Trump’s proposed controls over federal spending will do more harm than good

Earlier this year, the White House Office of Management and Budget posted a new proposed rule: regulation for federal financial assistance which, if enacted, would provide oversight on how federal agencies allocate federal dollars for research projects.  

Numerous agencies would be affected, including the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. This has created angst among academic institutions and researchers who receive funds from these agencies, potentially diminishing opportunities for government funding, limiting what the money can be used for and letting it be terminated with little prior notice.

The 108-page PDF document contains more than 100,000 words, around the same number as the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. This means that it is highly unlikely that anyone, including those most affected by the proposed rule, will take the time to read the entire document. As of July 6, one week before the July 13 deadline, more than 80,000 comments had been received. Many expressed concern with the ideological oversight of the federal research funding review process. Others expressed their support for government spending being reeled in.

With nearly $40 trillion in national debt, it is imperative that taxpayer dollars be used responsibly, including funds allocated for research support. I learned this not only when receiving government funding from the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to support my own research program, but also when serving as a program officer earlier in my career, making decisions about how research funds should be dispersed and invested.

Instead of getting into the weeds of the proposed rule, it would be useful to better understand........

© The Hill