Agencies Close science consulting committees

Several government agencies began to eliminate science consulting committees following an executive decree issued by President Donald Trump last month.

THE order, Entitled “Beginning the reduction of the federal bureaucracy”, calls for the elimination of several specific advisory committees – including the advisory committee of the Secretary of Health on the long Covids – with the justification that the reduction in the size of the federal government “will minimize the waste and abuse of the government, will reduce the inflation and promote American freedom and innovation”.

The executive decree also directs the heads of certain agencies and departments to identify additional termination committees. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Geological Survey are among the scientific agencies that have started to eliminate certain non -statutory consulting committees in response to the decree.

Janet Petro adopted a different approach, with the acting administrator of NASA, leading the agency to consolidate its astrophysics, its biological and physical sciences, its earth sciences, its heliophysics and its advisory committees in planetary sciences in a community of NASA sciences, “said a NASA consulting committee.

This restructuring of NASA science consulting committees “will provide the possibility of maintaining a non-statutory scientific committee and ensuring continuous support for the scientific objectives of NASA, improving efficiency, while ensuring that NASA maintains the important process of engaging with the scientific community,” said NASA spokesperson. They added that NASA Applied Sciences Advisory Committee will not be affected by the modifications.

A spokesman for the National Science Foundation refused to comment when he was asked if the agency planned to eliminate one of his advisory committees. A spokesman for the National Institute of Standards and Technology said that the decree did not apply to the agency and that none of its advisory committees had been terminated. During the publication, the Ministry of Energy and the National Institutes of Health had not responded to requests for comments.

Jacob Carter, an expert in scientific integrity and co-founder of the scientific policy newsletter Scilight, was a recently completed end member Advisory Committee for the quality and integrity of the sciences at the USGS. Carter published a article About the steep termination of the committee earlier this month, sharing a letter from the interior secretary Doug Burgum identifying a total of six advisory committees to eliminate on the grounds that they are “useless and have completed the ends for which they were established”.

The Conseil Committee for the Quality and Integrity of Sciences has been created very recently and only met once earlier this year before being dissolved at the end of February. The Committee was created to respond to concerns about scientific misconduct and scientific integrity violations in USGS laboratories raised by the Inspector General of the Interior Ministry.

Although disappointed with the termination of the committee, Carter said it was not surprised that a committee focused on scientific integrity had been targeted by the Trump administration given the president of the president of the scientific councils. “I think that the fact that the very first federal advisory committee on scientific integrity has been dissolved is a fairly clear signal that this administration does not intend to comply with scientific integrity policies or to worry a lot about the protection and rights of scientists and their work,” said Carter.

Although certain federal council committees are created by the congress and cannot be easily closed, many are non -statutory and can be eliminated by the leaders of the Higher Agency. A list Current and recently terminated federal consulting committees are maintained by the General Services Administration, but this database does not reflect all pending changes.

In his first mandate, Trump called For a third of all the committees that are not required by law to be eliminated and have tried to cap the total number of committees across the federal government at 350. At the time, and even today, scientific defenders criticized the actions of the president, noting the importance of these committees to share a precious scientific expertise with government leaders.

“We want to make sure that government decisions are informed by the best sciences and evidence available, without political interference, and reactive to various community voices,” said Kristie Ellickson, principal scientist of the Union of CONSEQUED Scientists’ Center for Science and Democracy. This is why Ellickson and his colleagues not only follow the elimination of advisory committees, but also delays and restrictions on who can participate, she said.

The Trump administration, for example, rejected members of the environmental protection agency Pure air science advisory committee And Scientific advisory advice and has canceled or delayed the meetings of Consultative Committee of the Center for Disease Control on vaccination practices and the Vaccines and advisory committee on organic products of Food and Drug Administration, Said Ellickson.

“All of these tactics aim to silence independent scientific advice to federal agencies,” said Ellickson, warning that more changes should happen.

Consultative committees linked to science marked for dismissal or consolidation in federal agencies:

This list is not complete and can be updated.

EPA:

Department of Internal Security:

NASA:

Noaa:

USGS: