University of California President Janet Napolitano made the following statement today (Feb. 2) following President Obama’s release of the FY 2016 budget request:
I applaud the president’s FY 2016 budget request for its focus on making higher education more affordable and accessible, and for strategic investments in student financial aid, basic research, precision medicine and advanced manufacturing, among others. These investments are critical to keeping our nation’s economy moving forward and for our country to remain as a pre-eminent world leader in scientific and technological innovation.
As a former cabinet secretary and now president of the University of California, I have seen firsthand the detrimental effects of sequestration and its arbitrary approach to cutting the federal budget in the name of fiscal responsibility. I am very pleased that the president’s budget request ends sequestration as we know it. For our country to continue to thrive, it is essential that sequestration ends and that our government makes investments that will allow us to continue to educate the next generation of skilled workers and leaders, pursue groundbreaking research and provide quality health care.
I look forward to working with our members of Congress, as the budget process moves forward, to highlight how critically important the federal government’s investment in student financial aid, research and health care programs are for the university and for California.