[Taylor]

Wow. Lots of piling on here. Let's all take a step back and breathe.

Nobody's writing a bill here. Just a note to the White House that says, "Hey, we like this thing, it helps us and it helps our future, and we wouldn't mind it if some of our tax dollars went this way." It's not a mandate, it's not a demand. It's a suggestion.

If nothing else, it will perk up the White House's ears a bit and let them see that these programs - which they know about; we've sent teams there and a few presidents have appeared on broadcasts - are still around, are still viable, and are worthy of consideration for federal funding.

Maybe they'll come out and say, "You know what, this program is great, but we already do fund it through NSF and NASA grants" - and that's fine because that means they're thinking about it, talking about it, addressing it, and the first step to culture change, or any successful marketing campaign, is creating Top Of Mind Awareness.

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