Later this week, the U.S. Senate will consider H.R. 1, the federal budget bill approved by the House of Representatives earlier this month. The bill calls for $60 billion in budget cuts, including massive reductions within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science.

Left intact, the cuts would effectively end America’s status as the leader in the worldwide scientific community and seriously threaten future U.S. economic growth.

The outcome of this debate is uncertain, and I won’t speculate on what the Senate will do. But I do know this: failure to restore cuts to scientific research will relegate the U.S. to second-class status, and put us at a significant disadvantage when competing with other countries.

As the Under Secretary for Science