Today marks 90 days since the last milestone in the White House’s push toward improvements in federal agencies’ scientific integrity policies. Agencies that have made progress in this time ought to release their draft plans and open them to public comment.
From an outsider’s perspective, there hasn’t been much progress to evaluate recently. It’s something we’ve gotten used to—after an initial push, this administration has not presented much of a sense of urgency in its efforts to set up new scientific integrity policies.
A quick timeline: President Obama issued an Executive Order in March 2009 that proclaimed the importance of ensuring scientific integrity in the federal government and assigned the task of developing new administration policies to the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Dr. John Holdren. In December 2010, Holdren issued a memorandum to the heads of federal agencies, providing them with guidance and minimum standards for the new scientific integrity policies and giving them 120 days to report to him on their progress. According to a May 5, 2011 blog post by OSTP Student Volunteer Mira Atanassova,
more than 30 executive branch departments, agencies, and offices submitted progress reports on the development of their respective scientific integrity policies. A handful went even further than required and provided draft or complete policies for review.
At that time, Holdren gave all agencies 90 days to submit draft policies.
Here we are 90 days later, and it is not clear how far the agencies have come. We don’t know exactly which agencies have sent OSTP draft plans (seven had by mid-June, E&E News PM reported).OSTP has mostly not made them available on its website. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) posted its draft policy in June, and the Department of the Interior has finalized a policy. The story of that transformation underscores the importance of public participation and transparency. Interior’s draft policy, released in August 2010 before Holdren’s memorandum, was panned by PEER for “ignoring political manipulation of science and instead focusing on punitive measures against scientific specialists.” A reworked final policy, issued in February 2011 was better received by the whistleblower group.
To be fair, progress on scientific integrity is probably a second- or third-tier issue right now. Political meddling plagued the Bush administration, but we have not seen many instances of interference in agency scientists’ work in the last three years (the circumstances regarding the recent suspension of a BOEMRE biologist remain unclear). What we have seen is the right wing’s unyielding attack on the policies that federal agencies enact to improve our standard of living. So while it’s far more important that the people running EPA, OSHA, FDA, CPSC and other “protector agencies” focus on fighting off attacks on clean air and water, healthy food, and safe workplaces and consumer products, it’s disheartening to see a “progressive” administration moving so slowly toward reforming scientific integrity policies.
Showing 2,823 results
Matt Shudtz | August 3, 2011
Today marks 90 days since the last milestone in the White House’s push toward improvements in federal agencies’ scientific integrity policies. Agencies that have made progress in this time ought to release their draft plans and open them to public comment. From an outsider’s perspective, there hasn’t been much progress to evaluate recently. It’s something we’ve gotten […]
Shana Campbell Jones | August 1, 2011
Amy Sinden and Lena Pons explained in this space on Friday morning how the White House’s fuel economy deal with the auto industry bypassed the rulemaking process and the agency experts charged with determining the “maximum feasible” standard under the law. Late Friday, Rep. Darrell Issa, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, […]
Aimee Simpson | July 29, 2011
EPA made further progress this week in its efforts to move forward with a potential Bisphenol-A (BPA) Test Rule, publishing an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) in the Federal Register. Overall this progress is good news, though it’s not without its flaws. EPA completed a draft of the ANPRM in December and sent it over […]
Amy Sinden | July 29, 2011
This post was written by Member Scholar Amy Sinden and Policy Analyst Lena Pons. This morning President Obama will make an announcement about upcoming fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards for passenger cars and light trucks for model years 2017-2025. The announcement will reference the Administration’s plan to propose a standard to reach 54.5 miles […]
James Goodwin | July 28, 2011
House Republicans are fond of accusing the Obama Administration of trying to “regulate when it cannot legislate.” With a slight modification, a similar accusation can be hurled at House Republicans: They are trying to appropriate when they cannot legislate. This accusation has the benefit of actually being true. The Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations bill for the EPA and […]
Aimee Simpson | July 26, 2011
Being a parent is not easy, but some of the most difficult moments arise when you know what needs to be done to protect your child and your child has other sentiments. Call it a temper tantrum, a battle of wills, or disobedience, it all evokes a sense of frustration, exhaustion, and, let’s face it, self-doubt. There […]
Carl Cranor | July 25, 2011
In Daubert v. Merrell-Dow Pharmaceutical, General Electric. v. Joiner, and Kumho Tire v. Carmichael the U.S. Supreme Court sought to bring principles for reviewing expert testimony in line with the Federal Rules of Evidence. The opinions sought to ensure that legal arguments would better comport with the pertinent science needed for the legal cases at […]
Holly Doremus | July 22, 2011
No one seems to like the idea of regulation these days. Nudges, alternatives that try to get people to voluntarily alter their behavior by changing the context in which they make decisions, have been widely touted as a better approach. Cass Sunstein, Obama’s “regulatory czar” in the Office of Management and Budget, is a leading […]
Holly Doremus | July 21, 2011
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. After a three-and-a-half month delay for White House review, EPA has finalized its guidance for review of mountaintop removal mining permits in Appalachia. I needn’t have worried that the White House would roll EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on this one. The final guidance maintains the strong stand EPA took last April […]