Comment from Anonymous

I am an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at a small liberal arts college, where a substantial portion of my time is dedicated to teaching undergraduate students and training them to largely on my ability to secure external grants. I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed changes regarding allowable grant costs, specifically §200.432 (requiring individualized pre-approval for conference attendance), §200.454 (rendering journal subscriptions unallowable), and §200.461 (rendering publication costs unallowable). These provisions would effectively strip active researchers of the ability to use federal grant funds to access the scientific literature necessary for their work, publish their peer-reviewed findings, and travel to professional gatherings to share data. If these provisions are finalized, my research will essentially halt, devastating both my scientific contributions and my ability to train students. My lab uses machine learning and high-performance computing to study quantum interactions that are critical for developing advanced materials. Because my college’s library is already actively reducing its journal subscriptions due to rising costs, banning federal funding for subscriptions (§200.454) and publication fees (§200.461) will leave my lab digitally isolated—unable to read current literature or disseminate our own advances. Furthermore, adding restrictive pre-approval barriers to conference travel (§200.432) will directly prevent me from sending myself or my undergraduate researchers to present our work, cutting me off from the community of researchers and blocking my students from essential networking and early-career professional development. For these reasons, I urge the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to withdraw these specific cost-restriction provisions and maintain the current framework that allows federal financial assistance to cover publication, subscription, and conference expenses. Research is not just the work that happens inside the laboratory -- it is also the conversations and collaborations that happen at conferences and workshops and through peer reviewed publication of the work. These activities have associated costs, which often cannot be fully covered by the academic institution. These costs represent a small but essential portion of grand funds to scientists, and losing them would be devastating.