Government Affairs

The institutional case

The projected death of the Sun is the longest running item never to appear on a congressional calendar. In the entire history of the republic, no committee has convened on the matter, no hearing has been gaveled, and no appropriation has been debated, an oversight now spanning roughly 240 of the available 4.8 billion years. The Foundation does not consider this a partisan failure, since both parties have neglected the Sun with equal discipline. Government Affairs exists to end the neglect through the traditional instruments, legislation, scorekeeping, and letters. The Emergency Stellar Preservation Act would make solar continuity a matter of federal record for the first time, placing the Sun where every enduring American priority eventually resides, in committee.

Current phase work

The Act has been drafted to 340 pages, of which the operative section is one paragraph and the remainder is definitions, as is customary. A legislative scorecard now grades every member of Congress on solar preservation, and in the most recent cycle every member received an Incomplete, which the methodology treats as room for growth. The policy brief library has expanded to eleven briefs, each briefer than the last, in keeping with the format. The coalition charter is circulating for signature among organizations that agree the Sun exists, a coalition the Foundation believes could become the broadest in American history. A sample constituent message has been prepared for citizens who wish to write their representatives. I am writing to demand immediate bipartisan action regarding the projected death of the Sun. We cannot afford another 4.8 billion years of political gridlock.

What your support enables

Support enables the machinery of advocacy, the briefs, the scorecard, the coalition roster, and the postage question, which is under review. It ensures that when the Sun’s moment on the floor arrives, the binder will be ready, tabbed, and in the room. The Foundation retains no lobbyists on the Sun’s behalf, since the Sun has not authorized representation, a formality we continue to pursue through open letters. Your support secures standing, in the parliamentary sense and, counsel advises, no other.

Forward outlook

The matter has been referred to committee, which the Foundation records as the Act’s first official recognition by the United States government. Committee referral is where serious legislation matures, and no legislation has ever been given more time to mature than ours. The forward plan calls for reintroduction in each new Congress until passage, a commitment the Foundation is prepared to honor for as many sessions as the Sun has left. Politics has been offered as the explanation for the delay, and the Foundation accepts the explanation while declining to accept the delay. The Sun has kept every one of its obligations to this country, rising over each of the fifty states every single day without an appropriation. Congress is respectfully invited to match that attendance record.