US Governance — 2026-04-26

Trump Fires All 24 Members of National Science Board, Drawing Bipartisan Criticism

All 24 NSB members were terminated via email on April 24 from the presidential personnel office stating your position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated effective immediately. The NSB has statutory authority to oversee the $9 billion NSF, setting policy and approving large expenditures, with presidentially appointed members serving staggered 6-year terms. The simultaneous firing ends 75 years of staggered appointment practice. AAU President Barbara Snyder warned the move leaves the foundation rudderless given NSF has also lacked a director for over a year, adding that China is investing heavily in science and has matched or surpassed the United States in several key fields. The dismissal may conflict with statutory term protections.

Analysis
The simultaneous dismissal removes NSB's statutory oversight function, leaving $9 billion in annual expenditures without board governance, as reported by Science magazine with direct access to terminated members and corroborated by The Hill. NSF has also lacked a Senate-confirmed director for over a year, meaning the foundation now operates without either executive or board leadership. Whether a federal court issues an injunction within 60 days is a roughly even chance, turning on whether NSB members' 6-year statutory terms carry removal protections analogous to quasi-judicial officers, a question the Supreme Court has not directly addressed. The AAU's invocation of Chinese scientific competition, an authoritative primary signal from the university research community, recasts the governance rupture as a strategic vulnerability in technology competition rather than a personnel dispute. The terminations may instead be engineered to provoke a broad judicial test of presidential removal authority, with the NSB serving as a low-stakes constitutional vehicle whose precedent would bind higher-profile statutory boards.

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