The University of Oklahoma (OU) in Norman, has previously served on the advisory board of the National Science Foundation and his nomination has received praise from the larger research community. On August 23, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Commerce) held a nomination hearing for Droegemeier. He was warmly introduced by both of his home state senators: Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and James Lankford (R-OK). Traditionally, having the support of your home state senators is an encouraging step toward confirmation. In his opening remarks, Droegemeier described himself as an educator, public policy professional, and a storm chaser. He advised that while today is an exciting time in science, it is vital we main- tain our national commitment to scientific pursuits as we face daunting global challenges. On August 6, James Bashkin , University of Missouri, St. Louis, visited with Jasmina Hadzic , staff to Congressman William Lacy Clay (D-MO-1), at the congressman’s St. Louis District Office. Bashkin touched on the importance of fundamental science research and pushed for Congress to approve the Senate Appropriations Committee’s mark for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of $39.3 billion, a $2 billion increase over Fiscal Year 2018 levels (encouragingly the full Senate approved this proposed funding increase on August 23).

From the Blog biophysics.org/blog

The Biophysical Society is grateful to its 2018 Industry Partners.

In Search of…Protein Interaction Partners Sarafina Kimø, Ida Friis, Ilia Solov’yov, authors of the article Atomistic Insights into Cryptochrome Interpro- tein Interactions wrote on the blog about the image they created for the cover of volume 115, issue 4 of Biophysical Journal. https:/www.biophysics.org/blog/ in-search-ofprotein-interaction-partners BPS Members Kick-off August Advocacy Activities Read about BPS members who visited their congres- sional representatives’ offices this August to advocate for the importance of strong, consistent government funding for basic science research, and find out how you can get involved in advocacy. https:/www.biophys- ics.org/blog/bps-members-kick-off-august-advoca- cy-activities

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For Industry Partner Membership information, contact alevine@biophysics.org.

October 2018

October 2018

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