Corrupt and Criminal: Trump Is Eliminating Science For Corporate Profits

In late December 2019, the New York Times published a long list of the ways the Trump administration has interfered in government science.  The Republican war on science is a targeted one, focused on gutting regulations that will enrich Trump's corporate donors at the expense of the public.

In just three years, the Trump administration has diminished the role of science in federal policymaking while halting or disrupting research projects nationwide, marking a transformation of the federal government whose effects, experts say, could reverberate for years.

Political appointees have shut down government studies, reduced the influence of scientists over regulatory decisions and in some cases pressured researchers not to speak publicly. The administration has particularly challenged scientific findings related to the environment and public health opposed by industries such as oil drilling and coal mining. It has also impeded research around human-caused climate change

Trump and Republicans are purposely working every day to stifle science and halt critical research.  Good research scientists have options. Those who believe that rigorous research is being abandoned will leave the federal government.

Hundreds of scientists, many of whom say they are dismayed at seeing their work undone, are departing.

“Regulations come and go, but the thinning out of scientific capacity in the government will take a long time to get back,” said Joel Clement, a former top climate-policy expert at the Interior Department who quit in 2017 after being reassigned to a job collecting oil and gas royalties. He is now at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group.

In Kansas City, Mo., the hasty relocation of two agricultural agencies that fund crop science and study the economics of farming has led to an exodus of employees and delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in research.

In San Francisco, a study of the effects of chemicals on pregnant women has stalled after federal funding abruptly ended.

In Washington, D.C., a scientific committee that provided expertise in defending against invasive insects has been disbanded.

Congress must enact laws to preserve scientific integrity.  

In some cases, the administration’s efforts to roll back government science have been thwarted. Each year, Mr. Trump has proposed sweeping budget cuts at a variety of federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. But Congress has the final say over budget levels and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have rejected the cuts.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/climate/trump-administration-war-on-science.html