IMPACT REPORT: 100 Examples of President Obama’s Leadership in Science, Technology, and Innovation

[proverbialwisdom]

Last edited Wed Jun 22, 2016, 03:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: The White House Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
June 21, 2016
[center]“We’ll restore science to its rightful place."
President Obama’s Inaugural Address, 2009[/center]
On January 20, 2009, President Obama issued a simple and powerful pledge: to restore science to its rightful place. Coming into office, the President was committed to reinvigorating the American scientific enterprise through a strong commitment to basic and applied research, innovation, and education; to restoring integrity to science policy; and most importantly, to making decisions on the basis of evidence, rather than ideology.

In a speech at the National Academy of Sciences in April 2009, the President called for expanded investments in research and development and a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. He noted that science, technology, and innovation are essential to sustaining economic growth, enabling Americans to lead longer and healthier lives, limiting the harm from climate change, and providing U.S. armed forces and homeland defenders with the tools they need to succeed in every contingency.

Today, the Administration is releasing a list of 100 examples of the profound impact that the President’s leadership has had in building U.S. capacity in science, technology, and innovation and bringing that capacity to bear on national goals. The release of this list marks the milestone of Dr. John Holdren becoming, on June 18, 2016, the longest-serving President’s Science Advisor since Vannevar Bush pioneered a similar role while serving Presidents Roosevelt and Truman during and after World War II.

EXPANDING SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION CAPACITY AND IMPACT ACROSS GOVERNMENT

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4. Elevated transparency, openness, and scientific integrity as guiding principles for Federal agencies. On the first day of his Administration, the President issued a Presidential Memorandum calling on all the agencies in the Federal Government to work together to create “an unprecedented level of openness” in government and to “establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration.” An Open Government Directive and a plan for implementing those goals were issued in December 2009. In March 2009, the Transparency and Open Government Presidential Memorandum was followed by a Presidential Memorandum on Scientific Integrity, stating in part that:

The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public-policy decisions. Political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings and conclusions. If scientific and technological information is developed and used by the Federal Government, it should ordinarily be made available to the public.

This Presidential Memorandum called for all agencies to embed these principles in appropriate policies and procedures and charged the OSTP Director with overseeing the development and ensuring the adequacy of the agency plans. Detailed guidance concerning the content of the plans was developed by OSTP in consultation with the agencies over the next 20 months, and 22 agencies subsequently produced and published their scientific integrity plans. Read more, more, and more.

Read more: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/21/impact-report-100-examples-president-obamas-leadership-science

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More: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/06/21/100-examples-putting-science-its-rightful-place

[ailsagirl]

1. With all the other news going on, this is getting lost in the shuffle

But I think it's very important.

[300gools]

2. Obama has surpassed my expectations

great president.

[n2doc]

3. Unfortunately the biggest hurdle is CONgress

The president can't get the needed funding increases to NSF, NASA and NIH because CONgress likes to diddle around and give all the money to the military.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Wrong. It's the Republican CONgress. . . . nt