(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Jane Lubchenco, co-chair of the White House’s Scientific Integrity Task Force and deputy director for climate and environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, was barred from participating in publications or presentations by The National Academy of Sciences for five years, according to Axios.
The suspension is the result of Lubchenco editing—and submitting for review—a paper that used out-of-date data and was authored by her brother-in-law.
The effect of Lubchenco’s low standards of evidence and bias towards an author was the immediate retraction of the paper. Still, the National Academy of Sciences apparently opted for additional, more stringent punishment for Lubchenco.
Republican US Reps. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., and Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., wrote a letter to Biden expressing their concern over the matter, reported Axios. The letter stated, “We are writing to express our concern about the conduct of Dr. Jane Lubchenco … We believe that her actions may violate the Administration’s principles of scientific integrity.”
“Her violation of one of the core tenets of scientific integrity makes her current leadership role very troubling.”
Tom Jones, the founder of the American Accountability Foundation, also commented on Lubchenco’s lack of integrity.
“The American people deserve leaders in the White House who don’t use their positions of influence to put their thumb on the scales for friends and family,” Jones said. “Dr. Jane Lubchenco does not meet that standard and does not deserve to be an Assistant to the President.”
Lubchenco’s demonstrated lack of scientific integrity while holding a position designed to ensure scientific integrity means the Biden administration has failed an important test of our Founding Fathers. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist 68, wrote that “the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.”
