Scientific community and legislators examine Trump's science-related executive order

The Trump administration has proposed new guidelines for the use of science at federal agencies, a move that has sparked controversy and concern among lawmakers and scientists. The task force put forward a model policy, calling for all agencies to implement updates by August 22.

President Biden, upon taking office, reversed this policy. However, the new guidelines appear to reinstate and expand some of the most controversial elements of the Trump administration's first-term approach to science.

The Trump administration's executive order requires agencies to make public "data, analyses, and conclusions" associated with any scientific or technological information they use or produce in making major decisions. This includes federal agencies with over $100 million in annual research and development expenditures publicly disclosing data, analyses, and conclusions related to scientific or technological information used in significant decisions.

Critics suggest that these policies may improperly prevent employees from using legitimate scientific research due to privacy concerns of individuals in testing and surveys. They also claim that the proposed policies invite ideological enforcement and suppress dissent, which is not scientific integrity but its undoing.

The Trump administration's policies during the first term saw the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency prohibit employees from publishing science unless the full scope of its underlying data could be made public. This chilling effect, combined with significant funding cuts to scientific agencies and workforce reductions, has raised concerns about the cultivation of an environment where researchers fear professional retaliation or public vilification for producing evidence that challenges political narratives.

Lawmakers have blasted the administration for these policies, flagging a requirement that political appointees oversee enforcement of the policy and "correct scientific information in response to violations" as alarming. They have also expressed concern that behind the facade of integrity and reproducibility, the new guidelines may set the stage for the Trump administration to undermine science-based policy.

Gretchen Goldman, the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, shares these concerns. She states that the new guidelines may return to policies in the first Trump term, which she sees as a threat to science-based decision-making.

In contrast, President Biden stood up a scientific integrity task force shortly after taking office, aiming to ensure that federal agencies adhere to principles such as being reproducible, transparent, communicative of uncertainty, collaborative, skeptical of findings, subject to unbiased peer review, accepting of negative results, and free of conflicts of interest.

This ongoing debate highlights the importance of maintaining a balance between transparency, integrity, and the freedom to conduct and publish scientific research without fear of retaliation or suppression.