[delichon]

> and essentially codifies giving political appointees explicit discretion over what gets funded

I approve of this. The people who make the funding decisions should be politically accountable. If you have a mental model of unappointed civil servants as detached, neutral, non-political entities, I can understand why you wouldn't. But I see them as just people, and I don't know anybody like that. I'd like the folks who make bad choices with tax dollars to be votable out of office along with their boss, rather than protected from accountability by layers of boards, laws and unions.

[chillingeffect]

What's needed are democratically-agreed upon guidelines.

Yes if you suck at science, you can't get paid.

But if the subjects you study are politically inconvenient to the presently-in-charge admin, you should still be allowed to research them.