The onslaught of aggressive executive action has been overwhelming in the month since President Donald Trump’s inauguration. But among Trump’s most outrageous – and concerning – power plays is the recent cuts to federal science funding.
By the order of the president, the National Science Foundation is among federal agencies facing massive cuts, grant freezes, large-scale layoffs and outlandish restrictions. Trump’s order states the cuts will remove “waste, bloat and insularity” from the federal government.
As of Tuesday, at least 168 probationary workers have been laid off from the NSF, around 12% of its workforce, with more layoffs expected.
The budget of the NSF is currently around $9 billion a year but may be cut down to as low as $3 billion, according to various reports from anonymous sources.
In particular, the White House has deemed research that investigates climate change as wasteful. In compliance with the president, agencies are combing research to flag terms such as “climate science,” “pollution” and “clean energy,” reported the New York Times.
Current American leadership’s flawed perception of climate science is a topic for another, very lengthy and very anxious column. However, climate science is far from the only science impacted by Trump’s orders, and the NSF is not the only critical scientific agency facing unjustified cuts.
The National Institute of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and more are also experiencing debilitating slashes to funding, interrupting important research.
From neuroscience to behavioral research, thousands of scientists and researchers across countless fields of scientific study are terrified for the security of their work and the future of their disciplines.
As citizens who benefit from scientific discovery, we should be horrified too.
And because the NSF and NIH directly fund nationwide university research, NIU science students will also feel the impact of the president’s poor decision-making.
“Many of our graduate students rely on grant funds to support their research. Many undergraduates participate in active research projects to enhance their education and job training. It is part of the mission of NIU to provide hands-on training that leads to future career success,” said Nathan Stansell, a professor in the Department of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at NIU. “In short, federally funded projects at NIU help create innovations that strengthen the economy, improve national security and help to educate future generations of researchers and scientists.”
Stansell’s own research faces uncertainty due to another equally bewildering executive order. The Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing order, signed Jan. 20, targets government-funded programs and activities deemed “illegal(ly) DEI” for termination.
Stansell’s research examines arctic climate change and involves recruiting Native Alaskan students for participation.
“It just seemed like a common sense approach and the best thing for the science, but because it uses language like ‘increasing the diversity of science by including this underrepresented group,’ it’s being flagged as violating the executive order,” Stansell said. “This taking-a-hatchet approach to breaking apart all DEI initiatives (isn’t) really looking at the true issues or the true positive impacts that some of those initiatives have.”
The language used in Trump’s order defines DEI initiatives as “shameful” and “immoral,” but Trump’s vehemence against diversity threatens the purpose and quality of research. Science is useful because it is applied to solutions that benefit the greater good, not one privileged group.
“It’s well known and well documented that the sciences are underrepresented. Period. With various groups. And so for good reason, we recognize that science and research has benefited by having as many voices, as many perspectives as possible,” Stansell said.
While the White House undermines the importance of science, it’s critical to recognize all that’s at stake. Science has benefited our quality of life, our health, the tools we use, the food we eat, the planet we walk on and the safety of our loved ones in too many ways to count.
Every educated decision is based on some form of science, which at its core, is the source of all human advancement – including the billionaire-managed technology the president fancies so much.
We cannot expect to thrive in a world we are not actively trying to understand.
“It’s also been very clear since going back to the first Trump administration, that science research and higher education are not their priorities. So I wasn’t surprised that those institutions would be under attack, but I suppose I was surprised at the level of proposed cuts,” Stansell said. “This will completely dismantle research as we know it across the country.”
Researchers, scientists, students of science, stay curious: Your work, your contributions and your questions are invaluable. One power-hungry, inflated ego’s order does not change that.
But as long as America’s leadership fails to grasp how critical scientific research is to innovation, as long as Trump’s vision for the nation remains close-minded, we face an uncomfortably uncertain future.
