Washington's New Hobby: Playing Political Jenga With Science Funding

The Big Idea

The House of Representatives just voted 370-48 to block, for now, a White House plan that would have given political appointees direct control over which scientists get federal research funding. It's a rare bipartisan rebuke of the administration's attempt to put politics at the center of the scientific process. But the victory is a mirage: the ban expires in December, and it's just one piece of a broader campaign to reshape American research in the image of government...