Next week, in the first major contest of the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign, Democratic Party voters in Iowa will pick the candidate they want to face off against President Donald Trump. One of the top contenders, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, has come out with a proposal to keep so-called junk science, supported by industry, out of federal policy decisions. Many scientists have pointed out that misleading research and evidence, raised to new prominence under the Trump administration, has led to environmental and health policies that endanger the public. Other candidates have not spoken so directly about science policy, and the coming week may tell whether Warren’s approach resonates with people in a bellwether state.
Warren’s plan would ban federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency from using non-peer-reviewed industry-funded science to determine regulations if any conflicts of interest exist. She would bar courts from considering such research in challenges to federal rules. Warren also wants a law to give these policies some teeth: it would punish industry representatives with up to $250,000 in fines or jail time if they knowingly submitted comments with false or fraudulent information.
