President Donald Trump has escalated pressure on the federal scientific establishment, blaming it for contributing to a loss in public trust and imposing new requirements for research used in setting regulations and other policies, according to a sweeping executive order.
The order, issued Friday and titled “Restoring Gold Standard Science,” faults several agencies for allegedly using or promoting science information “in a highly misleading manner” in their handling of various aspects of climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and fisheries management.
Among other steps, the order requires agencies to publicly release data “associated with scientific and technological information” that is expected to have “a clear and substantial effect on important public policies or important private sector decisions.”
The order also directs agencies to return to the scientific integrity policies in place at the end of Trump’s first term in early 2021, a step that undoes years of work to comply with a now revoked memo from former President Joe Biden intended to fend off political meddling in researchers’ work.
