Guido Dominguez (he/him/his), 2021 AIP Mather Policy Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Pomona College

After I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, my family immigrated to the United States when I was 14 months old and we’ve lived in South Florida ever since. I am currently a rising Senior at Pomona College majoring in Physics, with a passion for policy. Thanks to the wide variety of coursework at Pomona, I’ve been able to explore my love of politics and policy through coursework as well as working closely with the local city council. I am drawn to policy specifically because it holds the key to impacting so many people’s lives for the better.

At Pomona, I work on independent research studying the biophysics of the spore dispersal mechanisms of Sphagnum Moss. Because of this, I had the opportunity of presenting my research at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics back in 2019. I am drawn to physics because it’s all about trying your hardest to solve a problem, no matter how difficult or complex it is. I particularly love challenging problems because those are the ones that require you to change your perspective, consider different approaches, challenge your own assumptions, and be open minded. This same approach is one that I believe is quite valuable and too often missing in politics and policy.

I am very excited to be a Mather Policy Intern this summer and combine my physics background with my dream of working in the policy making process. I am very thankful to SPS for this opportunity, and look forward to a summer full of learning and new experiences.

Internship

Host: U.S. House of Representatives

Project

Abstract

The American political scientist Don K. Price once said that “The union of the political and scientific estates is like a marriage, it will not be improved if the two become like each other, but only if they respect each other’s quite different needs and purposes.” As the AIP Mather Policy Intern for the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, I had the great privilege to witness this union on a daily basis. Through the countless hearings, briefings, reports, and summaries I attended and prepared it was clear to me that science is once again at the forefront of the nation’s priorities. This summer alone the committee has sheparded the passage of the National Science Foundation for the Future Act by the House, led the way for an increase in NASA’s budget of $1.5 billion, and held hearings on some of the most important scientific challenges of our time. There is still much more to do and room for a greater utilization of and respect for science throughout the policy process, but as Don K. Price masterfully concluded when talking about this marriage, “No great harm is done if in the meantime they quarrel a bit.” In my talk, I’ll be giving an overview of the process behind these achievements and more, as well as why I’m more hopeful than ever about the marriage between science and politics.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: Getting Started

It’s hard to believe my first week with the House Science Committee has already come to an end!

Needless to say this first week was full of fun, lots of learning, and meeting many great people. It all started with getting to know my fellow SPS interns and staff at orientation on Tuesday. I was already excited to be a part of a such an amazing cohort of students and meeting all of them over Zoom just reinforced the fact that I can’t wait to be able to meet them all in person one day.

After orientation, I met with my mentor and was able to meet the other interns working on the committee to go over expectations as well as what my day to day is going to look like. Since this week is the week following Memorial Day, the House of Representatives was in recess for most of the week so for the time being there were no congressional hearings for me to attend and take notes on.

But just because Congress was in recess doesn’t mean that I got the week off. Instead, I spent most of it attending different briefings, talks, and summits being held this week. All of them related to how the United States can combat climate change through investments in clean energy both domestically and overseas. I can safely say that while the path to net zero carbon is going to be difficult, I am more hopeful now than ever that we will achieve it.

I am excited for Congress to be in session next week and looking forward to the rest of the summer!

Until Next Time,

Week 2: Laws and Sausages

Another week in the books! Suffice to say that if I thought I was busy last week, I was wrong. This week I had the opportunity to sit in on four different committee hearings in both the House and the Senate, as well as a panel hosted by Foreign Policy magazine. Because Congress is in the midst of the process for approving the Fiscal Year 2022 budget (which goes into effect October 1st 2021), most of my hearings revolve around the FY2022 budget requests for different federal departments and agencies. This last week I had the opportunity to see the budget requests for the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA.

While I’m taking notes on and summarizing what goes on during these committee hearings, I am also working on other projects for the committee that I can’t talk about yet. I’m excited to be branching out and seeing another aspect of the work that committee staff do to keep the wheels turning in the complex machine that is Congress. In doing my work for the committee so far, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for the immense work that goes into preparing for hearings and is done during the entire appropriations and legislative process.

Otto von Bismarck (or John Godfrey Saxe, depending on who you ask) once said “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.” I have to strongly disagree with the father of German unification. While on the news you see reports every single day about how far apart both political parties are or how often they fail to reach agreement, I invite you to sit down and watch a committee hearing. What you will see is that while occasionally members are less than cordial, more often than not they are not only very respectful and friendly to one another but also tend to have similar goals and even agree on the details of policies.

This is especially true when it comes to the committee hearings I’ve seen centered on science policy, broadband access, NOAA, EPA, and NASA. This congress is currently considering multiple bills (including the Endless Frontiers Act and the National Science Foundation for the Future Act) that will vastly increase the funds allocated to fundamental science research at both the National Science Foundation and NIST, with the Endless Frontiers Act increasing the NSF’s funding by $100 billion over the next 5 years. These actions, along with the large new investments in green infrastructure, the EPA (which is currently on track to get a 22% increase in its budget), and other science focused departments and agencies, send a clear message that this congress is serious about science. And it makes me feel honored that I can say I was even in the “room” (or in my case the virtual video conference line) while these initiatives were first being considered.

I’m excited for next week, when the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will be holding a markup on H.R. 2225, and H.R. 3593, respectively titled: The NSF for the Future Act and The Department of Energy for the Future Act.

Until then,

Week 3: Reflecting on Juneteenth

TLDR; This last weekend was Juneteenth, and if you’d like to find a way to directly support charities and/or organizations dedicated to fighting for racial justice, equality, and equity, please visit here .

This past weekend marked 155 years since enslaved African-Americans in the city of Galveston were finally read the emancipation proclamation and freed, two and a half years after President Lincoln issued the proclamation on January 1st 1863. While the significance of this date was not lost on the millions of Black Americans who’ve celebrated Juneteenth since, it wasn’t until this last Thursday that such an incredible moment in American history was commemorated across the entire United States by officially becoming a federal holiday.

Both the fact that the original Juneteenth came nearly 3 years after the emancipation proclamation went into effect and the fact that it took 155 years for the federal government to recognize the significance of this holiday reflects just how difficult and slow the march towards equality and justice has been for Black America. And in this same vein, while I applaud the unanimous support of this federal holiday in the Senate and the overwhelming support it received in the House (only 14 members voted against it), it is important that we do not see this as the finish line for efforts to combat racism, promote racial justice, and pursue economic equality for all. Continued pressure must be applied to Congress and the federal government to push them to walk the walk and pass legislation that will make meaningful progress towards addressing the injustices that affect African Americans daily.

The same racial equity issues that permeate the national dialogue are relevant to the Physics community. While African Americans make up over 15% of the US population that is aged 20-24, they are drastically underrepresented in the number of Physics Bachelor’s and Doctoral degrees awarded, making up only 3% of Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics, and around 2% of PhDs. This is unacceptable and something that our community must continue to address within our college departments and at the national level.

I wanted to take a moment at the top of my blogpost to say these things because with my unexpected day off on Friday I wanted to make sure that I solemnly took the time to reflect on the 155 year journey of this holiday, and everything that has happened since. Writing this blogpost just didn’t feel right without mentioning the historic nature of this last weekend, and yet at the same time how long overdue it was. I hope to be looking back on this blogpost one day in a drastically different and better America than the one I am writing this in.

In terms of what I did for my internship this week, it was much the same as the last two, but at a much faster pace. In total I sat in on six committee hearings last week, while simultaneously researching and writing summaries on topics relevant to upcoming bills and the fiscal year 2022 budget. I continue to learn a lot about a wider range of topics than I ever imagined I’d be covering in this internship. I am excited for next week, when the committee will be reviewing NASA’s FY2022 budget request and covering waste reduction and recycling research.

Until next time,