In a separate post, I shared the comment I wrote on the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed revisions to the Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance. Here I am sharing the resources I used to write that comment.
First of all, Grace Lindsay has written a very clear summary in plain language, here, of why everyone should care about these proposed revisions, and how you can write a comment.
Second, I found this page from the Planetary Society most helpful when writing. The page is a tool that provides a “track changes” like comparison of the various sections before and after revisions, so you can easily see what actually changed. I also find it very helpful that they have a top-level summaries broken out into categories of changes, with each category tied to specific rules. I found that page through this post by Julie Lowndes on the Openscapes blog.
Third, Dr. Elizabeth Ginexi, a former NIH Program Official, has a series of blog posts that are a good read for any scientist to get a visceral sense of the impact these changes would have, not just on federally-funded scientific research but on all federally-funded programs She also has a post that is more of a call to action with specific instructions here. And if you find it easier to listen than to read, you might find it helpful to watch this video of a Stand Up for Science meeting that included Dr. Ginexi among the speakers.
And just to give more of a sense of the range of scientists raising alarms about these changes, let me close with this editorial in the American Diabetes Assocation journal Diabetes Care. Some of the same authors wrote another editorial critical of the Trump administration, and were ejected from an ADA conference for distributing paper copies of the editorial, as reported in Science, here
I never thought I’d say I’m outraged by changes to federal regulations, but here I am: I’m outraged by OMB’s proposed revisions to guidelines for federal funding. I’m using the term outraged because I have been reading Somebody Should Do Something, and outrage is one of the motivating factors that the authors identify as key to pushibng people over the tipping point from inaction to direct action. Well then, I’m outraged, and I’m doing my little part to take action. I hope you find some of these links helpful.