The scientific community is imploring the United States Congress to intercede in the Trump administration’s war on science. The latest salvo in that war came in April, with Donald Trump firing the 22 members of the National Science Board, an apolitical body that advises the executive and legislative branches on the nation’s scientific enterprise and establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Scientists and lawmakers expressed outrage then. But this week, scores of researchers signed a letter from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine and posted by advocacy group Stand Up for Science, urging legislators to demand that Trump reinstate the board members.
Citing the fact that China is now outpacing the U.S. in research spending, the letter criticizes both the move to dismiss the National Science Board and other Trump administration efforts to dismantle parts of the country’s scientific enterprise. “This dismantling of a critical national advisory body is but one of many such actions taken by the current administration that deprives our government of independent, apolitical, oversight and expert advice, not only in the sciences but also in healthcare and technology.”
Read more: “Trump’s War on Science Continues”
The letter represents one of the sharpest criticisms of the Trump administration’s moves to research and science policy advice yet. More than 2,500 names, including more than 35 Nobel-Prize-winning scientists, appear on the letter. While individuals within the scientific community have spoken out about the state of the research enterprise in the U.S., many researchers fear reprisals from the administration in the form of cancelled grants, shrunken budgets, or firing of key science agency staffers.
Under the Trump administration, the NSF, the National Institutes of Health, and other federal science funders have cancelled hundreds of research grants with little justification for the cuts. And Trump’s 2027 budget proposes even deeper cuts to the budgets of NSF, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
It appears now that scientists are looking to Congress to broker something of a ceasefire in Trump’s apparent war on science. “Congress has in the past been a responsible and wise steward of our nation’s scientific infrastructure,” the letter reads, “and we ask that it once again meets the moment to protect our nation’s scientific competitiveness, economic well-being, and national security.” 
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