Opinion: Trump admin cuts pause needed environmental science studies

The Trump administration has canceled the Oceans Observatory Initiative, a National Science Foundation program on both coasts collecting information about ocean resources, currents, weather and climate that is important for marine and coastal industries and communities.

It will run for only a third of its planned 30 years, thus opportunity costs wasted.

Also, although a judge has ruled against closure, sections of the NSF’s National Center for Atmospheric Research are being shuttered. NCAR provides and analyzes data on wildfires, hurricanes and other severe storms, climate change and air quality.

The administration’s cuts are, at best, pausing multiple projects, but because equipment has been offered for sale and staff are leaving, the pause may be permanent.

William D. Sweet, Universal City

Re: “Morath’s public ed crusade puts more than tax dollars at risk,” June 5, ExpressNews.com:

When John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, many of his critics claimed that the senator from Massachusetts, a Catholic, would be overly influenced by the pope. That did not happen. Instead, Kennedy argued for an absolute separation of church and state.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, head of the Texas Education Agency, “has taken decisive action to further the state campaign to inject evangelical Christianity into Texas public schools.”

In recent years, Texas adopted an optional curriculum known as Bluebonnet Learning, which includes Bible texts in classroom lessons, but the State Board of Education had to approve about 4,200 corrections to that curriculum in February.

Also, the State Board of Education is to vote on a new social studies curriculum requiring Bible readings and Christian history lessons for all grade levels. How accurate will the new curriculum be?

In addition, a state law recently upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals requires Texas public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

The biggest question of all: What has happened to the separation of church and state?

Mary Alice Salmon, Round Rock

I certainly hope former FBI Director James Comey and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported, plan to make substantial claims for reimbursement from President Donald Trump’s fund for victims of the weaponization of the Department of Justice.

Claims also should be made by every person, citizen or not, who has been denied their constitutional rights to due process and protection from illegal search and seizure.

We saw the violence and harmful intentions of the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters. To not only deny this but reward these criminals is evidence that the Department of Justice has been fully co-opted for the partisan purposes of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

The fund is illegal and must be stopped. When will Congress emerge from its coma?

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