Trump Disbands First Ever Scientific Integrity Committee
A committee that I served on
The Trump administration decided to disband the federal government’s first ever federal advisory committee on scientific integrity. I know because I was a member on that committee. I was sent a personal email notifying me that my services were no longer needed as well as a letter from Department of Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum.
The Department of Interior’s committee on Science Quality and Integrity was formed to advise the Secretary of DOI and the Director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for multiple important purposes. As written in the charter that me and eight other committee members signed, we were charged with the following duties:
Identification of key science quality and integrity processes to advance the USGS mission.
Effective mechanisms for engaging the next generation USGS workforce and others through the YES program and with other Federal agencies in STEM and underserved communities.
The nature and effectiveness of mechanisms to provide oversight of science quality within USGS laboratories.
Mechanisms that may be employed by the USGS to ensure high standards of science quality and integrity in its programs and products.
Why is this important?
The USGS is the research arm of the Interior Department. The agency serves as “a primary Federal source of science-based information on ecosystems, land use, energy and mineral resources, natural hazards, water use and availability, and updated maps and images of the Earth’s features available to the public.” That includes a lot of research capability that is critically important to the public. For example, the USGS houses the National Water Quality Laboratory which can test for hundreds of contaminants in our surface and groundwaters across the nation. Having clean water seems pretty important for the health and safety of our environment and the public.
One of the reasons that this committee was formed was because the DOI’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) had identified breaches of scientific integrity and misconduct across three of USGS’s laboratories. One of these cases was in the National Water Quality Laboratory - a loss of scientific integrity that I reported on. Responding to the OIG’s report, the USGS formed a committee to strengthen scientific integrity and data quality. Efforts that would have helped ensure scientific standards were met across DOI laboratories to protect our environment and the public.
Lack of scientific integrity leads to public harm
With this committee disbanded, I, and the other experts on the committee, will no longer be able to provide guidance to the DOI or USGS about how they can strengthen scientific integrity and quality. This means that you, the public, will be more at-risk of being harmed because the scientific integrity and misconduct issues that were prevalent before will continue to persist.
When there are no processes in place to ensure there is integrity in federal science, political appointees in the federal government can insert their own “facts” into decisions. This sidelining of science in decisions happened a lot under the first Trump administration. The disbanding of the federal government’s first ever federal advisory committee on scientific integrity is an indicator that this administration has no intention to uphold scientific evidence in its decisions.
Of course, as a member of this committee, I am sad to see it go. This was the first time I’ve been nominated and selected to be on a federal advisory committee. And let me tell you, it’s a long and competitive selection process! I was thrilled to be called to serve the American public, even though serving on the committee would require me to volunteer much of my time with no pay for serving and to take PTO from my regular day job.
But if I could help DOI and USGS create stronger scientific integrity so that more people across the nation could have healthier lives, it was worth it. I wish that this committee could continue to do the great work I know it would’ve done for the American people. Disbanding this committee is a huge loss for DOI, for USGS, and for the nation.
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