A strong and sustained U.S. investment in independent science has brought the nation significant economic progress, science-based public policy, and unequaled global scientific leadership. As the country faces extraordinary challenges in the coming years, a robust federal scientific work-force and public trust in government decision making are even more critical.

The federal government runs on vast amounts of information, and makes policy decisions every day that affect the health and well-being of all Americans. Although science is rarely the only factor driving public policy, scientific input should always be weighed from an impartial perspective. Unfortunately, numerous independent investigations have documented...

Federal scientists and researchers have endured widespread political interference in their scientific work over the past several years. The resolution of this systemic problem will require a sustained effort by President-elect Obama, the new agency heads, and the new Congress. In this chapter we outline concrete steps that should be taken to restore scientific integrity to federal policy making and to bring about a reliable and productive federal scientific enterprise. Specific recommendations are in bold lettering for easy reference. We also provide a summary of these recommendations at the end of the chapter as scientific integrity “checklists” for Congress, the...

Political interference in the work of federal scientists has become wide-spread over the past several years. The media, the Union of Concerned Scientists, other nongovernmental organizations, and whistle-blowers have exposed incidents of abuse at agencies throughout the federal government, at every point where scientific expertise enters the policy-making process. Manipulating science has become a widespread strategy for winning debates about government policies.

To catalog these abuses, the Union of Concerned Scientists launched its A-to-Z Guide to Political Interference in Science, a webpage that now documents more than 80 examples of political interference involving 24 federal agencies and departments. (See http://...

The political interference documented in Chapter 2 represents a systematic attempt to covertly influence policy by manipulating the scientific basis for decision making. This interference spans dozens of federal agencies and reaches into many venues where scientific expertise enters the policy-making process.

Even more troubling than the system-wide epidemic of interference are the many ways the Bush administration has tried to rewrite the rules to enshrine politicized science indefinitely. These changes represent an infection that has sunk into the marrow of government, which must be cured before science can again provide impartial information to policy makers and the public.

Many...