Why hasn’t White House science director issued required science communication integrity principles?

When White House science Director John Marburger testifies before the House Science and Technology Committee on February 14 at a hearing on funding for the America COMPETES Act, the Committee should ask him why he has not issued the federal science communication integrity principles required by the Act.

The statute requires the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to “develop and issue an overarching set of principles to ensure the communication and open exchange of data and results” from Federal scientists and to “prevent the intentional or unintentional suppression or distortion of such research findings.” As we noted earlier, the legal deadline passed 3 months ago. Perhaps we missed something, but we have not seen anything to bring the White House into compliance with the statutory requirement.