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The US position as a global leader in science has long hinged on its research freedom and independence from political interference. A new executive order signed by US President Donald Trump on August 7 now threatens to overturn this paradigm.

The executive order, titled "Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking", grants political appointees sweeping authority over all federal grant funding.

If implemented, political appointees — not scientists — would take control over decisions about research grants. It would, among other changes, allow political appointees to overrule advice from scientists on award decisions, and let them terminate ongoing grants based on political criteria.

Scientists and research advocates have slammed the executive order, saying it enhances Trump's control over scientific research and universities. They warn it will replace scientific merit with ideological loyalty to the Trump administration.

Victor Ambros, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of microRNA, called the order "unpatriotic in the extreme."

In the last decade, the US Congress awarded ~$200 billion (€172 billion) in research grants annually to advance critical research on diseases, new technologies like AI and life-saving medicines.

US-based researchers have applied for research grants from federal science agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Whether scientists are awarded grants they've applied for depends on independent peer review. Panels of experts evaluate research proposals based on evidence, methodology and potential impact.

The August 7 executive order changes that. Peer review from scientific experts is now only advisory — final grant-making decisions have been placed in the hands of political appointees. Those appointees can refuse to fund new grants that don't align with Donald Trump's political agenda.

"[Funding] awards must, where applicable, demonstrably advance the President's policy priorities," the paper states.

The order cites critical race theory, transgender sexual education programs and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) research as "far-left initiatives" that are an "offensive waste of tax dollars."

Trump is making US 'a hostile place for researchers'
This executive order is the latest attack on scientific research and US universities by the Trump administration.

"Much of this executive order is predicated on misinformation," Jeremy Berg, a former director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at NIH and member of Stand Up For Science's advisory board, said in a statement.

Trump froze all US federal science funding in February, then again in July, and has cut top science roles at NASA.

Funding has also been cut in climate science , gender-related topics and research on potentially life-saving mRNA vaccine technologies.

Kenneth Evans, an expert in science and technology public policy at Rice University in Texas told my wife in February that the Trump administration has made the US "a hostile place for researchers."

What does this mean for US research integrity?
Medical associations warn that the President's ongoing assault on science is derailing the US' reputation as a scientific powerhouse and crippling vital research.

"Grant review by political appointees will further impede the work of the scientific community to provide solutions and fight public health threats," said American Society for Microbiology CEO Stefano Bertuzzi.

"With strong and responsible oversight, we need to harness — not suppress — all perspectives and approaches in the effort to solve these problems," said Bertuzzi in a statement.

Given that the executive order faces such strong criticism, it will almost certainly also face legal challenges. Opponents are likely to argue that the order violates safeguards designed to keep scientific research free from political oversight.

Science advocates are hoping Congress will act to block or modify its provisions, much like it did to protect the NIH's federal budget in August.

Edited by: Derrick Williams

Author: Fred Schwaller

Gunnar wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 14, 2025 10:30 pm

This is a dangerously stupid executive order! It will effectively end U.S. preeminence in valuable scientific research and progress, which, more than almost any other single factor, is what has made our country the wealthiest and most powerful nation in history.

Moksha wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 15, 2025 4:19 am

Gunnar wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 14, 2025 10:30 pm

This is a dangerously stupid executive order! It will effectively end U.S. preeminence in valuable scientific research and progress, which, more than almost any other single factor, is what has made our country the wealthiest and most powerful nation in history.

Smashing science will endear Trump to his base.

Gunnar wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 15, 2025 5:37 am

Moksha wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 15, 2025 4:19 am

Smashing science will endear Trump to his base.

I have little doubt of that!

Some Schmo wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 15, 2025 5:46 am

Gunnar wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 15, 2025 5:37 am

I have little doubt of that!

Yep, because his voters are retarded. I think there are some hopeful signs, though, that his base is slowly beginning to shrink.

Politics

Environmental groups sue Trump administration over "secret report" by "known climate contrarians"
By Sarah Metz,
August 15, 2025 / 12:59 PM EDT / CBS News

The Trump administration has reduced funding for climate research, dismissed federal scientists who worked on the National Climate Assessment, and removed past editions of the report from government websites. Now, critics say, it is taking the next step: rewriting the science itself, according to a lawsuit filed this week by environmental groups.

As the Environmental Protection Agency moves to revoke the Endangerment Finding, the 2009 scientific determination that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and can be regulated under the Clean Air Act, the Department of Energy published a new review of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on U.S. climate that aims to support the EPA's efforts.

The report was developed this spring by the 2025 Climate Working Group, which is composed of five independent climate scientists selected by Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

But environmental groups and independent scientists have criticized the report and how it was written, claiming it was assembled in secret by the five scientists who are recognized by the larger scientific community as climate skeptics.

"The secret report was produced by a set of known climate contrarians who were commissioned to write this report that's full of inaccuracies," said Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director of climate and energy programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "It's clearly geared towards trying to give the EPA a way to evade its legal responsibility to address the health harms of heat trapping emissions and climate change."

A "secret report"

The DOE report, entitled "A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate," was commissioned in March when Wright assembled the group to undertake a massive review of scientific findings in a very short period of time, with no public announcement of this effort.

The five authors delivered their final draft by May 28. In the report's preface, the authors wrote, "The short timeline and the technical nature of the material meant that we could not comprehensively review all topics."

Their report argues that carbon-driven warming may be less economically damaging than commonly believed, and that aggressive U.S. climate policies would have little measurable impact on the global climate. It attributes some warming to natural climate cycles or changes in the sun, instead of the burning of fossil fuels, and also claims sea level rise has not been accelerating, contrary to widely accepted scientific evidence. Finally, it highlights the potential benefits of rising carbon dioxide levels for plant growth.

"I would say that it presents an incomplete and misleading picture of how climate change is affecting the United States," said Phil Duffy, a climate scientist who previously worked in the Biden and Obama administrations as a science policy expert.

Duffy and other scientists say the DOE report cherry-picks evidence, misrepresents peer-reviewed research, and ignores the overwhelming consensus that human activity is driving dangerous warming. Numerous climate-based groups and researchers have published their own fact-checks on the report, with one listing more than 100 false or misleading claims made by the authors.

CBS News reached out to the Department of Energy about the criticisms of the report, but it did not respond to our repeated requests for comment.

"This DOE report is in service of a political goal, it's not credible science," said Ben Santer, a climate researcher and board member of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Santer says his own published work was misrepresented in the DOE report and said the authors "fundamentally twist" the work of many researchers to reach conclusions that "will be used for a political purpose."

Critics in the scientific community have pointed out that the panel's five authors are known for their contrarian views on climate science, which are often at odds with the scientific consensus on the causes of climate change.

"The people that were handpicked by the Trump administration's energy secretary are this very small group of people who are known to disagree with that mountain of [scientific] evidence," said Vickie Patton, general counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund. "Some of them have connections to the fossil fuel industry."

Accusations of rewriting science

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former oil and gas executive, has been vocal about his views on climate change, which align with the report's findings. In an op-ed earlier this year, he called climate change "a by-product of progress," and wrote, "I am willing to take the modest negative trade-off for this legacy of human advancement." He argues that while climate change is real, it is not the greatest threat, and that expanding access to affordable, reliable energy should remain the priority.

Wright has been transparent about how he views U.S. climate research, telling CNN's Kaitlan Collins that the administration is reviewing past federal climate reports, including the National Climate Assessment, and may provide "updates" later this year, leading many in the scientific community to fear the administration is aiming to edit or censor critical research.

"It's important that science be allowed to speak for itself and I do have concerns that that's not happening," Duffy told CBS News.

National Climate Assessments typically take years to write and are authored by hundreds of scientists.

Duffy says that Wright didn't oversee the previous reports and therefore has no authority to review or revise them. "He can't rewrite the National Climate Assessment any more than I can rewrite 'The Great Gatsby,'" Duffy says.

The Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against the EPA and the Department of Energy, arguing that their actions violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires transparency and balanced membership for government advisory panels. The suit alleges that the Climate Working Group was created in secret, its work withheld from the public, and then its report was used extensively by the EPA, cited 22 times, to justify repealing the Endangerment Finding. The organizations are asking a judge to block the government's use of the report to comply with transparency laws.

When asked about the lawsuit, the EPA responded in an email saying, "As a matter of longstanding practice, EPA does not comment on current or pending litigation," and referred CBS News to the Department of Energy. The Department of Energy did not respond to any of our requests for comment.