January 29, 1973

Honorable Edward Kennedy
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Kennedy,

President Nixon's determination to recast the framework of government ,
as expressed in the reshuffling of senior officials, and in statements
reflecting the program-retrenchment intentions of the Office of Management
and Budget has introduced many shockwaves among different constituencies;

I am sure you have heard from many already.

It is hard to prove, on short notice, whether a budget-cut in one
arena is worse than in another. E feel especially diffident in raising such
a question where I have so obvious a personal interest to defend.

I am equally concerned, however, that if we do not speak out it may be
taken for granted that we will be able to weather this crisis without serious
harm. Regretfully, I do not have that optimism. Specifically, the threatened
termination of training grant support from NIH for graduate students in bio-
medical research will have catastrophic consequences. This and other
distinguished departments will be frustrated in their primary educational
service functions. Esteemed private institutions will suffer particularly
serious blows.

These training grant programs ,hefecoufsegurse, been authorized and funded
by congressional act over the years, and the reversal of policy now proposed
by the administration is in direct confrontation with that intent. The President
evidently intends to use his asserted prerogati¥es in impounding funds, as well
as to continue a fait accompli in the executive budget. I hope that you and
your colleagues in the congress will give this particular issue your searching
attention before you condone an act that will go far to wipe out the standard
of excellence in higher and graduate education of which the U.S. has been right-
fully proud, and which has contributed s0 much to our technological and medical
expertise.

It is especially obtuse to terminate these training programs when women
are on the point of finding their just parity, and when many minority group
students have found their way through undergraduate programs to qualify for
leadership in the sciences.

The only rationale the Administration can give for these wuts is the
ideology that we have a surplus of trained manpower. This is hardly true in
the biomedical sciences, and wherever it applies it reflects rags emdriches
policies of support of technical programs that have distorted our long-term
national needs.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
JL/rr Professor of Genetics