The OSTP Memo Gets Grilled

Back in late September, I wrote that the OSTP memo issued in August had some obvious problems that made it unlikely to go unchallenged. However, I thought the new Director, Arati Prabhakar, approved by the Senate just weeks after the memo was released, would be the one who challenged something sprung by her short-term interim predecessor, writing:

She may note first and foremost the lack of stakeholder involvement. She may register the discrepancies in tone and detail between various elements of what was released. She may clock the budget implications.

She may also note that these materials were issued by someone in a transitional, acting role.

Well, it wasn’t the new Director who expressed these concerns. Instead, the new Director received a letter last week detailing them and more from the OSTP’s Congressional oversight body, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.