President Donald Trump joins Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
However, the full impact of the lockdown and the Trump administration's broader attacks on science for the US international competitiveness, economic security, And electoral politics may take years to materialize.
Parallel sharp drop in the recruitment of foreign students, financial difficulty faced by research institutions, and research safety Measures to limit foreign interference create an uncertain future for American higher education.
With neither the White House nor Congress showing signs of reaching a budget agreement, Trump continues test the limits of executive powerrethinking the law – or just ignoring it.
Earlier in October Trump unspent research funding redirected pay furloughed service members before they miss pay on Oct. 15. The change in appropriations directly challenges the authority granted to Congress, not the President, to control federal spending.
White House promise firing another 10,000 civil servants during quarantine is a threat withhold arrears of wages from laid-off workers and a desire to end any programs with expired funding.”does not meet the president's prioritiesWe will similarly take steps to expand presidential power.
Here the damage to science can snowball. If Trump and Vought strip Congress of sufficient power by making funding decisions or closing government agencies, we will see an untold number of research funds confiscated, revoked, or repurposed over the next three years.
The government shutdown has left many of the laboratories where federal scientists worked empty. Combined with other actions by the Trump administration, even more scientists could continue to lose funding.
Photo: Monty Rakusen/DigitalVision via Getty Images
The government shutdown has left many of the laboratories where federal scientists worked empty. Combined with other actions by the Trump administration, even more scientists could continue to lose funding.
Photo: Monty Rakusen/DigitalVision via Getty Images
Science, democracy and global competition
While technology has been serving for a long time As the main pillar of national and economic security, science has only recently reappeared as a key factor in broader geopolitical and cultural changes.
China extraordinary rise in science over the past three decades and its emergence as main technological competitor has upended conventional wisdom that innovation can only flourish in liberal democracies.
White House centralization efforts receiving federal grants, limit freedom of speech, erase public data, And expand surveillance reflect China's successful strategy to build scientific capacity and suppress dissent.
With the shape of the Trump administration's vision of American science in the spotlight, it remains unclear whether, post-lockdown, it will be able to surpass China's lead.
Kenneth M. Evans is a fellow in science, technology and innovation policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University.
This article has been republished from Talk under Creative Commons license. Read original article.
