ISTOCK, ATHERTONCUSTOMSNearly three-quarters of top federal science positions remain without nominations, and more than half of US President Donald Trump’s nominees have potentially problematic ties to the industries they would regulate, according to a new analysis from The Center for Investigative Reporting published in Reveal News yesterday (August 30). The analysis follows months of inaction on the appointment of scientific officials that have left many federal agencies without leadership roles.
“Even the external advisory bodies have really ground to a halt,” Andrew Rosenberg, director of The Center for Science and Democracy at the advocacy nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, tells Reveal. “The philosophy of this administration is that the most important thing we can do is deregulate.”
Of the 44 top federal science positions, 32 remain without any nominees at all. Of the nominated 12, only two have been appointed, and a further eight are awaiting a vote in the US Senate. In the meantime, federal agencies in charge of the nation’s science programs and billions of dollars in research spending are lacking oversight.
“Staff can only go so far before they hit these empty seats,” Cristin Dorgelo, chief of staff in the White House ...
