Federal officials are reportedly planning to sell parts of the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s space weather program to a private, for-profit company, according to U.S. Rep Joe Neguse.
A whistleblower reported to Neguse’s office that one or more Office of Management and Budget officials proposed or negotiated an arrangement to sell parts of NCAR’s space weather program to a private company, according to Neguse. The whistleblower reported the allegations to Neguse’s office, he said, and the information was reportedly confirmed by an employee at the company in question. Neguse did not name the company.
Neguse sent a letter to the Inspector General of the National Science Foundation on Monday, demanding an independent investigation into allegations of potential conflicts of interest and regulatory improprieties.
“As our office understands it, neither the OMB nor the NSF have clear legal or statutory authority to unilaterally dissolve or sell Federal programs,” Neguse wrote in the letter.
Officials from the Office of Management and Budget and the National Science Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the letter, Neguse references federal laws that make it “clear that this research must be conducted by federal research agencies.” Neguse argues that it is not within the Office of Management and Budgetap authority to “sell-off space weather programs to private companies.”
The whistleblower’s report comes after the NSF in a Dear Colleague Letter that it will consider proposals for new private or public ownership to take over the NCAR’s Mesa Lab in Boulder. The NSF also requested that interested parties submit a document of interest or ideas for operations, with a March 13 deadline.
“The report of misconduct described above further includes allegations that (Dear Colleague Letter) is simply a political ploy to feign proper conduct, and that the OMB has already determined that NCAR’s space weather program will be transferred to the aforementioned for-profit company and that NCAR’s NWSC supercomputing facility will be transferred to the University of Wyoming.”
The NSF that the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center will be transferring operations away from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and to an unnamed third-party operator.
“The federal (Dear Colleague Letter) process is not a mechanism for reaching pre-determined outcomes nor for selling or awarding federal programs to private companies, and it cannot be used to bypass the law and hand federal programs to preferred private companies without undergoing competitive merit-review processes,” Neguse wrote. “In this instance, if allegations of a predetermined transfer or selloff were proven to be true, it would clearly violate the spirit and letter of the “Dear Colleague” process and likely violate Federal law. Therefore, it is vitally important that your office investigate the same.”
Neguse also included NSF Acting Director Brian Stone, OMB Director Russel Vought and Former OMB Associate Director Stuart Levenbach on the letter.
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