Trump Cuts Target Federal Advisory Boards
Read or listen to full article at NPR
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The Trump administration is working to fundamentally change how scientific research happens in the U.S. One of its strategies is eliminating or freezing dozens of panels of independent advisers to the government. NPR’s Katia Riddle brings us this story about the impact this has had on federal agencies like NASA.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: Federal advisory committees are a hallmark of American government. They bring together experts from a wide range of fields to help think through tough questions. How do we develop better cancer treatments? What should children be vaccinated against? How do we detect asteroids before they hit the Earth? One such expert is Kelly Holley-Bockelmann. Until recently, she was a professor of astrophysics at Vanderbilt University. She says volunteering for these federal advisory committees came with a lot of benefits.
KELLY HOLLEY-BOCKELMANN: I really liked to learn about how NASA worked and how it chose its missions and what all was part of a mission portfolio and how a mission came to fruition.
RIDDLE: Holley-Bockelmann was on the Astrophysics Advisory Committee. That was one of several NASA committees that were terminated soon after the start of the second Trump term. Before that, she spent years advising on issues relevant to astrophysics.
HOLLEY-BOCKELMANN: Then when I finally understood how things worked, I felt like I could help to bring the community’s concerns to light to NASA.
RIDDLE: Since the committee ended, she’s been worried about key NASA projects. For example, the LISA mission.
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RUSS PAULSEN: What advisory committees can do is give a diversity of viewpoints and an independence of viewpoints that no one organization will ever have.
RIDDLE: Russ Paulsen is the CEO of Research America. That’s a group that does advocacy around science policy. Paulsen says that eliminating these groups leaves a crucial deficit.
PAULSEN: We need to have choices and we need to have a diversity of opinions to get the best science done.
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