Comment from Brandie Quarles

[200.205, 200.340] To Whom it May Concern: I am a postdoctoral scholar in plant biology. I am writing in my personal capacity to oppose the proposed revisions to sections 200.205 and 200.340 that would undermine the integrity of federal grant review processes and federal science agencies' ability to identify and fund impactful research. If active grants can be terminated at any time, that would drastically limit the ability to recruit and retain trainees (graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral researchers). It would also limit the potential to conduct quality research. Many research projects take multiple years to complete. This would also waste federal funds because a project that is terminated early would not be able to produce the scientific product it was funded for. The current peer review process ensures fair evaluations of proposals from people with the expertise to evaluate the intellectual merit and broader impacts of the proposed research. The proposed rule would add political biases into a process that is supposed to be separate from politics.