@petersuber Thank you for this summary! Just forced myself to read the EO--infuriating. We must continue speaking out! #defendresearch https://defendresearch.org

The Trump admin has already taken down the past National Climate Assessments. Now its Dept of Energy (which didn't even write the reports) is planning to publish some retroactive comments and corrections.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/07/climate/wright-national-climate-assessments-updating

Trump's Energy Secretary Chris Wright: "They weren’t fair in broad-based assessments of climate change. When you…find stuff that’s objectionable, you want to fix it.”

#Censorship #Climate #DefendResearch #Takedowns #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (#EDGI) just issued a new report on the "rapid and thorough deletion of environmental information by the #Trump administration."

* Press release
https://envirodatagov.org/press-release-report-shows-rapid-and-thorough-deletion-of-environmental-information-by-trump-administration/

* Report itself
https://envirodatagov.org/publication/climate-of-suppression-environmental-information-under-the-second-trump-administration/

#Climate #Censorship #DefendResearch #Environment #Takedowns #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

Yesterday President #Trump issued an executive order on federal research grants.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/improving-oversight-of-federal-grantmaking/

A few highlights:

* It criticizes previous granting criteria for promoting DEI and gender pluralism, providing legal aid to immigrants, and creating irreproducible research, fraud, and waste through high indirect costs.

* Agencies may peer-review grant applications provided that final decisions rest with political appointees.

* Agencies must review grants annually to ensure consistency with admin priorities.

* Grants must be subject to immediate "termination for convenience".

* Recipients must follow the Trump admin "Gold Standard" science. See my separate thread on the gold standard.
https://fediscience.org/@petersuber/114569635375660780

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

"Key sections of the US Constitution deleted from government’s website."
https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/06/key-sections-of-the-us-constitution-deleted-from-governments-website/

"Several sections of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution appear to have been removed from the official U.S. government website…The changes were made in the past month, according to the Wayback Machine…[The removed] sections largely relate to the powers that Congress has and does not have, as well as limitations on the powers of individual states. The removal includes sections relating to habeas corpus, the powers that protect citizens from unlawful detention…In a tweet posted on Wednesday, the Library of Congress said the sections were missing 'due to a coding error' and expect it to be 'resolved soon.'"

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Takedowns #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

"Pentagon slashes staff of R&D repository by nearly 80%."
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/08/defense-tech-office-cuts-staff-down-40/407209/

"The Pentagon will lay off nearly 80 percent of the staff of its Defense Technical Information Center [#DTIC], its repository of research-and-development data and lessons…A total of 40 personnel will be retained at the office."

#DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

"Why a #NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose."
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/04/nx-s1-5453731/nasa-carbon-dioxide-satellite-mission-threatened

"The Trump administration has asked NASA employees to draw up plans to end at least two major satellite missions…If the plans are carried out, one of the missions would be permanently terminated, because the satellite would burn up in the atmosphere…The equipment in space is state of the art and is expected to function for many more years…An official review by NASA in 2023 found that "the data are of exceptionally high quality"…The two missions cost about $750 million to design, build and launch… By comparison, maintaining both OCO missions in orbit costs about $15 million per year."

PS: These are two more examples showing that Trump science cuts have nothing to do with efficiency. In one case, we'd destroy a perfectly good satellite. In the other case, we'd switch off the transmission of high-quality data. Taken together we'd walk away from a $750m investment to build and launch the satellites.

#Climate #Data #DefendResearch #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

"#Harvard President Garber Tells Faculty He Is Not Considering a $500 Million Deal With #Trump."
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/8/3/garber-500-million-trump/

"The University is seriously considering resolving its dispute with the White House through the courts rather than a negotiated settlement…[Garber] said that the suggestion that Harvard was open to paying $500 million is “false” and claimed that the figure was apparently leaked to the press by White House officials."

#Academia #DefendResearch #TrumpVResearch #Universities #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

#SanFrancisco and #BayArea folks, I'm going to talk about fighting #censorship at the August 20th Nerd Nite San Francisco! Help spread the word and hope to see some of you there! #DefendResearch https://sf.nerdnite.com/2025/08/01/the-mathematics-of-basketball-the-wild-world-of-moss-and-how-to-fight-censorship/

Update. "Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million increase to the budget of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, in an Appropriations Committee vote that represents a clear rebuke of President Trump’s plan to dramatically reduce the agency’s spending."
https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/31/nih-budget-senate-committee-replaces-trump-cuts-with-400-million-increase/
(#paywalled)

#DefendResearch #Funding #Medicine #NIH #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

"America is slashing its climate research."
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/07/31/america-is-slashing-its-climate-research
(#paywalled)

"#Project2025, a blueprint for the second Trump administration published by the Heritage Foundation, a hard-right think-tank, called for a 'whole-of-government unwinding' of previous 'climate fanaticism'. The unwinding is being undertaken with both zeal and an impressively petty attention to detail."

#Censorship #Climate #DefendResearch #Takedowns #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

Five major US higher-ed associations have written an open letter to Jay Bhattacharya, director of the #NIH, asking that he "direct the reinstatement of all grants that NIH has terminated under agency directives found by a federal court to be unlawful."
https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/Letter-NIH-Grants-072925.pdf

The letter is signed by the:
* Association of American Medical Colleges (#AAMC)
* Association of American Universities (#AAU)
* American Council on Education (#ACE)
* Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (#APLU)
* Council on Governmental Relations (#COGR)

#Academia #DefendResearch #Funding #Medicine #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

"Federal data has been disappearing under Trump."
https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/07/28/federal-data-has-been-disappearing-under-trump

"There’s been a 'targeted, surgical removal of data sets, or elements of data sets, that are not aligned with the administration’s priorities,' said Denice Ross…who served until December 2024 as U.S. Chief Data Scientist [and] is now at the Federation of American Scientists. [She] has been tracking these changes. Her current projects to monitor and advocate for federal data under the Trump administration are America’s Data Index and America’s Essential Data. She offered multiple examples of databases that have been altered or taken down entirely."

#Censorship #Data #DefendResearch #Takedowns #OpenData #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

Wow. University and its president support DEI. Trump admin investigates them. Faculty write a resolution in support of the president and DEI policies. Trump admin investigates those faculty too.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/us/justice-department-george-mason-faculty-senate-investigation.html

"In a letter sent on Friday, the Trump administration said it would seek drafts of the faculty resolution, all written communications among the Faculty Senate members who drafted the resolution, and all communications between those faculty members and the office of the university’s president…Free speech advocates quickly denounced the move as an attack on academic freedom."

#Academia #Censorship #DefendResearch #DEI #FreeSpeech #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

Four kinds of harmful long-term consequences from #Trump cuts to #NIH:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2836433

"First, a reduction in fundamental research, which contributes to discoveries, could slow future innovations. Second, the erosion of human capital due to fewer NIH-funded training and career opportunities may shrink the future biomedical workforce. Third, health care expenditures could increase as greater reliance on private sector research and development increases the costs of medical innovations. Finally, decreased investment in public health and translational research may lead to missed opportunities for disease prevention, further increasing health care expenditures."

#DefendResearch #Funding #Medicine #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

Update. More evidence that #Republicans are joining #Democrats to #DefendResearch.

"Bipartisan senators seek to prevent #Trump from cutting #EPA science research office."
https://thehill.com/homenews/5418723-senate-funding-epa-science/

"A bipartisan Senate appropriations bill seeks to prevent the Trump administration from cutting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) scientific research office…This bipartisan pushback comes as the Trump administration said last week that it wants to eliminate the EPA’s Office of Research and Development (#ORD)."

#Funding #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

"14 Republican senators urge White House to release delayed #NIH funds."
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/25/britt-leads-letter-urging-trump-administration-to-release-delayed-nih-funds-00476872

PS: The real news here is that these are #Republicans. "Suspension of these appropriated funds — whether formally withheld or functionally delayed — could threaten Americans’ ability to access better treatments and limit our nation’s leadership in biomedical science. It also risks inadvertently severing ongoing NIH-funded research prior to actionable results.”

#DefendResearch #Funding #Medicine #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

149 employees of the National Science Foundation sent an open letter to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) in her capacity as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. They seek to publicize their "concern over a series of politically motivated and legally questionable actions by the Administration that threaten the integrity of the NSF and undermine the civil service protections guaranteed under federal law."
https://democrats-science.house.gov/imo/media/doc/AFGE_Local_3403_NSF_Letter_to_RM_Lofgren_REDACTED_Redacted.pdf

h/t @alicejmeadows

PS: There are now open letters protesting Trump admin attacks on science from employees of #NSF (July 21), #NASA (July 21), #EPA (June 30), and #NIH (June 9). Details and links here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y5_fjGPNh4_1Hgc0Q68Hr2vJhVIOK1Qc-KynfIG6fZI/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.muw4nr101zfs

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Takedowns #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

"The National Cancer Institute faces steep budget cuts and a staff exodus."
https://wamu.org/story/25/07/23/national-cancer-institute-budget-cuts/

"The National Cancer Institute [#NCI], the Bethesda-based research center that has helped drive a more than 30% decline in U.S. cancer deaths since 1991, is being targeted by Trump administration’s downsizing…Research grants are also being cut at what scientists describe as unprecedented levels."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Funding #Medicine #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

Excellent piece by a dear friend of mine about #censorship in our national parks. Read her piece and then use the #DefendResearch toolkits to call your elected officials and write a letter to the editor! https://www.defendresearch.org/take-action/toolkits-for-action

https://48hills.org/2025/06/trump-wants-to-censor-us-history-at-national-parks/