While scientific data is only one of many factors that goes into forming policy, that data should be uncensored and should be arrived at in the most objective and dispassionate way possible. Regardless of personal agendas, politicians should not hide or alter science that disagrees with their goals, nor should they fire scientists for coming up with the data or only hire scientists who promise to produce data compatible with a particular agenda. Sadly, the Bush Administration has attempted or succeeded in all of the above and more.

Last year, democratic members of Congress introduced legislation to prohibit a particularly insidious form of this politicization of science—litmus tests. Litmus tests are questions asked of scientists who might be appointed to federal advisory boards. The goal of these questions is to find out the political leanings of scientists and to determine if they are willing to produce scientific data that is favorable to the administration’s agenda. Rather then selecting scientists based on their credentials or their respect in the scientific community, political appointees of the Bush administration used these questions to pick scientists who would further a particular ideological viewpoint, even if those scientists had questionable research or academic credentials.