Trump Administration Proposes New Rules for Federal Grants

U.S. zebrafish researchers should be aware of planned rule changes for how federal grants are to be administered, that will take effect this year. On May 29th, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) submitted a detailed plan for the future of grants administration in this country, that includes increased political oversight to ensure that grants match administration policies and priorities. According to the rules, grants can only be awarded after review by senior administration appointees, with peer review only serving an advisory role. Grants can be terminated at any point and for any reason, including unspecified “questionable activities” on the part of the researcher not limited to established scientific transgressions like plagiarism or data falsification. The new rules will also disallow the use of grant dollars for publication costs, conference attendance, professional society memberships, journal subscriptions or international collaborations without specific, advance agency approval.  

At best, these new rules will impede and isolate the U.S. scientific research progress; at worst they will halt it altogether. The new rules can be enacted without congressional approval. The only opportunity to oppose them is through public comment here. The Comment Period ends July 13th at 11:59 EDT. Your comments, which you can choose to make anonymously, will immediately become part of the public record. Over 7,000 comments have already been submitted as of June 5th. U.S. members of the IZFS should all take the time to write and submit a public comment, because if they take effect, these rules will negatively impact all of us. Comments should be in your own words, since duplicated text will only be counted once. Finally, once you have submitted your comments, please also take a moment to share them with your local and state representatives who also need to know about your opposition. 

Cecilia Moens, IZFS president

Further reading:

Opinion from former NIH Program officer Elizabeth Ginexi on how the proposed rule changes will affect U.S. Science can be found here. 

A June 2nd New York Times article on the proposed rule changes.