Democrats blast latest move by the administration to radically restructure the federal government.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 28 Apr 2026<\/span>28 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n United States President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has fired all 22 members of the board that sets the policies of the government-funded national science agency, according to an ex-board member and lawmakers.<\/p>\n The dismissals at the National Science Board (NSB), the policy and advisory arm of the National Science Foundation (NSF), mark the Trump administration\u2019s latest move to radically restructure the government following the gutting of multiple agencies, including the Department of Education and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Roger Beachy, who was reappointed to a second six-year term on the science board by Trump in 2020, said he and his colleagues were not given a reason for their dismissal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe termination email was brief and to the point, with a \u2018thank you for your service,’\u201d Beachy, an emeritus biology professor at Washington University in St Louis, told Al Jazeera on Monday.<\/p>\n Beachy said he expected the Trump administration to appoint a new board but expressed concern about the nature of the research and education that would be supported by the agency in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cThe nature of the board \u2013 partisan or independent? \u2013 and how it interacts with the agency is of critical importance to the continuing success of the NSF,\u201d Beachy said.<\/p>\n Democratic lawmakers, who had earlier reported hearing of the dismissals from unspecified sources, blasted the Trump administration\u2019s action.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American\u00a0innovation,\u201d Zoe\u00a0Lofgren, the\u00a0most senior member\u00a0of the US House of Representatives\u2019 science committee, said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cWill the president fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who won\u2019t stand up to him as he hands over our leadership in science to our adversaries?\u201d Lofgren said, calling the firings a \u201creal bozo the clown move\u201d.<\/p>\n The White House and the NSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside of usual business hours.<\/p>\n Trump has yet to publicly confirm or comment on the firings, but his administration previously targeted the NSF for sweeping cuts instituted by tech billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).<\/p>\n Under last year\u2019s cost-cutting drive, officials scrapped or halted more than 1,600 NSF grants worth nearly $1bn.<\/p>\n The NSF, established as an independent federal agency in 1950, spent more than $8bn on scientific research and education in 2025, making it one of the largest individual funders of science worldwide.<\/p>\n Beachy said it was too early to predict how the dismissals would affect science funding in the long term.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to note that support for the NSF, both statutorily and in terms of its budget, has been bipartisan in the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf such support continues, we can have greater optimism for its future and can look forward to the continuing excellence of the US science enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Democrats blast latest move by the administration to radically restructure the federal government. Published On 28 Apr 202628 Apr 2026 United States President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has fired all 22 members of the board that sets the policies of the government-funded national science agency, according to an ex-board member and lawmakers. The dismissals at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jp-1730786685-rotated.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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