Red alert: The OMB regulations could disable science permanently

All hands report to stations

I’m out with a column yesterday on the disastrous proposal from the Office of Management and Budget to create regulations that would cripple American science through a lot of things but the two biggest are: (a) mandating political review of every individual grant, and (b) obtaining case-by-case political approval of all grants that involve spending money in other countries. There are plenty of other terrible things summarized well here. This basically eliminates the authority of the NIH and NSF Directors and puts everything in the hands of HHS. It’s hard to see how anyone would want to run these agencies now or in the future under these rules. These rules essentially amount to making the entire enterprise live by the “compact for higher education” that everyone rejected.

The architect of it all is, of course, Russell Vought, who has dubbed himself the “keeper of the commander’s intent.” He is subverting the bipartisan budget and sidelining scientific merit as a criterion for American science. My last paragraph of the piece (which is called “Another red alert for American science”) is:

The time to act is now. The scientific community needs to flood OMB with responses during the public comment period, open until 13 July. Universities and associations must speak out as a united front to mobilize Congress and be ready to file lawsuits once the regulations are finalized. I was sympathetic to members of the scientific establishment who played it carefully during last year’s budget negotiations. Getting the budget deal done was crucial. But that was then. The red light is now flashing. All hands, report to stations.

Of course, I wasn’t going to leave a Star Trek analogy on the table.

Why there’s no reason to hold back at this point

I’m saying “all hands” because I believe this is the event that has evaporated any plausible reason not to speak out. I have been sympathetic to folks who stayed out of the fray building up to last years’ budget process, because the Republican Senators who supported the restoration of the science budgets last year needed to be as clear as possible to do the right thing. (Not all my friends were thrilled with this.) But it takes a village, and the village got the budget deal done.

This is different because the very people and process that led to that bill are now being undermined by the OMB regulations. Of course, strong advocates like the Union of Concerned Scientists and Stand Up for Science will and are speaking out. They were already doing that. But this event should make the tent a lot larger, because speaking out against these regulations is speaking out in favor of a bipartisan effort, mainly one driven by Republicans. For those who believe in the model, long practiced by science lobbyists from associations and universities, of seeking science funding through bipartisan lobbying (and not everyone does), these regulations would render that process meaningless because the White House can undo whatever it wants.

Another reason is that these regulations will (if history is any guide) one day be in the hands of a Democratic White House. If you think they would just put them back to the way they were, you’re an optimist. Why wouldn’t a Democratic President want this kind of power? You could imagine all kinds of new programs enforced that fit the policy agenda of the administration. While I might agree with some of these initiatives, I think it would be just as bad. It would weaken the principle that science, not politics, should be the driver, and we could end up with massive whiplash as programs are stopped and started every time the administration changes, leaving past work unfinished and making it impossible to build a scientific workforce. So if you want to stop so-called “woke science,” this is a way you could actually have more of it one day.

To battle stations

You can submit comments to the OMB regs, and Stand Up for Science has made it easy at this link. The comments can be ignored, but stirring up as much activity as possible is crucial at this point. Flood the zone. Call House and Senate members, especially if you live in a red state (remember not to call members outside your state - that makes things worse). And press universities and associations not to hold back. (You don’t need to press AAAS, because they’re already on board.) There’s no reason to hold back now. If they want to use the methods they’ve developed over the last 80 years to drive science funding, they have to put it all on the table to fight this.

Let’s go.