Scientists warn U.S. science funding proposal echoes Soviet-era political interference
16 reported
A proposed rule change from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget would allow political appointees to oversee federal research funding decisions traditionally made by scientists, according to a report from Science News. The proposal has drawn comparisons to the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, where political interference in science led to disastrous agricultural policies and lost scientific progress. The OMB’s more than 400-page proposed rule would let political appointees decide how to distribute federal research funds, cut international collaboration, restrict scientists’ communication, and prevent research deemed “not in the national interest” by the Trump administration. The science advocacy group Stand Up for Science Foundation called the proposal “a sweeping threat to federal grantmaking.” The public comment period closes July 13, after which OMB will decide whether to keep, revise, or scrap the rule.
What’s reported
The OMB proposed rule change would let political appointees decide how to hand out federal research funds and who can get them.
It would cut funding for collaboration with scientists in other countries and restrict scientists’ ability to communicate findings.
It could prevent research on matters deemed “not in the national interest,” such as studies on health disparities, mRNA-based vaccines, and research that doesn’t recognize biological sex as a strict binary.
The proposal would also give OMB power to rescind previously approved research funds.
The federal government has funded about 40 percent of basic science research in the United States in recent years.
OMB has received more than 98,000 comments on the proposal; the public comment period closes July 13.
The editorial board of The New England Journal of Medicine wrote in June that “a similar threat now hangs over U.S. science,” drawing parallels to the Soviet Union under Stalin.
The article cites the example of Trofim Lysenko, an agronomist who rose to power in the 1930s Soviet Union under Stalin and promoted scientifically unsound farming practices.
Lysenko’s methods led to crop losses and millions starving; Mendelian genetics was branded a “whore of capitalism,” and geneticists were jailed or executed.
The Soviet Union lost its scientific leadership role and missed discoveries like hybrid corn, DNA, and molecular biology.
Biochemist and Nobel laureate Katalin Karikó, who grew up in Hungary, said she learned there was a difference between truth and the official government position.
The Trump administration pulled funds for research on mRNA therapies for cancer, genetic disorders, and vaccines against infectious diseases.
At the CDC, firings gutted much of the public health workforce, and funding cuts hampered responses to measles outbreaks.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. personally asked CDC to halt spending on its flu vaccine campaign.
Former NIH program official Elizabeth Ginexi wrote that NIH canceled at least 110 funding announcements from January 2025 to May 2026.
There have been calls to jail former NIAID head Anthony Fauci for actions he took while in office.
Key figures
Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union
Trofim Lysenko, Soviet agronomist
Lee Dugatkin, evolutionary biologist and historian of science at the University of Louisville
Michael Gordin, historian of science at Princeton University
Katalin Karikó, biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services
Elizabeth Ginexi, former NIH program official
Anthony Fauci, former head of NIAID
Sources: sciencenews.org
