Just a week after his inauguration nearly two years ago, President Joe Biden issued an all-agency directive to strengthen the scientific integrity policies commissioned under former President Barack Obama and that had proven to be utterly ineffectual during the “alternative facts” tenure of President Donald Trump.
Biden’s directive laid out an elaborate process overseen by his White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) that has already fallen months behind schedule.
This January 12th, OSTP unveiled its “Framework for Federal Scientific Integrity Policy and Practice” to guide some 30 separate federal agencies into toughening their scientific integrity rules. Agencies are now slated to submit “updated” draft policies to OSTP within two months and provide for “public input” within six months as part of an iterative process that is supposed to culminate in the adoption of new policies within the year.