JUDY WOODRUFF: And one more take on the impact
of this shutdown, this time on science.
William Brangham explores the ways research
is feeling the heat.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: There are thousands of researchers
who are furloughed or working without pay
at agencies like the EPA, the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
And there are many others who don't work directly
for the government, but who are also still
feeling the pinch, people like the men and
women at various universities who get federal
money for their research.
With the shutdown, the pipeline for that money
is now blocked.
With all these scientists idled, many argue
that some very important work, things like
the regular monitoring of chemicals, to tracking
of endangered species, is also not happening.
Rush Holt is the CEO of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
He's also a former congressman from New Jersey.
And he joins me now.
Welcome to the "NewsHour."
RUSH HOLT, CEO, American Association for the
Advancement of Science: Good to be with you,
William.
Thank you.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Can you give us a sense
just of the scope and scale of the kinds of
science that have been idled by the shutdown?
RUSH HOLT: Sure.
It's thousands and thousands of scientists
who are missing their weekly paycheck, but
they are also running into delays, disruptions,
sometimes ruination of their research projects.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Ruination?
RUSH HOLT: Well, suppose you have a timed
series, and you have to get a sample every
week, every month for it to work.
Suppose you're doing field study and you're
looking at stream creatures when the stream
is at a certain level in January.
Suppose you are preparing a space mission,
a satellite science mission.
You have got a certain launch window.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I hadn't even thought about
those kinds of impacts.
RUSH HOLT: Suppose you're looking at insects,
and you have to look during the week in the
year when they mate.
You know, if the government is closed that
week, and you can't collect the data, that's
a problem.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Such a remarkable array
of work that we don't really think of as necessarily
being government-funded work.
I mentioned some of the agencies at the top.
Are there other federal agencies or even those
that are doing particular work that you know
of that has come to a stop?
RUSH HOLT: The National Science Foundation,
of course, is all fields of science.
The Census Bureau.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The Census Bureau?
(CROSSTALK)
RUSH HOLT: Out of the Department of Commerce.
They -- there are many social scientists either
that use those data or are employed to analyze
those data.
The weather forecasters are kept on the job.
But the people who tweet the weather models
are not.
And, as we see snowstorms predicted in the
East here, we will see whether these weather
forecasters are as accurate as they might
normally be.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Do you think that, when
we look back a year or two, three years from
now, that there will be a demonstrable impact
on the scientific community and scientific
research in the U.S.?
RUSH HOLT: It's going to be hard to measure,
but I don't doubt it.
It's very interconnected.
But at a time when we are concerned in international
comparisons about how the U.S. science effort
stacks up, this is not a good time to slow
down.
The Chinese just landed on the dark side of
the moon.
And we have researchers who think that they
should be doing work to help national security
and human welfare and safety and public health,
the very things that are at stake here.
They're waiting at home for the phone call
to go back to work.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Rush Holt of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
thank you very much.
RUSH HOLT: Thank you.
