Over six dozen groups on Friday demanded President Donald Trump rescind a June executive order directing federal agencies to cut a third of their advisory committees, saying the order threatens widespread harm.
“The value of our government’s federal advisory committee infrastructure cannot be overstated,” the groups wrote in their letter (pdf) to Trump.
When the president first issued the order, it was met with sharp criticism by experts who called it “an all-out assault on science” and an attack on independent advice. Monday marked the deadline for each agency to make the cuts.
The Hill reported this week on the first two known casualties: the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Interior Department’s Invasive Species Advisory Committee.
The signers of the new letter—77 groups and institutions representing diverse issues including the American Public Health Association, CREW, Georgetown University, the National LGBTQ Task Force, and the Union of Concerned Scientists—wrote that the administration’s stated cost-savings rationale doesn’t hold water.
The Trump-imposed cap of 350 committees—governmental bodies that debate issues “from the best way to minimize exposure to lead from drinking water to understanding how best to collect information as a part of the U.S. census”—also has no sound basis and does nothing to ensure science-based decisions, the letter stated.
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