[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 102 (Thursday, May 29, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 22601-22606]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-09802]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 102 / Thursday, May 29, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 22601]]
Executive Order 14303 of May 23, 2025
Restoring Gold Standard Science
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, including section 7301 of title 5, United
States Code, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Policy and Purpose. Over the last 5 years,
confidence that scientists act in the best interests of
the public has fallen significantly. A majority of
researchers in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics believe science is facing a reproducibility
crisis. The falsification of data by leading
researchers has led to high-profile retractions of
federally funded research.
Unfortunately, the Federal Government has contributed
to this loss of trust. In several notable cases,
executive departments and agencies (agencies) have used
or promoted scientific information in a highly
misleading manner. For example, under the prior
Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention issued COVID-19 guidance on reopening
schools that incorporated edits by the American
Federation of Teachers and was understood to discourage
in-person learning. This guidance's restrictive and
burdensome reopening conditions led many schools to
remain at least partially closed, resulting in
substantial negative effects on educational outcomes--
even though the best available scientific evidence
showed that children were unlikely to transmit or
suffer serious illness or death from the virus, and
that opening schools with reasonable mitigation
measures would have only minor effects on transmission.
The National Marine Fisheries Service justified a
biological opinion by adopting an admitted ``worst-case
scenario'' projection of the North Atlantic right whale
population that it believed was ``very likely'' wrong.
The agency's proposed actions could have destroyed the
historic Maine lobster fishery. The D.C. Circuit Court
of Appeals subsequently overturned that opinion because
the agency's decision to seek out the worst-case
scenario skewed its approach to the evidence.
Similarly, agencies have used Representative
Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenario 8.5 to assess the
potential effects of climate change in a ``higher''
warming scenario. RCP 8.5 is a worst-case scenario
based on highly unlikely assumptions like end-of-
century coal use exceeding estimates of recoverable
coal reserves. Scientists have warned that presenting
RCP 8.5 as a likely outcome is misleading.
Actions taken by the prior Administration further
politicized science, for example, by encouraging
agencies to incorporate diversity, equity, and
inclusion considerations into all aspects of science
planning, execution, and communication. Scientific
integrity in the production and use of science by the
Federal Government is critical to maintaining the trust
of the American people and ensuring confidence in
government decisions informed by science.
My Administration is committed to restoring a gold
standard for science to ensure that federally funded
research is transparent, rigorous, and impactful, and
that Federal decisions are informed by the most
credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence
available. We must restore the American people's faith
in the scientific enterprise and institutions that
create and apply scientific knowledge in service of the
public good. Reproducibility, rigor, and unbiased peer
review must be maintained. This order restores the
scientific integrity policies of my first
Administration and ensures
[[Page 22602]]
that agencies practice data transparency, acknowledge
relevant scientific uncertainties, are transparent
about the assumptions and likelihood of scenarios used,
approach scientific findings objectively, and
communicate scientific data accurately. Agency use of
Gold Standard Science, as set forth in this order, will
spur innovation, translate discovery to success, and
ensure continued American strength and global
leadership in technology.
Sec. 2. Definitions. For the purposes of this order:
(a) ``Employee'' has the meaning given that term in
5 U.S.C. 2105.
(b) ``Scientific information'' means factual
inputs, data, models, analyses, technical information,
or scientific assessments related to such disciplines
as the behavioral and social sciences, public health
and medical sciences, life and earth sciences,
engineering, physical sciences, or probability and
statistics. This includes any communication or
representation of knowledge such as facts or data, in
any medium or form, including textual, numerical,
graphic, cartographic, narrative, or audiovisual forms.
(c) ``Scientific misconduct'' means fabrication,
falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing,
reviewing, or reporting the results of scientific
research, but does not include honest error or
differences of opinion. For the purposes of this
definition:
(i) ``fabrication'' is making up data or results and recording or reporting
them;
(ii) ``falsification'' is manipulating research materials, equipment, or
processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research
is not accurately represented in the research record; and
(iii) ``plagiarism'' is the appropriation of another person's ideas,
processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.
(d) ``Senior appointee'' means an individual
appointed by the President (or an individual performing
the functions and duties of an individual appointed by
the President) or a non-career member of the Senior
Executive Service.
(e) ``Weight of scientific evidence'' means an
approach to scientific evaluation in which each piece
of relevant information is considered based on its
quality and relevance, and then transparently
integrated with other relevant information to inform
the scientific evaluation prior to making a judgment
about the scientific evaluation. Quality and relevance
determinations, at a minimum, should include
consideration of study design, fitness for purpose,
replicability, peer review, and transparency and
reliability of data.
Sec. 3. Restoring Gold Standard Science. (a) Within 30
days of the date of this order, the Director of the
Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP Director)
shall, in consultation with the heads of relevant
agencies, issue guidance for agencies on implementation
of ``Gold Standard Science'' in the conduct and
management of their respective scientific activities.
For the purposes of this order, Gold Standard Science
means science conducted in a manner that is:
(i) reproducible;
(ii) transparent;
(iii) communicative of error and uncertainty;
(iv) collaborative and interdisciplinary;
(v) skeptical of its findings and assumptions;
(vi) structured for falsifiability of hypotheses;
(vii) subject to unbiased peer review;
(viii) accepting of negative results as positive outcomes; and
(ix) without conflicts of interest.
(b) Upon publication of the guidance prescribed in
subsection (a), each agency head, as necessary and
appropriate and in consultation with the
[[Page 22603]]
Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB
Director) and the OSTP Director, shall promptly update
applicable agency policies governing the production and
use of scientific information, including scientific
integrity policies, to implement the OSTP Director's
guidance on Gold Standard Science and ensure that
agency scientific activities are conducted in
accordance with this order.
(c) Each agency head shall, to the extent
practicable, incorporate the OSTP Director's guidance
on Gold Standard Science and the requirements of this
order into the processes by which their agency
conducts, manages, interprets, communicates, and uses
scientific or technological information prior to the
finalization of the updated policies under this
section.
(d) Within 60 days of the publication of the
guidance prescribed in section 3(a), agency heads shall
report to the OSTP Director on the actions taken to
implement Gold Standard Science at their agency.
Sec. 4. Improving the Use, Interpretation, and
Communication of Scientific Data. No later than 30 days
after the date of this order, agency heads and
employees shall adhere to the following rules governing
the use, interpretation, and communication of
scientific data, unless otherwise provided by law:
(a) Employees shall not engage in scientific
misconduct nor knowingly rely on information resulting
from scientific misconduct.
(b) Except as prohibited by law, and consistent
with relevant policies that protect national security
or sensitive personal or confidential business
information, agency heads shall in a timely manner and,
to the extent practicable and within the agency's
authority:
(i) subject to paragraph (ii), make publicly available the following
information within the agency's possession:
(A) the data, analyses, and conclusions associated with scientific and
technological information produced or used by the agency that the agency
reasonably assesses will have a clear and substantial effect on important
public policies or important private sector decisions (influential
scientific information), including data cited in peer-reviewed literature;
and
(B) the models and analyses (including, as applicable, the source code
for such models) the agency used to generate such influential scientific
information. Employees may not invoke exemption 5 to the Freedom of
Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5)) to prevent disclosure of such models
unless authorized in writing to do so by the agency head following prior
notice to the OSTP Director.
(ii) risk models used to guide agency enforcement actions or select
enforcement targets are not information that must be disclosed under this
subsection.
(c) When using scientific information in agency
decision-making, employees shall transparently
acknowledge and document uncertainties, including how
uncertainty propagates throughout any models used in
the analysis.
(d) Where employees produce or use scientific
information to inform policy or legal determinations
they must use science that comports with the legal
standards applicable to those determinations, including
when agencies evaluate the realistic or reasonably
foreseeable effects of an action.
(e) Employees shall be transparent about the
likelihood of the assumptions and scenarios used.
Highly unlikely and overly precautionary assumptions
and scenarios should only be relied upon in agency
decision-making where required by law or otherwise
pertinent to the agency's action.
(f) When scientific or technological information is
used to inform agency evaluations and subsequent
decision-making, employees shall apply a ``weight of
scientific evidence'' approach.
(g) Employees' communication of scientific
information shall be consistent with the results of the
relevant analysis and evaluation and, to the extent
[[Page 22604]]
that uncertainty is present, the degree of uncertainty
should be communicated. Communications involving a
scientific model or information derived from a
scientific model should include reference to any
material assumptions that inform the model's outputs.
(h) Once the guidance on Gold Standard Science is
established and promulgated pursuant to section 3 of
this order, it shall, among other things, form the
basis for employees' evaluation of all scientific and
technological information called for in this order
except where otherwise required by law.
Sec. 5. Interim Scientific Integrity Policies. (a)
Until the issuance of updated agency scientific
integrity policies pursuant to section 3 of this order,
and except where required by law:
(i) scientific integrity policies in each agency shall be governed by the
scientific integrity policies that existed within the executive branch on
January 19, 2021, except that in the event of a conflict between such
policies and the policies and requirements of this order, the policies and
requirements of this order control; and
(ii) agency heads shall take all necessary actions to reevaluate and, where
necessary, revise or rescind scientific integrity policies or procedures,
or amendments to such policies or procedures, issued between January 20,
2021, and January 20, 2025.
(iii) each agency head shall promptly revoke any organizational or
operational changes, designations, or documents that were issued or enacted
pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum of January 27, 2021 (Restoring
Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based
Policymaking), which was revoked pursuant to Executive Order 14154 and
shall conduct applicable agency operations in the manner and revert
applicable agency organization to the same form as would have existed in
the absence of such changes, designations, or documents.
(b) In updating applicable scientific integrity
policies pursuant to section 3 of this order, agencies
should ensure they:
(i) encourage the open exchange of ideas;
(ii) provide for consideration of different or dissenting viewpoints; and
(iii) protect employees from efforts to prevent or deter consideration of
alternative scientific opinions.
(c) Agencies, unless prohibited by law, shall
review agency actions taken between January 20, 2021,
and January 20, 2025, including regulations, guidance
documents, policies, and scientific evaluations and
take all appropriate steps, consistent with law, to
ensure alignment with the policies and requirements of
this order.
Sec. 6. Scope and Applicability. (a) The policies and
rules set forth in this order apply to all employees
involved in the generation, use, interpretation, or
communication of scientific information, regardless of
job classification, and to all agency decision-making,
except where precluded by law.
(b) Agency heads and employees shall, to the extent
practicable and consistent with applicable law, require
agency contractors to adhere to these policies and
rules as though they were agency employees.
(c) The policies and rules set forth in this order
govern the use of science that informs agency decisions
but they are not applicable to non-scientific aspects
of agency decision-making.
Sec. 7. Enforcement and Oversight. (a) Each agency head
shall establish internal processes to evaluate alleged
violations of the requirements of this order and other
applicable agency policies governing the generation,
use, interpretation, and communication of scientific
information. Such processes shall be the
responsibility, and administered under the direction,
of a senior appointee designated by the agency head and
shall provide for taking appropriate measures to
correct scientific information in response to
violations, consistent with the requirements and
procedures of section 515 of the statute
[[Page 22605]]
commonly known as the Information Quality Act, Public
Law 106-554, appendix C (114 Stat. 2763A-153). The
designated senior appointee may also forward potential
violations to the relevant human resources officials
for discipline to the extent the potential violation
also violates applicable agency policies and
procedures. The designated senior appointee may consult
appropriate officials with scientific expertise when
establishing such processes.
(b) The processes created under this section are,
unless otherwise required by applicable law, the sole
and exclusive means of evaluating and, as applicable,
addressing alleged violations of this order and other
agency policies governing the use, interpretation, and
communication of scientific information.
Sec. 8. Waivers. (a) An agency head may request in
writing that the OMB Director, in consultation with the
OSTP Director, waive any of the requirements of this
order for good cause shown. Such request must explain
how the requested waiver is consistent with the
policies and purposes of this order.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this
order, the policies and requirements of this order
shall apply to agency actions that pertain to foreign
or military affairs, or to a national security or
homeland security function of the United States, only
to the extent that the applicable agency head, in his
or her sole and exclusive discretion, determines they
should apply.
Sec. 9. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
[[Page 22606]]
(d) The Office of Management and Budget shall
provide funding for publication of this order in the
Federal Register.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 23, 2025.
[FR Doc. 2025-09802
Filed 5-28-25; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3110-01-P