An Assault on Federal Science

Published in The New York Times, October 18, 2026

To the Editor:

Re “Science Agency Diverts Money Meant to Fund Basic Research” (news article, Oct. 4):

Your report that the National Science Foundation withheld $1.4 billion — 19 percent of its primary research budget — describes one part of a much larger assault on federal science.

In the first 18 months of President Trump’s second term, more than 10,000 scientists and health professionals with doctorates left federal service. Thousands of research grants that had survived peer review were terminated, suspended or delayed.

Scientific advisory committees were abolished or reconstituted; databases and observing programs were disrupted; foreign students and scholars faced new restrictions; and the United States withdrew from international scientific and public health efforts.

Some measures have been blocked by Congress or the courts. But the cumulative effect reaches far beyond any single budget.

American scientific leadership was built over decades on stable institutions, peer review, continuity and international cooperation. Once those foundations are weakened or dismantled, they cannot simply be restored by reversing a policy or replenishing a budget.

James Lawrence Powell
Buellton, Calif.
The writer is the author of “The Rise and Fall of Federal Science: From Jefferson’s Republic of Knowledge to Trump’s War on Science.”