Can scientific staff at the US Department of the Interior rest easy knowing that their colleagues at other agencies have it worse when it comes to political interference?
Survey says: Nope.
Today the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released the results from their periodic survey of scientific professionals at federal agencies, and the results from the Department of Interior (DOI) are damning. Not only do the responses indicate plummeting morale, job satisfaction, and agency effectiveness, but politics is now being felt significantly at the US Geological Survey, a non-regulatory scientific bureau at DOI that has historically operated without substantial political interference. In all, concerns about political interference, censorship of politically contentious issues, and workforce reductions at DOI are higher than most other agencies.
The comments from the survey read like an organizational leadership seminar’s list of fatal flaws: Hostile workplace, check; fear of retaliation and discrimination, check; self-censorship, check; poor leadership, check; chronic understaffing, check. To make matters worse, the political leadership at Interior, led by Secretary Ryan Zinke, has a deserved reputation for barring career staff from decision-making processes.
In addition to the undue influence of political staff, the top concern from DOI scientific staff was lack of capacity. One respondent commented: “Many key positions remain unfulfilled, divisions are understaffed, and process has slowed to a crawl.”
As a former career civil servant at Interior I can attest to the plummeting morale at the agency—even before I resigned in October 2017 there was a pall over every office and bureau and career staff were feeling completely ignored by Trump administration officials. This led to some very bad decisions from Zinke, but that has not led to greater inclusion—in fact, team Zinke has continued to alienate career staff and seems to be betting that they will remain silent.
Some good investigative journalism and a lot of Freedom of Information Act disclosures have shown that only industry representatives get meetings with the top brass, decisions are made without input from career staff, censorship (especially of climate change related science) is on the upswing, science is routinely ignored or questioned, and expert advisory boards are being ignored, suspended, or disbanded.
All of this adds up to an agency that is being intentionally hollowed out, with consequences for American health and safety and for our nation’s treasured lands and wildlife. Americans are clamoring for more information on how their businesses, lands, and communities can address the climate impacts they see all year round—but DOI scientists responding to the survey pointed to how Zinke is slowly shutting down the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC) that deliver that information. Congress provided Zinke with the money to keep growing the LCC’s, but he continues to let them wither on the vine just as they are providing important and timely support for communities in need...MORE
A big THANK YOU to the Union of Concerned Scientists for providing all the good news contained in this release
3 comments:
The article says that "Americans are clamoring for more information on global warming". Baloney and used oats!! Americans are clamoring for honest government, jobs, security for our borders, and safety in our towns and cities. God controls global warming, not man. But man is tasked with providing order. The global activists are not tasked with anything but running off their mouths about fake science and trying to tear down this country by killing the economic engine which makes us great. MAGA get out and VOTE!
Joel Clement was a mandarin in a professional-political managerial class known as the Senior Executive Service where "political savviness" was a core competency on which his performance would have been rated. He enjoyed all the trappings of office and the jet setting that went along with his efforts at the climate change establishment that started a couple of decades ago as a small office in the Department of Commerce. He was reassigned under the principles of the SES program from his beloved cause to a more mundane but equally important function of managing the accounting of mineral revenues. He objected on the grounds that this was not his area of desired expertise. If he wanted to stay a technical specialist, he should have given up the trappings of a mandarin and stayed a senior scientist. SES prizes managerial skill and effectiveness, a quality that transcends narrow technical specialties.
We scientists and technocrats faced the same fear under the Obama Administration and Clinton Administration. In government, the best science is the science that supports the decisions the administration wants to make. Misuse and abuse of science is a bipartisan affair. The only sphere in which science properly decided outcomes is when there is agreement on means and ends. How often does that happen?
Thank you for the great comments.
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