Science - USA (2019-01-18)

216 18 JANUARY 2019 • VOL 363 ISSUE 6424 sciencemag.org SCIENCE

PHOTO: AP PHOTO/DAVID GOLDMAN

N

o paychecks. No experiments. No re-

views of grant applications. And no

stink bugs by mail. The financial,

empirical, and entomological con-

sequences of the partial shutdown

of the U.S. government for science

multiplied this week, as it became the lon-

gest such closure in history. More than a

half-dozen agencies that fund or conduct

research, including NASA, the National

Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Depart-

ment of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food

and Drug Administration (FDA), have been

partly paralyzed since 22 December 2018

(Science, 11 January, p. 109). As Science went

to press, the fight between Congress and

President Donald Trump over spending

$5.7 billion on a border wall, which has shut-

tered about one-quarter of the federal gov-

ernment, showed no signs of being resolved.

The impasse has already meant a lost pay-

check for some 800,000 federal employees,

as well as missed payments for thousands

more contractors and academic researchers.

Agencies have canceled dozens of meetings

to review thousands of funding proposals,

at one of the busiest times for federal grant-

making. Researchers inside and outside of

government have postponed, restructured,

or just given up entirely on planned studies.

The shutdown could soon paralyze feder-

ally funded scientific facilities and research

centers that have been largely insulated

from the pain because they are operated by

contractors who get paid in advance, often

on a quarterly basis. “But now that quar-

terly check may or may not be coming,” says

Benjamin Corb, public affairs director at

the American Society for Biochemistry and

Molecular Biology in Rockville, Maryland.

“The uncertainty is creating a real mess.”

At the National Center for Atmospheric

Research in Boulder, Colorado, which is

funded by NSF but operated by a consor-

tium of universities, managers are be-

ginning to consider ways to scale back

activities. Staff could be given the option of

being furloughed without pay or continuing

to work at reduced pay (with back pay once

the shutdown ends). That could disrupt ef-

forts to improve climate models and man-

age massive data sets, officials say.

NSF’s closure is also creating anxiety for

would-be graduate students hoping to win

a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship

(GRF) from NSF. Last year, the agency re-

ceived more than 12,000 GRF applications

and gave out 2000 awards, which provide

graduate students with a $34,000 annual

stipend for 3 years. Managing that mas-

sive operation requires sticking to a tight

schedule. Some 2000 reviewers had already

agreed to serve on about four dozen virtual

panels set for later this month. But if NSF

remains closed, those panels will not be

able to meet. (The agency had already can-

celed 33 other proposal review meetings as

of 14 January, according to Corb.)

NSF typically announces GRF winners by

the beginning of April because U.S. gradu-

ate schools require accepted students to

make a firm decision by 15 April. So far, the

agency has no contingency plan in case its

review process is delayed. “Nobody knows

what will happen because there’s been no

guidance,” says a former GRF program

manager who requested anonymity.

At FDA, reviews of submitted drugs and

devices already paid for by industry fees

can continue. But some researchers who

want to continue other work—developing

new tools or methods for evaluating drugs,

for example—must show that it is essential

for health, safety, or protecting a federal

investment (such as continuing an animal

experiment that has already begun). The

justification process is “a heavily scruti-

nized rigmarole,” says one FDA employee

who asked to remain anonymous.

Agricultural research is taking a partic-

ularly heavy hit because it often involves

collaborations between federal and private

or academic laboratories. At the Virginia

Polytechnic Institute and State University

in Blacksburg, veterinary pathologist Kevin

Lahmers has had to halt studies aimed

at evaluating the livestock disease threat

posed by the Asian longhorned tick, first

discovered in the United States in 2017, be-

cause he is collaborating with a shuttered

USDA laboratory in Pullman, Washington.

Entomologist Don Weber, who works on

biocontrol agents at USDA’s Beltsville Agri-

cultural Research Center in Maryland, isn’t

completely immobilized. He is allowed to

enter his lab a few times a week to maintain

insect and plant populations. But he can’t

do studies. Nor can he mail invasive stink

bugs from his colonies to other researchers

who want them, hobbling efforts to find a

defense against the farm pest. And Weber

hasn’t been able to order a synthesized

chemical that is key to an upcoming project

because his contract office is closed. “I’m

going to lose a field season,” he predicts.

Weber hasn’t let past closures derail his

research. During a 16-day funding impasse

in 2013, he went ahead and collected the fi-

nal data in a long-term field study “in defi-

ance of the shutdown,” he acknowledged in

a 2014 paper. “The way I saw it,” Weber says

now, “collecting that data was essential to

protecting a federal investment. Otherwise,

the money that had been spent would have

gone to waste.” j

With reporting by Jef rey Mervis and

Kelly Servick.

Pain spreads from shutdown

Historic spending impasse halts paychecks and projects

U.S. RESEARCH FUNDING

Furloughed from his work on rocket tests, NASA

contractor Jack Lyons spends time in his workshop

making props for marching bands.

By David Malakoff

Published by AAAS

on January 18, 2019^

http://science.sciencemag.org/

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