Nearly 150 employees at the National Science Foundation signed a petition this week denouncing President Donald Trump and his administration for what they said was rampant “politicization and abuse” across scientific agencies.
It was just the latest salvo in an ongoing mutiny across multiple federal scientific research agencies. Similar letters have been sent from employees at the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as a dispatch this week from scientists at NASA titled, “The NASA Voyager Declaration.”
“The sweeping and sudden termination of hundreds of NSF employees this year, including senior staff and those managing Congressionally mandated programs, was not only damaging to the agency’s functioning but appears to violate the letter and spirit of title 5, the body of law establishing the professional, apolitical civil service,” the letter reads. “And is, we would argue, an unlawful impoundment of funds appropriated by Congress to advance American scientific research.”