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The Population Association of America (PAA) and Association of Population Centers (APC) share the scientific research community’s concerns regarding recent actions taken by the Administration threatening the integrity of the National Science Foundation (NSF) overall and the NSF Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Directorate in particular. 

PAA and APC are especially alarmed by a proposal in the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget that seeks to eliminate the NSF SBE Directorate. Our organizations’ concerns are heightened by reports that NSF is taking steps to shut down the SBE Directorate this year without consulting Congress or stakeholders regarding the implications of such a drastic organizational change.  

The NSF SBE has been a unique source of funding for the population sciences, supporting not only individual research and training grants, but also large-scale infrastructure projects that indirectly facilitate research and training activities nationwide. These projects include the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), which is the longest running family survey in the world. PSID has almost 46,000 registered users in 50 states, who are using its nationally representative data to understand, for example, the economic mobility of American families and the long-term effects of poverty on children’s health and development. The SBE Directorate’s support has also expanded the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers program, providing scientists with appropriate locations to access restricted federal data and conduct research. The future of these and other projects essential to the population sciences is unclear if the NSF SBE Directorate is abolished. 

PAA and APC urge Congress to exercise its oversight authority to stop NSF leadership from eliminating the SBE Directorate without explanation, notice, or stakeholder engagement. Further, PAA and APC ask Congress to question the Administration’s recent dismissal of all members of the statutorily authorized National Science Board—a related development that is a further cause for concern about the ability of NSF to fulfill its rigorous, ambitious mission.

See PDF statement in our Policy Center

PAA is the premier professional scientific society for more than 3,000 behavioral and social scientists, including demographers, sociologists, economists, and epidemiologists, who study the causes and consequences of population change. APC is an affiliated organization comprised of the over 40 federally supported population research centers based at U.S. institutions.

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