Disruptive, disappointing, chaotic: Shutdown upends scientific research
A week after President Trump rejected a bipartisan spending deal because it did not allocate billions of dollars for a border wall between the United States and Mexico, the government shutdown continues. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors must stay at home without pay. The furlough will probably persist into the new year, which would mean a rocky start to 2019 for American science.
The partial shutdown has affected operations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Agriculture Department. In Washington and around the country, thousands of furloughed government scientists are prohibited from checking on experiments, performing observations, collecting data, conducting tests or sharing their results. Not only does the government employ researchers, but also many scientists at academic and private institutions depend on federal funding for their jobs.
If the budget impasse extends into the new year, scientists say, it will harm critical research.
Any shutdown of the federal government can disrupt or delay research projects, lead to uncertainty over new research, and reduce researcher access to agency data and infrastructure. .?.?. Continuing resolutions and short-term extensions are no way to run a government, said Rush Holt, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in a statement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/12/28/disruptive-disappointing-chaotic-shutdown-upends-scientific-research/