Over a span of two decades, a federal scientific integrity apparatus was built, improved, and stress-tested to protect federal science activities from political interference, safeguard the freedom and independence of federal scientists, and allow the U.S. science and technology enterprise to thrive. Federal agencies established scientific integrity policies, installed officials to oversee the application of these agency safeguards, and built a culture of scientific integrity through training, integration, process, and policy. But the second Trump administration has laid bare the vulnerability of that apparatus to a hostile administration uninterested in respecting law, process, and science in government. These past efforts on scientific integrity provide key insights for creating something not only more durable but also reimagined to play a key role in protecting democratic principles and combatting corruption.

Across recent decades, much has been learned about system vulnerabilities that can be exploited by political actors interested in weaponizing science for public harm or private gain. Several key challenges are apparent.

Authority versus politicization risk. Who should hold the authority on matters of scientific integrity and where should that person be positioned within agencies? Placing a scientific integrity officer in a research office places them close to the scientific activities they oversee and farther from political appointees who may seek to inappropriately influence science activities. But this positioning can be removed from policy matters and removed from the level of authority necessary to adequately oversee scientific integrity across an agency or department. By contrast, placing scientific integrity authority closer to the political level, such as designating scientific integrity authority to a politically appointed chief scientist will instill more authority for matters of scientific integrity, but relies on a good-faith actor in that role. In either case, what happens when it is the political heads of agencies who are accused of scientific integrity violations? A scientific integrity official may not feel empowered to act.

Blurred lines between science and policy decisions. While it is a clear violation of scientific integrity when a political appointee changes a number on a scientific report to achieve more politically convenient math, or when a scientist is muzzled from speaking about a politically sensitive finding, many scientific integrity challenges occur at the science and policy interface—places where it can be unclear what is a scientific decision and what can and should be a political decision. How can the public discern whether scientific integrity was compromised if this distinction is blurred? This lack of transparency in science policy processes can make it easier for political actors to interfere with science for political purposes. 

The challenge of durability. The second Trump administration has made abundantly clear the need for mechanisms and authorities that sustain scientific integrity across administrations, even in hostile environments. In a single executive order on May 23, 2025, the Trump administration erased much of the progress that was made under the Biden administration on scientific integrity. While some agencies have persisted, the president’s move made apparent how vulnerable the entire apparatus was to a president uninterested in the project of respecting science in government. 

Future scientific integrity efforts must be different. They must be stronger. They must be more integrated into federal activities and authorities. And we know the formula: Reimagined scientific integrity infrastructure in the executive branch must have transparency, independence, and authority.

1. Transparency

First, there must be greater commitment to transparency in the process by which science informs decisions across the government. One opportunity is to allow the public to submit allegations of scientific integrity violations and for those submissions to be publicly posted. This would allow the public to see where challenges may exist and provides an avenue for public interest groups, watchdogs, and members of the public to raise concerns. Such a system would also create external support and political cover for scientific integrity officials to investigate matters of high public interest, even if these matters are politically inconvenient to agency leaders or involve senior agency leadership, because there would be public pressure and an opportunity for accountability.

We can also require public reporting on scientific integrity. This was a requirement under the Biden-era scientific integrity framework but could be made stronger by linking scientific integrity reporting to congressionally mandated reporting, requiring reporting in the context of agency budget requests, or other “built-in” processes. Such transparency and integration in public reporting requirements would allow for more cross-agency assessments and trend discernment that can inform future improvements. Seeing how agencies compare can allow for healthy competition and improvement across administrations and provide additional scrutiny and support for underperforming agencies where scientific Integrity issues persist. To facilitate such transparency and cross-agency coordination over future administrations, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Scientific Integrity could be codified into law, the way some other subcomponents of NSTC are.

2. Independence

The independence of federal science activities is critical, both for the US science enterprise itself to thrive and for science activities to play their critical role in our federal system of checks and balances. Government scientists collect and share data critical for the nation, speak out when scientific information is misused and ignored for public harm or private gain, counter disinformation from political leaders, and ensure scientific truth reaches the public. But those functions only happen when the independence of federal science is preserved and government scientists feel empowered to do their jobs freely.

This can be achieved when career civil servants’ jobs are protected and mechanisms for clear distinctions between science and policy are developed and enforced. In laws like the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act where provisions require decisions based on science, it is publicly known where the science ends and the policy decisions begin. But many decisions do not have this clear delineation either in agency structure or law, so scientific integrity must be safeguarded through other mechanisms of separation.

Federal statistical agencies, for example, have clear practices and protocols that buffer data collection and publication from political influence. These mechanisms could be expanded to other federal science activities and agencies, such that science and scientists are better protected from political influences, and federal employees are empowered to freely speak up, push back, and serve as guardians of the science and truth. Such measures to enhance the independence of federal science also combat corruption, because they allow federal science and scientists to share reliable data and scientific truth, even when political actors seek to obscure it. Federal scientists, in other words, keep the score.

3. Authority

For scientific integrity policies and practices to be recognized and enforced across the government, they must be governed by officials with a necessary weight of authority. One way to achieve this is to integrate scientific integrity infrastructure within other existing federal authorities and processes. Such integration would have several benefits. It would put the responsibility of shepherding scientific integrity into the hands of more senior officials. This would help sustain scientific integrity infrastructure across administrations, because the principles and practices would be ingrained across more people and processes throughout the government. Across the U.S. science and technology landscape, there are several key actors that could have expanded roles on scientific integrity, such as the comptroller general; the Government Accountability Office; inspectors general; the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; the National Academy of Public Administration; the National Archives and Records Administration; and the Office of Special Counsel.

Codifying such roles in federal law, such as the Scientific Integrity Act introduced in the 119th Congress, is a key strategy for achieving integration with aligned and authoritative institutions. The Scientific Integrity Act would require federal agencies that fund or conduct research to adopt and enforce scientific integrity policies, helping protect federal science from political interference and ensuring that research findings are not suppressed, distorted, or manipulated. Enacting legislation of this kind would be an important step toward building a more durable scientific integrity infrastructure that can withstand changes in administrations while strengthening transparency, accountability, and public trust in government science.

Creating and implementing mechanisms that adhere to this framework of transparency, independence, and authority across the executive branch will ensure not only that the US science and technology enterprise can thrive, but also that any scientific integrity infrastructure provides anti-corruption measures and bolsters the nation’s democratic processes and institutions.