As the partial government shutdown drags into its fourth week, impacts to science are starting to accumulate. Some of the scientific agencies being affected are the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The U.S. government funds billions of dollars in basic scientific research each year. In 2018, NSF gave out about $42 million in grants during the first week of January, alone, but has not been able to give out any this year. This causes havoc for University researchers, including postdoc fellows who are not being paid.
NOAA’s National Weather Service employees have been deemed essential due to the importance of updated weather forecasts; engineering and technical staff, along with forecasters at national and local weather centers, remain on the job. However, these forecasts may not be as good. Weather forecasts rely on models and techniques, and the research and tweaks that are normally being done to refine and improve these models has been halted by the shutdown. NOAA’s closure also has another, less-publicized impact; the quality of GPS data may be degraded.
Broader impacts are also being felt outside the federal government, as government scientists are unable to attend meetings and technical conferences. Government scientists have not been able to participate in important conferences on meteorology, astronomy, biology and agriculture; at a recent American Astronomical Society meeting, more than ten percent of the presenters had to cancel because of the shutdown. In addition, many agency websites are inaccessible or not being updated, meaning that researchers have been cut off from these sources of public data. Federal scientists are also worried about the effect on long-term recruiting for the federal government; while government jobs are traditionally viewed as quite secure, top candidates may be far less willing to apply for jobs that come with an uncertain paycheck.
