
By Ronica Stromberg
Sara Brock-Contreras, a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, represented Nebraska while advocating for science funding in Washington, D.C., September 9-10, 2025.
Funded by the American Geophysical Union in the two-day trip, Brock-Contreras and 32 other scientists in the Earth and space sciences served as experts during the Sept. 10 Geosciences Congressional Visits Day. They prepared for these meetings with legislators and staffers through workshops Sept. 9.
Brock-Contreras said her experiences as the graduate research assistant for the statewide Know Your Well program and former program manager at the Groundwater Foundation proved useful in asking legislators to support or co-sponsor three of the six bills the American Geophysical Union identified as policy priorities.
She asked the legislators to support the Safeguard America’s Leadership in the Earth and Space Sciences bill with the highest appropriations for science in the House and Senate fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills. She received an email Sept. 23 that the bill had passed the House with guardrail protections for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Office of Air and Radiation, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and the National Science Foundation.
She spoke in meetings about the Weather Act Reauthorization Act that Republican Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska was cosponsoring. The act supports weather forecasting and emergency preparedness, ensuring staffing of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Weather Service. It also authorizes the continuation of the National Integrated Drought Information System and the National Mesonet Program, both of which Nebraska takes part in.
While Brock-Contreras met mostly with legislative aides and the meetings went only 20 minutes, Flood’s legislative director, Evan Dean, spent about 30 minutes with her and she said that meeting went really well.
“He was already very familiar with the Know Your Well program that I run, and I think that's due to the work that Ann Briggs and Chittaranjan Ray do with the Nebraska Water Center,” she said.
Read the rest of the story about Sara's trip at
https://snr.unl.edu/aboutus/what/newstory.aspx?fid=1284