Writing in the
Notices of the American Mathematical Society, applied mathematician Richard Yamada discussed what he learned the year he spent working for Senator John Boozman (R-AR). In the piece,
My Year on Capitol Hill: 5 Lessons I Have Learned, Yamada provides succinct advice for any scientist seeking to work with Congress. I found the advice so helpful and succinct, I'm compelled to share it with you and urge you to read the piece.
Briefly, the five lessons are: i) make big numbers accessible/real for the average person; ii) congress was designed to prevent the enactment of legislation; iii) the priorities of the administration and of the Congress will always be reflected in their budgets; iv) frame scientific research as “need to have”; and v) the greatest threat to our democracy is the absence of our participation.
Yamada, who is now at Duke University, spent his year on the Hill as the 2011-2012 American Mathematical Society Congressional Science Fellow, part of the AAAS fellowship program.
A second reason I share Yamada's piece is to reinforce the message of my 12/17/12 blog entry,
Science Policy Fellowships: Statisticians Should Apply. In addition to urging statisticians to apply for such fellowships, the entry mentions the valuable perspective scientists can bring to policymakers. Yamada's piece shares the benefit that fellows also benefit the scientific community by sharing sage advice based on their experiences.
For my guidance on meeting members of Congress, see my one-pager,
Tips for effective Hill meetings.
See
my other blog entries. For ASA science policy updates, follow @ASA_SciPol on Twitter.