Scientific Integrity Update - Spring 2009
Contents- Summary
- President Obama’s First 100 Days
- Obama Issues Scientific Integrity Memo
- Reversing a White House Power Grab
- A New Dawn at the EPA
- Preserving Science in the Endangered Species Act
- Closing the Data Gap on Toxic Chemicals
- Looking Ahead
Program Updates
Clean Energy
Clean Vehicles
Food and Agriculture
Global Warming
Invasive Species
Nuclear Weapons and Global Security
Scientific Integrity
Summary
Since pledging in his inaugural address to “restore science to its rightful place,” President Obama has asked his science advisor to come up with a plan to stop political interference in science. Many of the actions taken by the Obama administration in its first 100 days reflect recommendations UCS presented to the presidential transition team. We’ve also started to see our work pay off within federal agencies—Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson recently issued a memo emphasizing scientific integrity and the importance of transparency in the agency. Last month, both the president and Congress moved to strengthen the Endangered Species Act and its scientific foundation and UCS supporters called on cabinet members to implement those steps. And, thanks in part to our efforts, companies will once again be required to disclose adequate information about the toxic chemicals they release into local communities. Much remains to be done to restore scientific integrity to federal policy making, and we will continue to look for help from our supporters along the way.
President Obama's First 100 Days
UCS met with the presidential transition team multiple times to present our recommendations for restoring scientific integrity to federal policymaking, a pledge President Obama made during his campaign. The president has taken several impressive steps during his first 100 days, recognizing that reform is necessary, rescinding several problematic Bush administration rules that were detrimental to federal government science, sending a positive message to agency scientists that change is in the air, and instructing his staff to formulate a scientific integrity plan.
UCS has served as a resource for the administration as it looks to create effective reforms and has worked to build public support for scientific integrity—and will continue to do so. A more complete list of the administration’s recent activity—as well as what’s left to do—can be found here.
Obama Issues Scientific Integrity Memo
After five years of sounding the call for our government to restore integrity to federal science, we reached an important milestone in March. President Obama released a memorandum instructing the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to develop a strategy aimed at preventing political interference in science. President Obama pledged to elevate the role of science in his administration by “ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda—and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.” The memo lays out guiding principles to improve transparency in policymaking, ensure that well-qualified individuals are appointed to science positions, and protect those who expose abuses of science.
John Holdren, presidential science advisor, and Francesca Grifo, director of the UCS Scientific Integrity Program
UCS provided extensive background information to presidential transition officials on steps the White House could take to restore scientific integrity to federal policymaking. The memorandum closely mirrors UCS recommendations as detailed in our report, Federal Science and the Public Good. We will continue to work with scientists and activists ensure that OSTP’s strategy proposals are held up to the highest standards of scientific integrity.
Reversing a White House Power Grab
President Bush’s Executive Order 13422 significantly increased the power of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) over the use of scientific information in making decisions about our health, safety, and environment. The executive order increased White House control over federal agency science-based regulations and made science more susceptible to political interference. UCS activists took a strong stand against this power grab in 2007 when they asked Congress to stop the executive order from taking force.
During the presidential campaign, President Obama pledged to repeal Executive Order 13422, and UCS and other groups reminded the presidential transition team of this promise in several meetings. On February 4, 2009, President Obama revoked the executive order and called for the OMB director to create recommendations for a new executive order governing the relationship between the OMB and federal agencies. UCS has already met with the OMB several times to discuss our recommendations to improve that relationship, and will continue to closely monitor the development of new rules to ensure they include appropriate checks and balances for transparency and accountability.
A New Dawn at the EPA
UCS urged the new EPA director to send a clear signal to EPA scientists that scientific integrity would be upheld. We also suggested that the EPA administrator issue a “fishbowl” memo pledging full transparency in agency activity. On her first day, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson issued an agency-wide memo detailing three values she will try to uphold: respecting science, upholding the rule of law, and conducting business in a transparent manner.
Administrator Jackson wrote, “EPA’s actions must be transparent. In 1983, EPA Administrator Ruckelshaus promised that EPA would operate ‘in a fishbowl’ and ‘will attempt to communicate with everyone from the environmentalists to those we regulate, and we will do so as openly as possible.’ I embrace this philosophy.”
Preserving Science in the Endangered Species Act
The Bush administration pushed through a highly controversial, 11th hour rule change that effectively exempted federal projects (like roads or dams) from Endangered Species Act review. UCS activists submitted thousands of comments opposing the rule. While our attempts to stop these flawed rules changes were unsuccessful, the combined outrage of both scientists and activists alike drew a great deal of attention to this critical issue.
On March 3, 2009, President Obama signed a memo encouraging the secretaries of the Departments of Interior and Commerce to examine the rule changes. UCS staff, who were present at Obama's announcement, were able to show their support for his commitment to science at the Interior Department. The following week, Congress provided the administration with the authority to roll back the changes.
Before the bill passed, however, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined several colleagues in an amendment to the spending bill that would have stripped this critical authority from the bill. Scientists once again mobilized to oppose the amendment, and were successful in helping to ensure its defeat.
On April 27, more than 1,300 scientists released a letter urging the Obama administration to roll back this flawed rule and looking for other ways to strengthen the Endangered Species Act. And more than 13,000 activists wrote their own letters and made calls urging the secretaries to act.
Shortly thereafter, endangered species scored an important victory when the secretaries rescinded a large portion of the Bush rules, leaving intact a part that limits the types of information that scientists can consider in protecting the polar bear. They face a deadline of May 9 to fully rescind the rules.
Closing the Data Gap on Toxic Chemicals
At the end of 2005, the EPA announced plans to significantly limit the information that companies are required to provide through the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) about their release of toxic chemicals—like mercury, lead, and dioxin—into local communities. Over the next couple months, 110,000 Americans submitted comments regarding the proposed change, with an overwhelming majority rejecting the proposal. UCS activists submitted 31,265 of these comments—more than one in four of all comments received.
In transition meetings with the administration, UCS and its partner organizations stressed that the original reporting requirements of the TRI should be restored. In mid-March, the Obama administration rolled back the Bush changes, not only returning to the old reporting requirements but also requiring companies to fill in the gaps for the time that reporting requirements were relaxed.
Looking Ahead
While we have seen a number of important first steps in recent months, restoring scientific integrity to federal policy making will take more than just strong leadership from President Obama and agency administrators. Much remains to be done to repair the damage to federal science, create an environment that is supportive of scientific input, and codify reform to make it more difficult for future administrations to misuse scientific information when forming policy. Badly needed legislation designed to protect federal scientist whistleblowers has yet to emerge from Congress, and while some improvement has already been made, the level of transparency and oversight in the federal regulatory process must continue to be improved. Agency media policies need strengthening to enable federal scientists to communicate their research results to the public. And the White House’s plan to defend science from political interference must be meaningful and well-implemented. We will continue to work with scientists and activists in the coming months to ensure that the need for these crucial reforms is addressed.
