A group of GOP Senators are calling on the inspector general of the National Science Foundation to probe whether the foundation “issued several grants which seek to influence political and social debate rather than conduct scientific research.”
The lawmakers — Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and James Lankford of Oklahoma — pointed to more than $4 million dollars the foundation doled out to grants entitled “Enabling TV Meteorologists to Provide Viewers with Climate Change-related Science Education Based on ISE ‘Best Practices,’” and “TV Weathercasters and Climate Education: Expanding the Reach of Climate Matters.”
The lawmakers said in a letter to National Science Foundation Inspector General Allison Lerner that it was “troubling that the specific objective of converting meteorologists to a climate-action-oriented opinion was to show them how an unknowledgeable citizenry would be more easily convinced of the same belief.”
Additionally, the lawmakers identified $369,480 that was awarded “to study political engagement around social justice issues by a vanguard of engineers and to investigate how their dissent — be it expressed as activism, advocacy, protest, or reform — shapes the culture of their profession.”
As a result, the senators urged Lerner to launch an investigation to learn if funding for the grants is considered “engagement in political activity using government resources,” if issuing the grants violated the Hatch Act, if any wrongdoing was committed as part of issuing the grants, and if other grants have been given with the intent of advancing “political advocacy positions.”
“Research designed to sway individuals of a various group, be they meteorologists or engineers, to a politically contentious viewpoint is not science — it is propagandizing. Such efforts certainly fail to meet the standard of scientific research to which the NSF should be devoting federal taxpayer dollars,” the senators wrote.
