2025 PAA Advocacy Day: A Record-Breaking Successful Day on Capitol Hill

On April 10, in conjunction with the Population Association of America (PAA) 2025 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, PAA sponsored a large advocacy day in which over 100 scientists from 30 states participated in meetings with their congressional delegations. PAA sponsors a large advocacy day whenever its annual meeting is held in Washington, DC. The last two events, in 2016 and 2012, attracted over 80 individuals, making this year’s event truly record-breaking.

Population scientists went to Capitol Hill to share examples of their federally funded research as well as to promote greater understanding of how data produced by federal statistical agencies are used to conduct research and research training. In addition, the participants shared their concerns regarding the impact that recent Administration policies have had on their research, students, and institutions. PAA members also shared the organization’s Fiscal Year 2026 funding priorities, which included requests to provide robust funding for the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Census Bureau, and other statistical agencies and to restore the National Center for Education Statistics and Social Security Administration’s Retirement and Disability Research cooperative agreements program.

PAA hopes the event provided population scientists with a unique opportunity to initiate relationships with the offices of their U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators. Further, PAA supported the event to enhance federal policymakers’ understanding of the field and the challenges it is facing.

The article above was originally posted on the PAA website. PAA is a COSSA governing organization.