Today, OMB Watch asked the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to help ensure the finalization of new government-wide policies on scientific integrity. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy was to have developed recommendations on scientific integrity for review by President Obama, but the recommendations have been delayed for more than a year.

Today, OMB Watch joined comments filed by the Union of Concerned Scientists and other public interest and environmental groups on the Interior Department's proposed scientific integrity policy. Unfortunately, the policy fails to address the full range of threats to scientific integrity at DOI, such as those evidenced by abuses at the former Minerals Management Service.

Yesterday, President Obama recess appointed Elisabeth Hagen to serve as the USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety. Hagen was nominated by Obama in January 2010, but has had difficulty getting the Senate’s attention.

Hagen had been the chief medical officer at the USDA. Now, as undersecretary, she will head the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the regulator of meat and poultry products.

President Obama is asking his administration to make federal workplaces safer. In a memo yesterday, Obama announced his Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment (POWER) Initiative, a four-year effort aimed at reducing on-the-job illnesses and injuries among government employees.