Silent on science

Abstract

In his first address to Congress, President Donald J. Trump echoed many of the themes from his campaign: fighting terrorism, combatting crime, creating American jobs, and repealing the Affordable Care Act. Although the prime-time speech barely mentioned science, it hinted at how Trump’s Administration will approach some topics that are important to the chemical enterprise. Likely the most vital is the federal budget. Trump pledged “one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history.” The resulting boost in military funding would be matched with an equal cut in the nondefense budget, which includes almost all basic research spending. Earlier in the week, an Administration official suggested that cut could amount to 10%. Although the decrease might not be distributed equally among science agencies— EPA and the State Department were singled out to receive larger reductions—the idea still struck fear in scientists and educators. “We are deeply concerned