ROADMAP FOR SCIENCE IN DECISIONMAKING

The Union of Concerned Scientists and UCI Law propose a framework to safeguard federal science from political, ideological, and financial influences. The roadmap focuses on reforming political appointments, strengthening the peer-review process, ensuring the balance of federal advisory committees, and preserving the independence of Offices of Inspector General.

• Political appointments in the Trump administration frequently involved conflicts of interest, specifically within the Department of the Interior (DOI), where officials with previous fossil fuel industry lobbying ties held powerful positions.
• The authors recommend strict recusal and disclosure rules for political appointees, including a two-year ban on participating in decisions involving former employers or clients and a ban on lobbying their former agencies for at least two years after leaving service.
• To ensure impartial advice, the document suggests that the president should appoint a respected scientist as science advisor, nominate a director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and require all science agencies to have a chief science officer.
• The peer-review process for scientific assessments should be protected by barring individuals with financial ties to affected entities and requiring that at least one external peer reviewer be used whenever possible.
• Federal advisory committees (FACs), particularly at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have been compromised by the appointment of individuals lacking relevant expertise or possessing clear conflicts of interest, such as the appointment of Louis Anthony Cox Jr. to the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).
• The independence of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) is critical for ethics enforcement, but it has been undermined by the removal of Senate-confirmed inspectors general and the use of unqualified acting officials.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2020). ROADMAP FOR SCIENCE IN DECISIONMAKING. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/conflicts-of-interest-at-federal-agencies.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. ROADMAP FOR SCIENCE IN DECISIONMAKING. 2020. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/conflicts-of-interest-at-federal-agencies.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=ROADMAP FOR SCIENCE IN DECISIONMAKING |date=September 2020 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/conflicts-of-interest-at-federal-agencies.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2020roadmap, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{ROADMAP FOR SCIENCE IN DECISIONMAKING}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2020}, month = sep, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/conflicts-of-interest-at-federal-agencies.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }