Washington, DC — Without public notice or comment, the Interior Department has just finalized a new Scientific Integrity Policy purported to prevent political manipulation or suppression of agency science. Unfortunately, after three years in development, the latest policy resembles Interior’s prior policy, which does not allow independent or public review of complaints or how they are handled, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). 

Quietly posted on its website, Interior’s new policy became effective August 20, 2024, following a multi-year internal gestation. The new policy requires each Interior bureau (National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey, etc.) to appoint “a career staff person” to serve as Scientific Integrity Officer to handle all aspects of “processing” violations, who: 

• Has unfettered discretion to block an official inquiry into any complaint subject to no appeal or other external review. In the past, Interior has declined to even open investigations into matters deemed politically sensitive; 

• Is not required to consult or otherwise utilize subject matter experts, and has total freedom in determining how inquiries are conducted; and 

• Is required to keep all aspects of the case confidential. Afterward, only “a brief summary” will be posted on Interior’s website, which “shall not divulge identities of complainant(s), witnesses, subjects” except the fiscal year, the agency involved, and an “anonymized” description of the allegation “and the determination.” 

Ironically, this effort sprung from a 2021 directive by newly inaugurated President Biden to “restore trust” in government science following the tumultuous Trump years.  

“Restoring public trust in government science is not well served by the complete lack of transparency in Interior’s new policy,” stated Pacific PEER Director Jeff Ruch, who has provided legal assistance to federal scientists on integrity issues for more than 30 years. “This new policy appears crafted to promote bureaucratic self-protection over scientific integrity.”  

Ten years ago, shortly before Christmas 2014, again without public notice or comment, Interior gutted its original scientific integrity policy, which required review panels of independent experts to adjudicate integrity complaints. That hearing process resulted in findings sustaining scientist charges against agency managers. Those outcomes constituted intolerable successes, leading to that policy’s abrupt abandonment.  

Among the other safeguards swept away in 2014 was the ability of review panels to recommend discipline against miscreant managers. Similarly, the new policy bars the Scientific Integrity Officer from recommending “personnel actions” in their findings. This increases the likelihood that guilty managers will escape any punishment for violating the policy. 

“In the past decade, no Interior manager or political appointee has been found guilty of, let alone punished for, a breach of scientific integrity,” Ruch added. “This new policy is designed to keep this string of collective blamelessness intact.” 

Interior’s policy does have some positive new provisions about the ability of its scientists to publish, give media interviews, and file “differing scientific opinions.”  However, these are not self-executing and require each bureau to adopt their own implementing procedures later. 

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View Interior’s new Scientific Integrity Policy

Read more detail about PEER concerns

Recall President Biden’s call to restore public trust in government science

Examine how new policy repeats mistakes of past failures

Revisit Interior gutting its Scientific Integrity Policy a decade ago

See how original Interior policy nailed corrupt managers