Policy Concentrates RESEARCH FUNDING
Government shutdown pinches chemists US federal scientists and university partners worry about long-term damage to science
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Atmospheric chemist Steven Brown didn’t really suffer the impact of the partial US government shutdown until he returned from the holidays to the reality that he was locked out of his National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in Boulder, Colorado. “We are really starting to feel it now, especially this week,” he says. Brown is most concerned about the lost time for planning experiments and keeping up with colleagues. He’s had to reschedule meetings with collaborators in industry, academia, and local government. In addition, he had to decline a trip to China, and he will have to cancel a talk if the shutdown continues much longer. “Just because I’m out of work doesn’t mean the world stops,” Brown says. Brown is just one of thousands of US scientists feeling the effects of the shutdown, which has partially or fully shuttered many science agencies. As of C&EN deadline, there was little sign of progress in negotiations between President Donald J. Trump and congressional Democrats. “From the interruption of EPA’s air-quality testing to NSF’s inability to distribute funds or consider new grants,
the enterprise is being negatively impacted from advancing science critical to national priorities,” says Glenn S. Ruskin, vice president of external affairs and communications at the American Chemical Society, which publishes C&EN. A research chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, who asked not to be named, had to throw out her pending experiments when the shutdown started, losing weeks of work. Now she’s worried about a pending patent application. “There are certain deadlines we have to meet. If someone beats us to it, it would be the difference between the government owning the patent versus a company,” she says. Another NIST chemist is most concerned about his postdoc researcher. Federal staff and contractors are not being paid during the shutdown, and the postdoc has college loans and the Washington area’s high rent to deal with. “I don’t know how long he will be able to hold out” before he has to look for another job, the chemist says. As the largest public university near the District of Columbia, the University of Maryland, College Park, has dozens of
A furloughed federal worker demonstrates against the partial government shutdown in Philadelphia.
collaborations with federal labs, far more than most universities, says Laurie Locascio, vice president for research there. Her biggest concern right now is the threat of longterm federal funding cuts, especially for scientists and students who work on federal contracts. Federal employees will likely get back pay, but contractors are a different story. She has identified more than 200 on two contracts alone. “I don’t see a way for us universities to pay people who weren’t working during that time,” she says. Any delays in research are only hurting US competitiveness in areas like quantum science, where competition with China is fierce, Locascio says. “We are thinking hard about creating policies about how to prepare for a federal shutdown because we aren’t confident this won’t happen again.”—ANDREA WIDENER
CHEMICAL REGULATION
C R E D I T: A P P H OTO/ MAT T RO UR K E
Methylene chloride rules sit during shutdown The US Environmental Protection Agency sent two rules related to methylene chloride in paint strippers to the White House for approval on Dec. 21. The agency has yet to reveal the content of those rules, but environmental groups speculate that one of them would ban methylene chloride in paint strippers sold to consumers. The other rule, listed as a prerule, proposes to establish a training, certification, and limited-access program for workers who use methylene chloride in paint and coating removal. The EPA proposed to ban methylene
chloride in consumer and commercial paint strippers during the final days of the Obama administration. The move followed reports of men who died while using such products without proper ventilation. Now, the agency appears to have limited that rule to include only consumer uses, according to environmental groups. The EPA addresses commercial uses of methylene chloride–based paint strippers in a separate proposed rule that could take several years to finalize, they say. The EPA cannot publish either rule until the partial government shutdown ends.
“For the families around the country who have lost loved ones to methylene chloride exposure, this is at best a halfstep forward in getting these deadly paint strippers off the market,” Lindsay McCormick, project manager at the environmental advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund, said in a statement. “Rather than waiting for EPA to act, most major retailers have already removed or pledged to remove these products from their shelves. But that doesn’t protect most workers, and now it looks like EPA won’t either.”—BRITT ERICKSON JANUARY 14, 2019 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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