WASHINGTON (March 3, 2025)—Firing federal scientists and support staff, removing data from government websites, cutting scientific research funding, and eliminating collaborative opportunities by canceling scientific meetings and conferences. These are some of the examples of how the Trump administration has taken an axe to long-standing, non-partisan scientific institutions that do a wide range of important work, including developing treatments for diseases such as cancer and dementia, creating DNA analysis and forensic investigation methods for solving crime, and keeping our air and water clean.
Forty-eight scientific societies, associations and organizations, representing almost 100,000 scientists from diverse disciplines, have sent a letter, organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), to members of Congress demanding that they protect federally funded scientific research and federal scientists.
The letter is open so the number of signers may continue to grow.
“What we are seeing is unprecedented in the history of the United States,” said Melissa Varga, the senior manager of the UCS Science Network. “Scientists around the country have come together to demand that Congress fulfill its constitutional duty and intervene to preserve critical scientific research and the role of federal science agencies. The actions of this administration, many of which are illegal, will harm the U.S. public.”
"Those working in the fields represented by this letter are committed to serving the greater good, making Americans safer and healthier” says Rebecca Hufft, President of the Society of Conservation Biology North America, one of the scientific societies that signed the letter. “The uncertainty created by recent orders and threats to scientific integrity will have lasting impacts on both current and future generations of scientists. The wide range of disciplines united against these threats underscores how deeply these decisions affect every community in the country."
“If allowed to stand, the Trump administration’s actions will be devastating for the future of American science,” said UCS Science Network member David Shiffman, an interdisciplinary marine conservation biologist and American Elasmobranch Society board member who helped collect science society signatures for the letter. “That’s why organizations representing tens of thousands of scientists are speaking out to ask Congress to reverse Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s extreme and damaging cuts to federal research funding and scientific agency staff. Scientists across the United States, all of whom work every day to improve the lives of Americans, are united in our support for federally funded scientific research.”