July 30, 2026

Loud and Clear

Jake Beckstrom

I want to provide an update and give a very big thank you to everyone who submitted a public comment in response to my message a few weeks ago (Urgent! Defend Federal SCI Research Integrity). As you may remember, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently proposed new regulations that would change how they review, score, and disburse federal grants across all agencies. These revisions, if implemented, would affect both the NIH and SCIRP in a substantially negative way.

I’m happy to report that the reaction from our SCI community, the scientific community and other affected constituencies has been strong! The proposal received nearly half a million public comments from concerned citizens like you before the deadline on July 13! 

That’s a lot of comments! (source: https://www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2026-0034-0001)

496,805 comments, to be exact! To put that number in context, most rules receive a handful of comments, while higher profile rules tend to receive between 1000 to 10,000 comments. A rule that garners over 100,000 public comments, puts it in the top fraction of a percent of all federal rulemakings. 

There is further satisfaction in knowing that the OMB is required to read every unique comment (weeding out form fills and boilerplate copy/paste responses so staffers review each sincere reaction), thus ensuring that our voices can be heard.

A room full of SCI and scientific advocates at our Congressional Briefing on Tuesday, February 17, 2026 in Washington, D.C.