Science for Policy Project: the Final Report

The Bipartisan Policy Center's Science for Policy Project, co-chaired by former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), past chair of the House Science Committee, and Donald Kennedy, former editor of Science, and directed by David Goldston, former chief of staff of the House Science Committee, released its report today.

The report focuses on the need to draw clean distinctions between science issues and policy issues:

"The fundamental theme of the report is that the Administration needs to put in place procedures to try to distinguish science questions from policy questions," said Boehlert. "Often, policy disputes are cast as fights over science. This damages the credibility of science and obscures the real issues that ought to be debated. For example, how much risk a substance poses to human health or the environment is a science question; how much risk is acceptable is a policy question."

And they don't pull any punches about wading right into the politicization of science debate. The first question posed by the report is,

What kinds of activities or decision-making amount to "politicizing" science? How and to what extent can one differentiate between the aspects of regulatory policy that involve scientific judgments and those that involve making policy recommendations (which are inherently political)?

And it continues,

Our firmest and most fervent hope is that this report will help point the Administration, the Congress, the media, interest groups and the courts to think more carefully and to speak more precisely about what is truly at issue when regulatory proposals are being debated.

Amen. Read the full report (pdf) here and see what you think.