[EAS] Policy-Making Integrity

[pjk]

Subject:   Policy-Making Integrity

(from APS What's New, by Bob Park)
 Friday, Feb. 20, 2004)

POLITICAL SCIENCE: SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY IN THE ADMINISTRATION.
A statement issued Wednesday by a group of prominent scientists
charged the administration with manipulating the science advisory
process to support its political objectives: advisory panels are
stacked; those that canÕt be stacked are disbanded; reports that
donÕt reach the right conclusion are suppressed; and questionable
policies are shielded from scientific review. Specific examples are
in a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, released at the
same time, "Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An Investigation
into the Bush AdministrationÕs Misuse of Science." The statement was
signed by more than 60 prominent scientists, including 20 Nobel
laureates. The administration response was to trivialize the issue.
"I think there are incidents where people have got their feathers
ruffled," sniffed John Marburger, science advisor to the President,
quoted by the New York Times. 

see <http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/rsi/report.html> for
the Union of Concerned Scientists report.  --PJK