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The White House just issued an executive order directing the elimination of one-third of federal advisory committees. This severely cuts scientific and public input from government decisions. whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…
The federal advisory committee system allows external advice to inform government decisionmaking across federal agencies. Some are stakeholder committees, some are science advisory committees.
Science advisory committees allow the government to get (nearly free) scientific advice from top experts on everything from food safety to drug approvals to air and water pollution. They play a vital role in ensuring science informs our policy decisions.
The Trump administration has been slowly abandoning science advice for the past two years--freezing, shrinking, and restricting committees--now they are taking it to an alarming level. ucsusa.org/scienceadvice
By forcing agencies to eliminate a third of their advisory committees, the administration is cutting expert advice from decisionmaking all together. It was death by a thousand cuts, now they are taking a knife to the jugular. ucsusa.org/press/2019/whi…
The order has a carve-out for committees involved in grant review or advising on "the safety or efficacy of products to be marketed to American consumers." In other words, committees doling out money or helping private industry sell things are preserved.
What isn't protected by this order is the vital work done by science advisory committees related to government decisionmaking that serves the public interest. The administration is throwing this all away.
More thoughts from my colleague @gennareed. This is arbitrary, inequitable, and dangerous. blog.ucsusa.org/genna-reed/tru…
