Comment from Stephanie Hoover
Stephanie HooverOpposeAdvocacy
Summary: A public health professional representing the American Heart Association opposes the proposed regulation. They argue that the changes will compromise scientific independence, disrupt research funding and international collaboration, and hinder the dissemination of important scientific findings.
As a public health professional and an employee of the American Heart Association, I oppose the Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance proposed rule. I am concerned about the proposed changes to the Federal Grantmaking Process for several reasons, such as: Increasing political involvement in grant decisions will threaten scientific independence, Shifting away from traditional peer review may mean that scientific merit is no longer the primary factor in grant decisions, The changes will create uncertainty and unpredictability in grant funding that may disrupt discovery and delay important scientific work, Tightening the use of funds for disseminating research findings may result in important research findings going unshared, An overly broad prohibition on international scientific collaboration may disrupt partnerships and hinder scientific innovation, and the rule will threaten the United States role as a global leader in science.
I urge OMB not to finalize the proposed rule.