What a Comment Period Can’t Count: the People Behind the Funds

Photo Credit: Rafael Idrovo Espinoza via Upsplash

OMB’s proposed rule to revise the Guidance to Federal Financial Assistance has been front of mind for many in the U.S. scientific community, as an outpouring of almost 500,000 public comments urged a deeper look at how federal grants are awarded, reviewed, and overseen. We are not going to add to the analysis of what the rule does. Many in Climate Reserve’s network (e.g.AGU, EPN and L4GG, UCS, AMS) have already spoken at length to what these changes would mean to the communities they represent. What we want to talk about is those half-million contributions.

A comment period is an unusually literal measurement instrument. It counts, comment by comment, the people — the professor working to keep their lab afloat, the graduate student looking for their next career step, the nonprofit professional advocating for science as a public good — willing to spend hours of their time to help inform sound and pragmatic government policy.

We see this outpouring of civic engagement as something larger than disagreement over regulatory language or shared policy concerns. Yes, the collective call to maintain scientific rigor through peer-reviews, to continue innovating with international colleagues, to preserve funding for sharing scientific data with the public and research community is necessary. But it also affirms two key motivators of Climate Reserve.

One, federal funding does more than provide project-based support. It enables the expansive human infrastructure that underpins actionable science: the network of scientists, practitioners, nonprofits, businesses, and public institutions whose work is deeply interconnected, and whose partnerships enable climate science and action at scale. And two, that this climate ecosystem depends on stable, trustworthy, and rigorously evaluated government investment. This is where Climate Reserve’s work comes in, tracking and strengthening the human infrastructure needed to sustain climate progress in the face of volatility and change.

Climate Reserve is a coalition-driven, philanthropically funded initiative launched in response to the federal disinvestment and fracturing of human infrastructure that started in early 2025 and continues under unprecedented strain. Our approach is two-fold, 1) helping stable institutions provide homes for personnel and projects jettisoned by the federal government, while 2) proactively connecting field-leading experts across science, policy, and frontline coordination to create new connective tissue where the climate ecosystem had been relying on federal coordination to hold it together.

This discourse has raised a fair question for us: whether philanthropy stepping in to re-home people and projects risks making federal disinvestment easier to absorb. Does a landing pad reduce the pressure to fix the underlying problem?

We believe the opposite is true. The people and networks this coalition has supported and helped re-home did not ignore this opportunity to raise their voice. They filed. Many spent hours arguing the federal government should fund science more rigorously, more transparently, and with stronger peer review, for institutions that, in a number of cases, no longer employ them.

All of this underscores a powerful truth, that the collective effort to affirm shared values is something worth protecting together. It also demonstrates that our scientific community remains deeply connected, that organizations are willing to work together across sectors, and shared principles still unite diverse stakeholders. And, that we can take advantage of this time to support new, movement generous ways of collaboration.

Climate Reserve is committed to carrying this spirit forward by convening the people and institutions whose collective expertise makes advancing meaningful climate action possible while strategically supporting stronger government interventions. Because durable climate solutions are not built by any one organization or sector, they depend on the enduring partnerships, shared standards, and mutual trust that connect us all.