US President Donald Trump released his 2018 budget proposal and there's one conclusion that can be drawn: that Science & Research and Trump do not exactly fit. Deep cuts of budgets were made to several scientific research agencies. Scientists are outraged that it shows his administration has no strategy to fund science.
The science agencies that will apparently receive the cuts are National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Institutes of Health, US Geological Survey, and the Department of Energy, Science Mag reported. Not only does the Trump administration neglect to give priority to science & research, the proposed budget also revealed nothing about spending on the National Science Foundation, US Department of Agriculture, and National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Christine McEntee from the American Geophysical Union says this is a regression for scientific progress. This was echoed by Darrell Kirch from the Association of American Medical Colleges who said the unprecedented budget cuts will cripple US biomedical research, which is currently giving hope to all.
In line with the cut on science & research, the Trump administration's 2018 budget proposal will axe four space missions from NASA, Space reported. If the federal budget request makes its way into law, projects DSCOVR, CLARREO Pathfinder, the OCO-3 experiment, and the PACE satellite will be shut down. These projects are geared toward studying the world's climate, confirming fears that Trump truly intends to eliminate NASA's climate change research.
Not only that, the cut budget will also cancel the Asteroid Redirect Mission, a robotic probe and Earth's last hope if ever an asteroid hits the planet. Although the budget is still in its proposal stage and has to be approved by Congress, many people from the science community fear about the outcome of this budget cut.
The worst part is this decision was arrived to without being opined by a presidential science adviser appointee. Trump has yet to fill that vacant spot. If he does then science & research and Trump would finally fit.
