The speakers were John Bahcall, an astronomer at the Institute of Advanced Studies, and AMS members Lance Small and John Polking. Astronomy now has a very good name on The Hill and is protected.
Agencies believe astronomers have their house in order, and they are well regarded.
The astronomers were able to set priorities by consensus in a period of 14 months. The task was nontrivial, but in addition to achieving the above goals, some new projects were facilitated and thinking was stimulated and organized. Bahcall described their process in useful detail. A comment from the audience noted that all of mathematics research amounts in funds to about two medium-sized astronomy projects. Lance Small, the next speaker, stated that it's difficult to convince mathematicians that there is a problem.