If you'd like the links to any of these boards to contribute your own message, please DM me (I'm hesitant to post them publicly). I hope we can provide our friends and colleagues an outpouring of support in these insane times. Finally, please help me spread the word far and wide. Thank you.
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As a small token of gratitude, Kudoboards have been setup to allow the PI community to give thanks to these tireless public servants, who dedicated their careers not to the pursuit of their own research goals, but to helping us achieve ours.
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Do you want a big overview of NSF, explaining things like the fact that 24% of all federally funded academic fundamental research comes from NSF? And that 94% of its budget goes out the door in grants/awards? Here you go. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/Factsh...

www.govexec.com/management/2...

What’s more, the Office of Personnel Management can declare an individual who participates in a strike unsuitable for federal employment. Forever.

Driving the point home, 18 U.S.C. §1918 makes it a felony to strike against the United States or belong to a union that asserts the right to strike against the United States.

5 U.S.C. §7311, specifies that federal employees may not participate in a strike, assert the right to strike, or even belong to a union that “asserts the right to strike against the government of the United States.”

All they can do is silently toil while doing the best they can. Likely while trying to suppress and anger, rage, and frustration they might feel at being cutoff from what they love to do - serve the PI community.

But, to me, it seems a nearly impossible situation. NSF employees cannot lobby congress. NSF employees cannot go on strike.

The Implementation of Recent Executive Orders page seemingly hasn’t been updated since it was posted despite the promise that it “is being updated often,” and that questions will be compiled and posted as FAQs.

I’m not trying to suggest that NSF is handling things smoothly or appropriately. Certainly communication could be much better.

Seem possible they could be fired, wholesale, every single one. The entire organization above the level of Program Officer could be gone and not rehired (there’s a federal hiring freeze, I believe). Then what? What’s NSF at that point? Maybe this is crazy talk, but is it?

Also, if I remember correctly, all members of the Senior Executive Service at NSF can basically be fired at any time. Think DDDs, DDs, DADs, ADs. They certainly don’t have union protection. So what happens if they ignore EOs because they want to uphold the COMPETES Act, or other relevant laws?

I am not an attorney, but it seems NSF employees are stuck, which was acknowledged in yesterday’s Science piece. Yes, the COMPETES Act codified many aspects of NSF’s Broaden Participation efforts. But doesn’t violating an EO potentially come with either civil or criminal penalties?

I would imagine that many NSF employees feel the same way, but are prevented from communicating that with the research community and general public. PIs are NSF’s lifeblood and being cutoff from communicating with them must be agonizing for Program Officers.

Obviously, it’s heartbreaking and perhaps criminal that many researchers are in limbo, and some, like PRFB fellows, aren’t getting paid.