Trump continues to leave science posts unfilled

Whether by default or design, the Trump administration's attitude toward science and technology vacillates between indifference and outright hostility. As a case in point, a recent Washington Post analysis finds that as of June 6, President Trump has announced nominees for only seven of the 46 high-level science and technology posts that require Senate confirmation, ensuring that the vast majority of key positions will remain vacant for the foreseeable future. The President lacks ready access to scientific advice, as the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) remains understaffed and without a director, and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) remains empty. This lack of S&T advice has real-world consequences, such as Trump's recently announced decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, dramatic proposed cuts to scientific programs, and a host of other worrying developments.

USPTO Director resigns

On Tuesday, June 6, the Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Michelle Lee, resigned. Politico reported that Lee, who was appointed by Barack Obama, may have resigned over efforts to use USPTO fees to fund other Commerce Department activities--a policy that could potentially hurt American innovation by removing funding from our nation's intellectual property system--but no definitive statement has been made. Joseph Matal, an associate solicitor at the USPTO, will serve as interim director.

Collins to remain as NIH Director

Also on June 6, the White House announced that Francis Collins will continue to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Collins, who was nominated by Barack Obama in 2009, is well respected in the biomedical community, and the news of his continuation was greeted with a sigh of relief, given that other actions of the Trump administration toward the NIH to date have generally not been so favorable, including targeting it for extreme budget cuts.

As Trump backs out of Paris, US states—and climate researchers—move in

According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll 59% of the US population opposes President Trump's move to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. The withdrawal announcement sparked protests and wide-ranging criticism from scientists, industry, and foreign leaders. Thirteen states, including New York, California, and Washington, formed the US Climate Alliance which pledges to work towards the goals of the Paris agreement. For more about the agreement and ways to take action, see this fact sheet, or take French President Emmanuel Macron up on his offer to fund scientists working on climate change at www.MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain.fr.

EPA chief Pruitt dodges climate questions

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt continues to hedge on climate science. In media interviews he has said that carbon dioxide was "a cause" of climate change, but refused to say it was the primary cause. Speaking on Fox Business he alleged, "The modeling that has been used over the last several years has absolutely been questionable." Pruitt continued, "What we do know is human activity contributes to warming, what we do know is it's very difficult to measure with precision the amount of human activity contributing to the warming." Speaking with a Breitbart podcast he also suggested that the agency should have "red team/blue team" debates on the science of climate change, a method developed by the national security community in which the red team plays devil's advocate in order to test assumptions, identify risks, and reduce uncertainties. Pruitt's skeptical views place him far outside the mainstream scientific understanding of climate change.

Trump administration ignores requests from Senate Democrats

Senate Democrats have compiled a list of information requests to which the Trump administration has failed to respond. These including several requests to the EPA regarding decisions reversing a ban on the pesticide Chlorpyrifos over the recommendation of agency scientists and the dismissal of 12 members of the Board of Scientific Counselors. Senators condemned the efforts to block congressional oversight and a ranking member of the Environmental and Public Works Committee Carper said he would oppose confirmation of any more EPA nominees until the requests are resolved. Such obstruction may now be matter of policy within the administration. When a Democratic representative recently submitted a routine question about recruiting cybersecurity workers, she was told she would not get an answer unless a Republican co-signed her request.

EPA to invite more industry reps to scientific integrity meeting

A scheduled EPA scientific integrity meeting was postponed last week due to illness by the agency's scientific integrity official Francesca Grifo. In the meantime, the EPA has sent additional invitations to representatives from private industry, according a letter last week from Acting Assistant Administrator for Research and Development Robert Kavlock to House Science Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX), who had previously complained that the meeting did not include enough participants from industry. A new date has not yet been set.

Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality on July 12, 2017

To spread public awareness and spur broader congressional support for net neutrality, more than 60 organizations, including major tech and internet-based companies, have organized the Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality on July 12, 2017. Although the Washington Post has reported that executives at Netflix and AT&T believe the fight for net neutrality is "pretty much moot," the group is digging in for a more long-term battle. Planned protests are aimed at stopping the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC's) net neutrality rollback, addressing problems created by the rollback, and further improving safeguards against future measures to erode net neutrality. Notably, several of the organizers for the July 12 event were involved in 2012 internet protests of the SOPA and PIPA bills, in which over 50,000 websites went dark in protest.

Top tech CEOs, investors still plan to attend Trump's "Tech Week"

Tech leaders and investors from top US companies and venture firms have been invited to the White House to participate in an event called "Tech Week." The effort, led by Trump's son-in-law and executive aide Jared Kushner, hopes to recruit management leads from the country's most successful business leaders to modernize and streamline the federal government's operations. Slated to attend are some of the tech and telecom world's most prominent leaders including the CEOs and top executives from Apple, Microsoft Corp., Amazon, Oracle, Qualcomm, Alphabet (Google), and Cisco. Venture capitalists, including those representing Sequoia and Accel, are being a bit more cagey. The meeting has fallen under some scrutiny following the recent departure of several tech leaders from White House committees, most notably Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, due to President Trump's actions against the Paris climate agreement, and clashes over the administration's repressive immigration policies. Participants will likely face blowback from the tech community against their continued association with Trump despite these policies.

NIH scraps plan to limit individual grants

In early May, the NIH announced that it would limit the number of grants a single scientist can hold in order to make more funding available for early-career scientists, using a concept they were calling a "Grant Support Index" (GSI). After receiving pushback, however, the NIH announced on Wednesday, June 7, that it will be effectively dropping its plan to enforce hard limits on individual grant funding, and will instead set aside more funding for early- and mid-career scientists (eventually $1.1 billion per year, which is roughly 3% of the NIH's current budget). The new policy, however, does not address the concern of diminishing returns when more research funding is concentrated with fewer scientists, which the GSI was intended to address.

Energy executives and administrators challenge DOE budget cuts

On Thursday, June 8, executives from fourteen major companies (including Lockheed Martin, DuPont, Shell Oil, and other fossil fuel and renewable energy companies) sent a letter to congressional appropriators, criticizing the Trump administration's proposed slashing of funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). They noted bipartisan agreement that "accelerating innovation and increasing American competitiveness are two goals that have always enjoyed broad-based support." This compounds existing skepticism of President Trump's proposed ARPA-E cuts (see the letter from six GOP senators on May 18), which have been the target of bipartisan criticism since the administration's preliminary budget was released in May.

Also in the administration's crosshairs is the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), which provides necessary support to the energy grid and is a primary driver of innovation in this critically important field. On June 8, the seven former heads of EERE (three from Republican administrations) sent letters to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and to congressional appropriators, expressing their oppositions to the proposed cuts. The bipartisan and nearly universal condemnation of these Department of Energy (DOE) cuts stems from the value of the programs in creating American jobs, driving technological innovation, and pushing the US to the forefront across the energy industry.

House and Senate hold appropriations hearings

Congress has been holding hearings on the FY18 budget, including several for scientific agencies last week. These hearings continue this week.

National Science Foundation (NSF). There was strong bipartisan support for funding the NSF at a House budget hearing on Wednesday, June 7. The Trump administration's proposed FY18 budget would cut the NSF's budget by 11%, marking the first time ever that a sitting president has proposed cutting the NSF's budget below the level of the previous year. NSF Director France Cordova stated that the NSF is currently able to fund 21% of proposals it receives (awarding 8,800 grants in FY17), but the administration's proposed cuts would drop this success rate below 20%. One of the cuts that could have lasting effects is to the geosciences, particularly since both NASA and NOAA are also cutting programs in this scientific discipline. Currently, Congress does not appropriate NSF funding at the level of individual directorates, and Cordova expressed her wishes that this policy continues in the FY18 budget, allowing the NSF to direct funding across different disciplines in line with current scientific priorities, rather than the political whims of politicians in Congress.

Health and Human Services (HHS). On Thursday, June 8, Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services, appeared before the the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means to discuss the HHS budget. At the hearings, Price defended the massive cuts that Trump proposed to the NIH, the CDC, and Medicaid in his FY18 budget. He also refused to answer questions about whether the Trump administration will commit to paying the Affordable Care Act's (Obamacare's) cost-sharing subsidies. This continued refusal to commit to paying these subsidies is the administration's way of sabotaging the Affordable Care Act by causing uncertainty in insurance marketplaces.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The House Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee held a budget hearing for NASA on Thursday, June 8. While the $19.1 billion budget was supported by members of Congress, they opposed the administration's proposal to defund the Office of Education, which would go from receiving $100 million in FY17, to $37.3 million in FY18 to help close the office. Some programs that would be cut along with the Office of Education are Space Grant; the Experimental Project To Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which supports research infrastructure in underserved areas of the country; and the Minority University Research and Education Program. Cutting EPSCoR was opposed by both Democrats and Republicans. The administration also proposed cutting NASA's Earth Science program, including ending five projects.

Department of the Interior (DOI). Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior, appeared before a House appropriations subcommittee on Thursday, June 8. The DOI is facing a 13% cut ($1.6 billion) in Trump's proposed FY18 budget. Included in that cut are slashing funding for climate change research, allowing for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and exploration in the Atlantic Ocean, the elimination of health and education programs for Native Americans, cuts to earthquake early warning systems, and the end to a program for workforce re-development in coal country. Many of these DOI programs enjoy strong bipartisan support, and Representative Hal Rogers (R-KY) said he was surprised by a proposal to eliminate funding for a pilot program for mine reclamation in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. "This coming from an administration that I had been led to believe was wanting to help coal country," Rogers said. Secretary of the Interior Zinke claimed that coal employment has risen since Trump took office and that the war on coal is over, meaning economic diversification programs will be unnecessary. Zinke also recommended scaling back Bears Ears National Monument, part of the administration's broad brush to eliminate national monuments throughout the country and particularly in the American West.

US Forest Service (USFS). The focus was on funding for fighting wildfires during the June 7 Senate appropriations committee hearing on the US Forest Service, with concern that the cuts proposed in the FY18 budget ($970 million) would mean sacrificing priorities like wildfire suppression. In 1995, the USFS dedicated 16% of its budget to firefighting, rising to 52% of the budget in 2015, with that percentage expected to increase further as wildfires increase in frequency and intensity across the southwest and west. The budget would also cut the Capital Improvement and Maintenance Program by 72.5%, meaning there would be less trail maintenance and overall park infrastructure funded. This fund has also often been traditionally used to supplement wildfire fighting. One idea some senators had was to treat wildfires as natural disasters, which would potentially allow funding to be drawn from other sources. USFS Chief Tom Tidwell acknowledged the budget cuts would be difficult but that priorities would be refocused to the meet the budget.

Appropriations hearings this week

Tuesday, June 13

Wednesday, June 14

  • The House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs is meeting at 2:00 pm EDT to review the FY18 budget for the U.S. Department of State.

Thursday, June 15

What you can do

  • Add your name to the list of Americans who, along with 194 countries across the world, are committed to the goals of the Paris Agreement.
  • The FCC needs to hear from you in order to save net neutrality regulations. Learn more here, and submit comments directly here.
  • The Department of the Interior has extended the comment period for the Bears Ears National Monument to July 10, 2017. Learn more here.
  • The Union of Concerned Scientists notes that the EPA has put out a call for nominations for nine positions on its Board of Scientific Counselors. Learn more here, and nominate yourself or or a colleague here.
  • Join 500 Women Scientists this Thursday, June 15, at 8 pm EDT/5 pm PDT for a free webinar on how to engage with your elected officials. Topics will include an overview of congressional visits, how to prepare your message, how to organize meetings, and lessons learned from visits to DC. Learn more here, and access the live webinar link here.

- Science & Technology Policy Working Group, RISE Stronger

Have comments or something to add? Contact the RISE Science & Technology Policy Working Group at [email protected]. Check us out online at risestronger.org/groups/rise-science-technology.