When President Obama issued a call for public comments on how to fix the dismal state of scientific distortion, manipulation, and suppression that had marked the Bush Administration, NRDC answered the call. So did many other public interest groups and individuals eager to offer some good advice. NRDC's comments were signed by 22 supporting public interest groups including Greenpeace and Physicians for Social Responsibility. All of these groups have seen first hand the damage done by Bush-era policies of denying evidence of harm from toxic chemicals, protecting polluters, and punishing whistleblowers. Now it is time for a change! Back to the facts!

NRDC focused on the need to strengthen and enforce disclosure policies, and to eliminate experts with financial conflicts or competing interests from serving on expert advisory committees. How can these conflicted experts be identified? A conflicted expert is one whose opinion cannot be swayed by facts and evidence because it is tied to a financial benefit or competing interest. A conflicted expert has no place on any scientific or expert panel and should be barred in all cases. Such an expert may contribute to a deliberation as an invited specialist to address the committee, but not as a committee member.

Effective disclosure and conflict of interest policies play an essential role in protecting government and its experts from becoming agents of propaganda, distortion, corporate marketing, and other types of scientific and technical misinformation.

Many other excellent comments were submitted in response to this Presidential Memorandum. It's time for a change!