Censoring agency research
Censorship of agency research is the suppression of completed scientific work — the blocking of publication, the gagging of agency authors, the directed removal of conclusions from research that has already gone through peer review or internal review. Concrete forms include "pull-back" orders applied to specific journal submissions, the rescission of speaking invitations for agency scientists, and direction to conform agency conclusions to administration policy preferences. The publication tracks documented suppression of work that has already cleared scientific review.
Documented entries (8)
2026
Reuters exclusive reveals White House suppressed ODNI voting machine vulnerability report for months ahead of 2026 midterms
White House officials delayed the release of an unclassified Office of the Director of National Intelligence report on voting machine vulnerabilities for months ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. Reuters reported on June 19, 2026, citing three sources familiar with the matter, that officials internally debated shelving the report over concerns it could undermine Republican voter confidence — and separately that some objected the report did not go far enough in supporting Trump's false claims about the 2020 election. The ODNI assessment examined security gaps in voting machines and recommended remedial measures such as software updates; it did not conclude that any votes had been flipped.
White House orders federal AI-testing unit CAISI to stop publishing model evaluations
Trump administration officials, including National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, directed the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) — the main U.S. government body that tests frontier AI models — to halt publication of its assessments pending implementation of President Trump's June 2, 2026 AI security executive order. The order shifts model evaluation from CAISI's public process toward a classified framework run by national-security agencies, after the agency had already published more than 40 model evaluations that served as a shared public baseline. Companies will still submit models for review, but results will largely remain behind closed doors.
NIAID bars U.S. disease scientists from communicating with the WHO during active outbreaks
A May 18, 2026 internal directive from a senior National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official, obtained by CNN, restricted U.S. infectious-disease researchers to attending World Health Organization meetings only in groups of three or fewer and only in a "listening capacity," with any research questions or countermeasure ideas routed through HHS's chain of command. The limits were imposed during active Ebola and Hantavirus responses; current and former officials called barring direct scientist-to-scientist coordination during an emerging public-health emergency unprecedented.
CDC blocks publication of cleared MMWR study showing COVID vaccine effectiveness
A CDC scientific report finding that the 2025–2026 COVID-19 vaccine roughly halved healthy adults' risk of emergency-department visits and hospitalizations was scheduled to run in the agency's flagship Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on March 19, 2026, after clearing internal scientific review. Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya blocked its publication, objecting to the study's test-negative design — a methodology the CDC has long used to measure vaccine effectiveness and that appeared in an MMWR flu-vaccine study the prior month. A former CDC immunization director called blocking an already-cleared, scheduled MMWR report unprecedented.
Interior/NPS database flags hundreds of park signs on slavery, civil rights, climate for removal
An internal Department of the Interior and National Park Service database, authenticated by The Washington Post with current federal employees, flags several hundred signs, exhibits, films, and books across national park sites for removal or revision under President Trump's order to scrub "partisan ideology" and content that "disparages" Americans. Flagged materials include exhibits on slavery, the civil rights movement, Japanese-American internment, racial violence, and climate science — among them at least 30 signs at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Some materials had already been removed when the database was reported on March 2, 2026, while the department said final decisions on others had not been made.
2025
E&E News investigation reveals Energy Department banned 'climate change,' 'decarbonization,' and other terms from EERE work products
The Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy directed employees to avoid approximately a dozen scientific and policy terms — including "climate change," "decarbonization," "clean energy," and "energy transition" — in all work products, including the agency website, internal reports, and federal funding opportunity descriptions. E\&E News first reported the directive on September 29; NPR independently obtained an internal email confirming it, contradicting DOE\'s public denial that any such ban applied to those terms. EERE is the federal government's largest funder of clean energy technology, with a $3.46 billion annual budget and a statutory mission under the Energy Policy Act to advance energy efficiency and renewable energy research.
Trump signed EO 14332, placing political appointees as sole gatekeepers over all federal discretionary grants
On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14332, requiring all federal agencies to appoint senior political appointees as sole gatekeepers with approval authority over every new discretionary grant announcement, reducing peer review panels to advisory status. The order prohibits federal funding for programs using racial preferences, rejecting binary sex classifications, supporting immigration assistance, or promoting undefined "anti-American values." A "termination for convenience" provision permits agencies to retroactively cancel any existing grant that no longer aligns with "agency priorities."
HHS directed NIAID to terminate Consortia for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development funding, ending $258M federal HIV vaccine program
On May 30, 2025, NIAID verbally notified researchers at Scripps Research and Duke University that the Trump administration was terminating the Consortia for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD), a $258 million, seven-year NIH-funded program representing the largest single federal investment in HIV vaccine research. NIAID also ended funding for three monkey-model vaccine research groups. The termination came as CHAVD researchers were preparing to begin clinical trials on a broadly neutralizing antibody approach that scientists described as the most promising HIV vaccine lead in decades. An HHS spokesperson cited "complex and duplicative health programs" as justification.