Congress should fund professional development for grad students and postdocs to enhance our nation’s global competitiveness, and university administrators should advocate for such legislative appropriations, writes Adriana Bankston. Scientists bring important expertise and contributions to government decision-making by engaging with legislative staff and making their voices heard in Congress in relation to important legislation. That has especially been the case in the CHIPS and Science Act, which National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan has called the most important U.S. science and engineering legislation in a generation.