There isn't anything new about politics interfering in science, but during the last several years of the Bush administration we have witnessed a brazen disregard for science unprecedented in recent memory.  We began our "Restoring Integrity in Science" Campaign about two years ago to shed light on the increasingly aggressive suppression and manipulation of science at the U.S. Department of the Interior, to fix the politically motivated decisions, and to create better buffers protecting science from political interference.  In partnership with several other organizations around the country, we broke the story in a Washington Post expose back in October.  This led to an Inspector General investigation corroborating the Washington Post claims.  The political appointee responsible for much of the mischief, Julie MacDonald, resigned.  Congressional hearings followed the Inspector General investigation (and continue to this day).  Key Congressional leaders are demanding that the Secretary of the Interior undertake genuine reforms (not the whitewash proposal he announced in June).  And we are seeing important bills introduced in Congress that would help protect science from politics.

Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) announced plans last week to introduce just such a bill.  The "Transparent Reporting Under ESA Listing Act" is intended to require an account of agency employees' involvement and opinions on listing decisions.  The idea is to make sure that the scientists' voices are heard even when politics intervenes.  We haven't seen the bill and so haven't been able to assess how effective it will be, but the goal is laudable.  We look forward to seeing this and other similar bills introduced, an energetic discussion on Capital Hill about the best ways to protect science from politics at the Department of Interior and elsewhere in the federal government, and passage of a good package of bills before the Congressional session ends.