Restoring Gold Standard Science

The order directs the OSTP Director to issue Gold Standard Science guidance within 30 days of signing, after which all agency heads must update their scientific integrity policies to align with that guidance. While those updates are pending, agencies must immediately revert to the scientific integrity policies in place as of January 19, 2021, and agency heads must revoke organizational changes made under the Biden Administration's January 27, 2021 memorandum on scientific integrity. Section 4 takes effect within 30 days and requires all federal employees to avoid scientific misconduct, publicly disclose influential data and models, acknowledge uncertainty, communicate scenario likelihoods transparently, and apply a weight-of-evidence approach.

The order also directs agencies to review all actions taken between January 20, 2021, and January 20, 2025 — including regulations, guidance, and scientific evaluations — and take steps to bring them into alignment with the new standards. Enforcement is handled internally through a senior-appointee-led process at each agency, and waivers are available from OMB in consultation with OSTP. The order explicitly does not create any individually enforceable rights.

All federal agency employees who generate, use, interpret, or communicate scientific information, regardless of job classification. Agency contractors are also directed to follow these rules. Regulated industries and the public are indirectly affected wherever agency science underpins environmental, public health, and other regulatory decisions.

Agencies will be restricted from presenting worst-case-only scenarios — such as high-end climate projections or population models — without disclosing their likelihood, which could alter the scientific basis for pending and future rules on climate, environment, and public health. Agencies must also publicly release influential datasets and model source code, increasing scrutiny of the science behind major regulatory decisions.

OSTP issues guidance within 30 days, triggering a cascade: agencies must immediately incorporate it into ongoing work, then formally update written integrity policies, then report back to OSTP within 60 days of the guidance publication. Each agency head designates a senior political appointee to run an internal enforcement process; that office can correct scientific information and refer violations to HR. OMB can grant waivers in consultation with OSTP. National security and foreign affairs agencies may opt themselves out at their head's discretion.