NSF, National Science Board, and the politics of staying quiet

As I mentioned previously, the National Science Board was summarily fired on April 25.  The NSB nominally advises the National Science Foundation.  There have been a number of pieces written about this:

• Going back in time to 2022, this essay is interesting to read, about the history of the NSF and the NSB, and the compromises put in place with the administrative structure.  Short version: Initially there was a real tension between the Director (reporting to the President) and the NSB.  Over time, the NSB was made subordinate to the director (1968).  Senatorial confirmation of board members was waived by the Senate in 2011.  
• Many professional organizations issued statements expressing grave concern about this wholesale dismissal of the board.  This AIP news article has a summary.  The CEO of the APS wrote this, the ACS leadership wrote this, the AAS wrote this, etc.
• The presidents of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Medicine issued this joint statement.  That has to set some kind of record for blandness, as it somehow does not even mention that the NSB was fired.  I fully understand that the Academies have a number of federal contracts, as one of their key responsibilities is leveraging their membership to do authoritative studies, with federal agencies usually being the customers.  I have no inside knowledge, but it sure looks like they are trying to walk a line of not raising the administration's ire.  (Surely this raises the question:  If it's never acceptable to say anything that might upset the administration, then how can the objectivity of their reports relating to policy ever be trusted?)
• In contrast to the leadership, a lot of Academy membership has signed an open letter to Congress demanding the reinstatement of the board.
• Scientific American has very good reporting on this, including a no-holding-back statement by my colleague Neal Lane.
• Update:  Here is Dan Garisto's reporting in Science about letters sent by House Democrats and by Senate Democrats demanding action on this.  That article includes a statement by the fired head of the NSB, basically saying they were dismissed for defending the NSF budget from OMB.  I'm glad these letters were sent, but without the R majority signing on, I'm not holding my breath.

Meanwhile, the pace of NSF awards continues to be glacial, even compared to last year.  See this plot from Grant Witness. 

We are 7 months into the fiscal year, and obligated dollars are less than half at this time last year, and more like 27% of those at this time in "normal" year.  It's hard to look at that and not wonder whether someone is aiming for a pocket rescission, regardless of what Congress appropriated.  NSF looks like an outlier here, by the way.  As badly hit as NIH has been, their award curves look much closer to last year.

Other related things worth reading:  

• This is a sobering and interesting article about what the author describes as the anti-science movement.
• When is staying quiet effectively giving tacit support to administration policies?  There is an article in The Nation (not readable without a free signup) talking about what they term "Vichy Science".
• Update:  Essay by Holden Thorp, EIC of Science, including a link to a half-hour interview with Tim Snyder, author of "On Tyranny", about how resistance can work.  

Back to science in my next post.