January 14, 2025
3 min learn
50,000 Scientists Urge Congress to Defend Analysis from Trump
Two open letters from scientists and science advocacy teams replicate a rising nervousness about the way forward for federal science beneath President-elect Trump
President-elect Donald Trump is greeted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on stage throughout a marketing campaign occasion at Desert Diamond Enviornment in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23, 2024.
Tom Brenner for The Washington Submit by way of Getty Pictures
CLIMATEWIRE | Greater than 50,000 scientists and their supporters have signed an open letter asking Congress to safeguard federal analysis and scientific jobs forward of the incoming Trump administration.
The Union of Involved Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy group, spearheaded and revealed the letter Monday morning. The doc factors to issues that President-elect Donald Trump could get rid of or reorganize federal science businesses, cut back workers, and assault laws aimed toward defending public well being and the surroundings.
“The Trump administration’s current agenda promises to eviscerate the protections that Americans count on and support: clean air and water; safe food and medicine; products that won’t harm us; and protection from extreme weather and other damaging effects of climate change,” the letter acknowledged. “Without strong federal science, people will suffer, and historically marginalized communities will continue to bear the burden of these harms.”
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The letter additionally requested members of Congress to “oppose anti-science nominees to any federal agency who do not agree on the record to follow and/or implement a scientific integrity policy in their agency.”
Additionally on Monday, 28 organizations submitted a letter to members of the Senate asking them to vote in opposition to political nominees who don’t have acceptable {qualifications}, exhibit conflicts of curiosity, fail to acknowledge the scientific consensus on points related to the company, or have a file of disregarding scientific integrity.
Signers included public well being and medical associations, environmental organizations and science advocacy teams, the Union of Involved Scientists amongst them.
“The decisions you make about nominees will determine whether agencies use the substantial scientific expertise of government employees and advisors to safeguard public health and economic stability, or whether bias and misinformation block effective responses,” the letter mentioned.
Trump was “re-elected by a resounding mandate from the American people to change the status quo in Washington,” mentioned Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump transition, in an e mail to POLITICO’s E&E Information. “That’s why he has chosen brilliant and highly-respected outsiders to serve in his Administration, and he will continue to stand behind them as they fight against all those who seek to derail the MAGA Agenda.”
The letters reflect a growing anxiety among scientists and science advocates about the future of federal research under Trump. Experts have raised concerns that the incoming administration may downsize federal agencies, shift or curtail their research priorities, censor scientists and alter or destroy federal datasets.
Trump has consistently disavowed the seriousness of climate change and pledged to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement for a second time. He’s also recently tapped a number of political nominees known for denying mainstream science on subjects related to public health and the environment.
Some of Trump’s picks for the new administration include key authors of Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation. The document calls for dramatic reorganizations of some federal science agencies, like NOAA and EPA, and says that “the “Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding.” Some nominations have raised issues that the coverage plan could affect Trump’s priorities after taking workplace.
“The first 100 days of the Trump administration will be absolutely essential for taking action that can save science that saves lives,” the UCS letter to Congress states. “This is a critical time to show the administration that members of Congress of both parties are united in championing the science that helps protect the communities they represent.”
Reprinted from E&E Information with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E Information gives important information for vitality and surroundings professionals.
