50 signatures reached
To: Congress
Fire Schedule F—Not Our Scientists.
We, the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives, strongly object to the Trump Administration’s revival of Schedule F (Rule 14171), which threatens the scientific integrity, independence, and functional capacity of the federal workforce. We support efforts to improve government effectiveness and accountability. However, the revival of Schedule F is not a reform that strengthens performance — it weakens the professional civil service protections that enable evidence-based policymaking. By reclassifying career civil servants in policymaking and advisory roles as at-will employees, Schedule F undermines long-standing protections designed to insulate science and evidence-based decision-making from political interference.
Federal scientists and policy experts play a critical role in safeguarding public health by ensuring that funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), regulatory guidance, clearance processes, and programmatic workstreams are grounded in the best available evidence. Schedule F would chill scientific inquiry, discourage dissenting or evidence-based perspectives, and create incentives for self-censorship among experts whose responsibility is to inform policy objectively rather than politically. This erosion of independence risks distorting research priorities, delaying or suppressing guidance, and compromising the credibility of federal programs relied upon by states, communities, researchers, and service providers.
At a time when the nation faces complex and interconnected public health challenges, weakening the professional civil service will slow innovation, disrupt continuity, and undermine trust in government institutions. Scientific integrity depends on a workforce that can conduct analyses, issue guidance, and manage funding and regulatory processes free from partisan pressure. Schedule F moves the federal government in the opposite direction—substituting political loyalty for expertise—and in doing so, places public health, safety, and effective governance at risk.
We urge Congress to act swiftly to reverse Schedule F through legislative and oversight authority and to reaffirm its bipartisan commitment to protecting scientific integrity, a merit-based civil service, and evidence-driven policymaking across the federal government.
Federal scientists and policy experts play a critical role in safeguarding public health by ensuring that funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), regulatory guidance, clearance processes, and programmatic workstreams are grounded in the best available evidence. Schedule F would chill scientific inquiry, discourage dissenting or evidence-based perspectives, and create incentives for self-censorship among experts whose responsibility is to inform policy objectively rather than politically. This erosion of independence risks distorting research priorities, delaying or suppressing guidance, and compromising the credibility of federal programs relied upon by states, communities, researchers, and service providers.
At a time when the nation faces complex and interconnected public health challenges, weakening the professional civil service will slow innovation, disrupt continuity, and undermine trust in government institutions. Scientific integrity depends on a workforce that can conduct analyses, issue guidance, and manage funding and regulatory processes free from partisan pressure. Schedule F moves the federal government in the opposite direction—substituting political loyalty for expertise—and in doing so, places public health, safety, and effective governance at risk.
We urge Congress to act swiftly to reverse Schedule F through legislative and oversight authority and to reaffirm its bipartisan commitment to protecting scientific integrity, a merit-based civil service, and evidence-driven policymaking across the federal government.
Why is this important?
Because this is a direct attack on the people who keep our families safe.
Schedule F would let politicians fire nonpartisan federal scientists, doctors, researchers, and policy experts simply for doing their jobs—following the evidence, speaking the truth, or disagreeing with political pressure. These are the public servants who track disease outbreaks, oversee drug safety, fund addiction treatment and mental health programs, protect clean air and water, and make sure taxpayer dollars support research that saves lives.
If they can be replaced with political loyalists, science becomes optional—and politics takes over.
That means delayed public health warnings. Suppressed research. Funding decisions based on ideology instead of need. Fewer experts willing to speak up when something is unsafe or ineffective. And when the next crisis hits—a pandemic, overdose surge, environmental disaster, or emerging threat—we’ll have fewer experienced professionals left to respond.
We’ve seen what happens when science is sidelined: confusion, preventable deaths, and broken trust. Schedule F makes that chaos permanent.
This isn’t abstract. It affects whether your community gets accurate health guidance, whether lifesaving research is funded, whether clean water standards are enforced, and whether government works for people—or for politics.
A strong, independent civil service protects everyone, regardless of party. Weakening it puts all of us at risk.
If you believe experts—not political operatives—should guide public health and safety, now is the time to act. Add your name. Speak out. Demand Congress reverse Schedule F and defend the scientists and public servants who defend us every day.
Because once this independence is gone, it’s incredibly hard to get back.
How it will be delivered
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