Letters to the Editor for July 5

This past Friday, CBS News reported that the OSTP Science Division was hollowed by the departure of its three last staff members. Also, only 35 staff remain across OSTP, down from over 100 with Obama and from 50 or more historically.

Democratic and Republican presidents have relied on the director of OSTP — the “President’s Science Advisor” — for critical high-level advice on science, engineering and technology as they pertain to almost every aspect of our society. This specifically includes the economy, foreign relations, national and homeland security, health, environment and natural resources.

Assisted by an expert staff, the OSTP director also leads inter-agency coordination in science and technology, and has major influence on budgeting, reviewing and analyzing federally sponsored research and development (R&D). Simply put, OSTP is key to how the U.S. government values, uses and enables R&D. This is an awesome responsibility: Advanced R&D has been a foundation for the wealth, health and well-being of our country, and for our position as a global leader.

Restructuring OSTP towards the even more effective performance of its critical mission is the prerogative of the president. However, the OSTP director and assistant director positions are vacant, six months into the Trump Administration. Leaving OSTP leaderless suggests a concerning disregard for the importance of R&D. In fact, it loudly announces to the world that the U.S. government is resigning its leadership in science and technology. Universities and industry will certainly continue to conduct research and development. But universities rely heavily on federal funding. And industry has narrower and shorter-term views on return on investment than we should have as a nation. There is a critical role for the U.S. government in science and technology. Abdicating that role is shortsighted and it will deeply and negatively impact each and every one of us.

Antonio Batista

Mt. Hood-Parkdale

History repeated

Between 1890 and 1908, a group of conservative elite extremists, calling themselves “Redeemers,” had an agenda to deconstruct all the gains made to ensure all people of the U.S. were treated equally. They attacked voting rights, fair wage labor laws, fair taxation, public education and progressive leaders.

Fast forward to 2016-2017 and we are witnessing extremist conservatives doing exactly the same things. Those turn of the century actions were not great for America then and they are not great for America now, nor will they ever be.

Gary Fields

Hood River