1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

Stop Trump’s Anti-Science Executive Order—Protect Our Freedom and Future To my Representatives: I’m writing with urgent concern about Donald Trump’s May 5, 2025 Executive Order, “Improving the Safety and Security of Biological Research.” While framed as a safety measure, this order violates core constitutional principles, endangers public health, and weaponizes science policy for authoritarian control. This EO does the following: • Politicizes science by explicitly blaming a previous administration—an unprecedented and dangerous use of executive power for retribution. • Suppresses international scientific collaboration, particularly with China, based not on objective risk assessments but on xenophobic and nationalistic ideology. • Targets privately funded U.S. researchers, laying the groundwork for government control and surveillance of academic and commercial science in violation of First Amendment rights and limits on executive power. • Introduces vague, overly broad definitions of “dangerous research” that could be misused to silence innovation, punish dissent, and blacklist institutions. • Threatens public transparency and academic freedom while pretending to promote them. Publicly listing suspended research could put scientists at risk without due process. It also mandates sweeping enforcement terms, including five-year bans from funding and federal contract revocations under 31 U.S.C. § 3729 (False Claims Act)—turning standard research activities into prosecutable offenses. This is not biosecurity. This is an attempt to centralize scientific authority in the Executive Office, bypass Congress, chill innovation, and censor dissent under the guise of safety. It echoes historical abuses where authoritarian regimes conflated national security with academic suppression. I urge you to: 1. Publicly oppose this Executive Order. 2. Introduce legislation protecting federally and non-federally funded research from arbitrary suspension or surveillance without due process. 3. Hold hearings immediately on the constitutionality and scientific merit of the order. 4. Prevent any appropriation of federal funds that would implement or enforce this order until proper oversight is conducted. We cannot allow fear, racism, and authoritarianism to dictate U.S. science policy. This is a line in the sand.