Proposed rule could gut American science, Penn researcher warns

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/neuroscience-research-funding-dementia-genetics--20260709.html


The Trump administration is seeking not only to cut research funding, but to give political appointees veto power over how and what kinds of scientific study are permissible.

On May 29, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB)published a 100-page proposed rule that would fundamentally restructure how the federal government administers research grants. The comment period closes July 13.

Most Americans have never heard of it. That needs to change.

The rule has several alarming impacts. For instance, it would allow political appointees to override scientific peer review in grant decisions, upending the meritocratic, rigorous system that has pushed American science forward since World War II.
Perhaps most critically, it would permit the government to terminate any active federal grant at any time, for any reason — including the vague, undefined justification that a study is no longer in the “national interest.”

Furthermore, it would effectively ban federal funding for research into health disparities across racial populations, with a stated exception so narrow it is meaningless in practice.

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The ban on research into racial disparities will compound this harm. Black Americans are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at roughly twice the rate of white Americans
. Population differences in disease risk, progression, and biomarkers are not ideological claims, but instead are observed, replicated findings in the scientific literature.