Comment from Robin Snyder

[200.432, 200.454, 200.461, 200.206, 200.450] To Whom it May Concern: I am a full professor in ecology. I am writing in my personal capacity to oppose the proposed revisions to sections 200.432, 200.454, 200.461, 200.206, and 200.450 that would restrict typical professional expenses, curtail the communication of scientific results, and place excessive scrutiny on the activities of scientists. It's been very important to have flexibility in which conferences I attend. For example, I only recently learned about the Society for Evolutionary Demography's annual meetings. I left their most recent meeting with a new collaborator and a new research direction. Other conferences or workshops are one-offs and are only announced months to a year in advance. Section 200.432 would limit what conferences I can attend, because I'd need to know about them far in advance. I am fortunate to be at a university that subscribes to the journals that are important in my field. If you're cut off from the scientific conversation, it's hard to do good science. Others aren't as fortunate as I am, and section 200.454 would bar them from using grant funds to subscribe to the journals they need to read. I create and publish mathematical tools that get used by others. I'm known as an expert in ways to calculate how much of an organism's realized fitness --- their success in life --- comes from their traits (possibly heritable) and how much from luck (not heritable). Others get to use my tools because I publish that work and write software for them (and the software description is also published in journals). Conference costs and publication costs are two of the main things I need to cover with grant funding. Limiting conference attendence and eliminating publication costs would hamstring my ability to participate in science.