Scientists Compare Obama to Bush

Science remains among many of America’s stickiest issues and many in the field are not happy with President Obama, who’s being attacked for putting political concerns before scientific research. Many charge that the Obama administration has not done enough to reverse a culture from the Bush years that allowed officials to get in the way of their important, if not essential, work. “We are getting complaints from government scientists now at the same rate we were during the Bush administration,” an activist lawyer told the Los Angeles Times. Among the complainers are water-quality experts, federal scientists, biologists, and oil and gas exploration teams. In March 2009, the president effectively set policy in a memorandum calling for scientific integrity standards, but many argue those have yet to fall into place. John P. Holdren, in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, disagrees. “There should not be any doubt that these principles have been in effect,” he said, adding that further “augmentation of these principles” will be on the way.