A couple of weeks ago,
Science published a short
2-page paper that could have long-term, far-reaching effects on federal science agencies. In a nutshell, the paper lays out a persuasive argument to the next U.S. President to merge
NOAA and the
USGS into a new independent federal science agency called the Earth Systems Science Agency (ESSA). One reason this paper got everyone's attention is the fact that every co-author has held a senior position in government science agencies:
- Mark Schaefer - Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior, USGS Director (acting)
- D. James Baker - NOAA Administrator
- John H. Gibbons - White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director, Science Advisor to the President
- Charles G. Groat - USGS Director
- Donald Kennedy - FDA Commissioner
- Charles F. Kennel - NASA Mission to Planet Earth Associate Administrator
- David Rejeski - Office of Science and Technology Policy and Council on Environmental Quality
The paper's top recommendation is to merge NOAA and the USGS and build "a strong policy, administrative, and collaborative research bridge to
NASA's Earth sciences program." This would effectively fix the mistake made 38 years ago when NOAA was formed from a combination of agencies not including the USGS (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Weather Bureau, and Bureau of Commercial Fisheries).
