On May 23, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order, “Restoring Gold Standard Science”. The order revokes scientific integrity policies issued during the Biden Administration that aimed to reduce political interference in scientific research. The order directs agencies to revive agencies’ “scientific integrity policies . . . that existed within the executive branch on January 19, 2021” (at the end of the first Trump Administration).
The “Gold Standard” order also directs the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop new scientific integrity policies, which will be enforced by “internal processes” within each agency administered by a “senior appointee.” Under this structure, political appointees will have oversight over agencies’ scientific research.
The order also requires “transparency” by requiring all models and analyses to be publicly available. Under the first Trump administration, EPA similarly required the agency to only rely on studies where the underlying data are publicly available. (See EELP’s analysis of EPA’s “Secret Science” rule). However, many public health studies rely on personal health data that cannot be made public, severely restricting the qualify and number of studies EPA could rely on to issue regulations
Background
In January 2025, at the end of the Biden Administration, EPA updated its Scientific Integrity Policy to affirm the agency’s responsibility to advance the integrity of the agency’s activities and “provid[e] robust science to inform decision makers.” The new policy superseded the 2012 policy. It “reaffirm[ed] and reestablishe[d] the expectations and procedures needed to maintain scientific integrity at the EPA.” It also established the role of Chief Scientist.