The Trump Administration’s Three-Pronged Attack to Dismantle NSF (6/30)

Over the past month, the never-ending barrage toward dismantling science continues. The Trump Administration has committed to dismantling science by cutting NSF’s budget, OMB's attempt to propose a new rule that will reshape how scientific grants are evaluated, and the erosion of reasonable accommodation protections for federal employees — are not isolated policy decisions. Together, they form a coordinated effort to dismantle American scientific infrastructure from the inside out. 

Attack #1: Defunding the Engine of Discovery 

The Trump Administration's proposed NSF budget cuts strike at the most fundamental level: money. NSF represents a modest share of the federal budget but delivers an outsized return on America's investment by funding basic research, STEM education, and scientific breakthroughs that advance national health, prosperity, welfare, and security. Cutting this funding doesn't just slow science. For 76 years,   

Attack #2: Corrupting How Science Gets Funded 

OMB's recent attempt to reshape how scientific grants are evaluated is subtler but equally dangerous. When political criteria are introduced into the peer review process, the credibility of American science erodes from within. This is how you discredit an institution without shutting it down by changing the rules, so the work it produces can be questioned, dismissed, or redirected to serve ideological ends rather than the pursuit of knowledge. 

Attack #3: Intimidating the Federal Workforce Who Make Science Possible 

The third front is the most insidious: undermining reasonable accommodation protections for federal employees with disabilities. Under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, these accommodations are not perks — they are legal rights that allow talented public servants to continue contributing their expertise. Forcing employees to re-prove previously approved accommodations, or making those protections unnecessarily difficult to access, is a mechanism for attrition. It pushes experienced scientists, program officers, and administrators out of public service without the political liability of firing them directly. 

When these federal servants leave, they take decades of institutional knowledge, ongoing research relationships, and the capacity to run the grant review processes that keep NSF functioning. The agency doesn't need to be abolished if it can be quietly hollowed out. 

What a Dismantled NSF Looks Like 

• Slowed scientific discovery and stalled innovation 

• Weakened STEM education and a shrinking pipeline of future researchers 

• Critical gaps in research programs and grant administration 

• A diminished United States standing in global science and technology leadership 

• Closed doors for the next generation of scientists 

Defending science means seeing these attacks for what they are — not separate policy disagreements, but a strategy. Save NSF calls on policymakers, civil servants, and you to protect federal employees' rights, defend the integrity of grant evaluation, and restore full funding to the institution that has powered American discovery for more than seven decades. 

The people who make science possible deserve protection. So does the science itself.