OMB Proposal Is the Latest Salvo in Trump’s War on Science

The White House Office of Management and Budget's new 412-page proposal to transfer core decisions on federal research funding from qualified scientific experts to political appointees weaponizes the federal bureaucracy in order to further the Trump administration's authoritarian control of scientific research. By stripping nonpartisan peer review and prioritizing ideological compliance over scientific integrity, this proposal would make federally funded research less reliable, less responsive to public needs, and more susceptible to censorship and manipulation. The proposal would allow politicians to cut research funding for reasons entirely unrelated to the science in question.

Independent and objective peer review is the foundation of the postwar American research system that sparked an unprecedented era of world-altering technological advancement. By prioritizing scientific merit over political favor, this system launched innovations that revolutionized global progress, public health, and human welfare and drove US economic expansion.

Forcing political allegiance that explicitly ignores scientific consensus will create a public research crisis. Disruptions of funding for biomedical, climate resiliency, and other critical research will hurt all of us, in red states and blue. The politicization of research funding will impact treatments for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and a myriad of other public health concerns and undermine the scientific and technological research that drives regional and state economies.

The AAUP and AFT are working to strengthen our colleges and universities and ensure that research continues to truly serve the public and is free from political interference and censorship. We urge the scientific community, university leaders, business leaders, and the public to fiercely resist this attempt to coerce the American scientific research sector.

Public comments on the OMB's proposed Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance can be submitted here and will be accepted until July 13, 2026. We encourage AAUP and AFT members, as well as everyone who cares about US science and research, to contribute a comment.