Comment from Aaron Zimmerman

[200.202(e), 200.220] To Whom it May Concern: I am an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and I have received federal funding from the NSF and NASA to support my research. I am writing in my personal capacity to oppose the proposed revisions to sections 200.202(e) and 200.220 that would restrict international scientific collaboration and isolate American scientists. Throughout my career I have worked within international teams, especially the international LIGO Scientific Collaboration which has carried out revolutionary work in astronomy over the past decade. By detecting colliding black holes and neutron stars using gravitational waves, this collaboration inaugurated a new field of science and has used these observations to better understand extreme matter and the nature of the Universe. Our community also pushes the frontiers of precision optics and metrology and utilizes major capital projects (the US-based LIGO detectors). This effort was only made possible by the involvement of scientists around the world, and by direct collaboration with the international Virgo Scientific Collaboration. Blanket bans on international collaborative research threatens our entire scientific model. Ejecting scientists from current "covered foreign countries" has the potential to badly damage or disrupt our scientific efforts. Even then, the broad nature of these rules and the uncertainty created by the fact that "covered foreign countries" can change rapidly would prevent serious and sustained international collaboration. The proposed rules have the potential to prevent me from carrying out my own research program, training PhD students for future work in STEM fields, and making scientific advances by shutting off the large international collaborations I rely on. More broadly they threaten US participation in cutting-edge, "big science" projects that inevitably have a broad international participation.