Congress must stop the politicization of peer review and American science

Photo credit: National Cancer Institute via Unsplash. Opinion article by Carole LaBonne, the Erastus Otis Haven Professor of Molecular Biosciences at Northwestern University. The Hill – August 6, 2026.

For generations, the U.S. has led the world in scientific discovery because federal research grants are judged primarily by scientists, not by politicians. That principle is now in jeopardy. The Office of Management and Budget has proposed a government-wide regulation that would fundamentally alter how federal grants are awarded. Buried in its sweeping rewrite of federal grant rules is a directive that peer review recommendations must remain merely “advisory” and must not be “routinely deferred to” by political appointees or their designees. […]

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