Scientific Integrity at Issue

A new high-profile group is launching the first major nonpartisan effort to study how the U.S. government ought to use scientific information to make decisions. “We will be looking at what policymakers can do that is legitimate and what is beyond the pale,” says David Goldston, an organizer for the 13-member panel and former staff director for the U.S. House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee. He says the group is not trying to “to dissect what the Bush Administration has done right or wrong.” Instead, it will examine federal advisory boards, conflict-of-interest policies, and what role scientists should play in decisions by regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency. The panel includes former Bush Administration officials, former House Science Chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), and the president of the left-leaning Union of Concerned Scientists, which has criticized the Bush Administration for alleged political meddling in federal science. The group hopes to release its report in June.