Keep those phones calls and e-mails coming!

Those of you who want to help crime labs, medical examiners' offices, and other public forensic science agencies can still make those phone calls and send e-mails. Click here to see more about that in my post of this past week. I said "today" in that post because I had word from the CFSO that the U.S. Senate has started dealing with this part of the budget, and it's hard to predict how many days we have once they do -- so it's important not to put this off.

Congress is still working on the budget, and so it isn't too late to contact your U.S. Senators to let them know that you want the Coverdell Act to be fully funded. These funds are not earmarked, so they can go to grant applicants any state, the District of Columbia, or the U.S. territories. Best of all, they can be used for what the labs need most -- whether that's computers for tracking evidence, DNA backlog reduction, latent prints equipment, or other assistance.

The Coverdell Act of 2000 passed unanimously -- this is not a partisan issue. Let's ensure that labs get the funds they need. Please take the time to call or e-mail your senators, and to ask others to do the same.

I want to thank all the bloggers, writers, readers, and other supporters of the Crime Lab Project who have done so -- please keep spreading the word!