The scientific community responds

24:33okay, maybe there's an argument here. Um, but obviously the scientific community has reacted very strongly about this going well beyond financial oversight. This is clearly a battle about power >> and culture >> and culture. Yeah. >> Because science, which has always kind of brushed at the edges of culture, has never been quite as part of a zeitgeist. the zeicist as it has since co happened in my view frankly at least in American culture. Yeah, I agree. >> Um where it's really become now a culture war issue in a way that it really never was before. >> So obviously the scientific community is arguing this is going to allow ideological nonsense

25:13>> to get involved in the process. So the the uh Association of American Universities submitted a 47page response which I might add is the longest public comment uh in the organization's 126 year history. So clearly uh it struck a nerve because everyone understands what's going on here. Um, and the the primary there's so many arguments to be made here, but the primary argument that they're making is that Congress, power of the purse, they ultimately are the deciders of where the money gets ascribed in terms of agencies. >> That's right. >> Has not given OMB the authority to decide what categories of scientific research may receive federal funding.

25:54That power lies purely with inside the agencies and their statutory directives. So effectively the universities are saying the the universities are using the constitution to try and defend the way that we fund science >> which it is in the constitution. Yeah literally as well as the actual mechanism of the movement of and and how money is budgeted >> like you know Congress decides how money is spent. Yeah. >> Period. the executive branch is effectively trying now to insert themsself in the process of how money is spent. >> Yeah. >> Um so there's to your point there's a constitutional level issue here beyond

26:37even some of the practical matters. Um >> what's interesting is this proposal generated almost 500,000 497,000 public recorded submissions. So anytime there's proposals like these at different agencies or offices within um all the branches of government, they open up it to public comment. Oh >> yeah. >> So almost half a million comments were like obviously this is ridiculous. >> So again, I know this is dense, but I think this is really important because the implications here are could not be more uh important to cover. So that's