If John Marburger breezes through his Senate confirmation hearings as easily as expected, then he will arrive at the Old Executive Office Building for his first day as President Bush’s science adviser in early September. He will be entering an intense, high-risk world where the laws of nature are governed more by power politics than scientific facts. His job, according to those who have preceded him, is about policy and politics that are affected by science, but it is clearly not “doing science.”
Marburger, the director of Brookhaven National Laboratory when tapped by Bush, earned a PhD in applied physics from Stanford University and worked on nonlinear optics for a decade, but much of his career has involved tackling political controversies stemming from science. When the White House announced Marburger’s nomination in late June, officials cited his wide range of experience, including 14 years as the president of SUNY Stony Brook. While at Stony Brook, he also headed the Universities Research Association during the political wars surrounding the Superconducting Super Collider.
Marburger became Brookhaven’s director in 1998, when the lab was mired in a controversy with environmental groups over the leakage of small amounts of tritium from the High Flux Beam Reactor. The reactor was shut down and the lab is no longer at odds with the local environmentalists.
Good blend of skills
According to scientists who know Marburger, he clearly has the scientific, managerial, and leadership skills to be a first-rate science adviser. However, some are concerned that his job will be especially challenging because science and technology might not be high presidential priorities.
To discover what Marburger is likely to face as he becomes an administration insider, Physics Today asked several former presidential science advisers what advice they would give him.
More than anything else, they said Marburger needs to understand exactly what he is getting himself into. “I would tell him to go into the job with his eyes as wide open as possible,” said Jack Gibbons, a science adviser to President Bill Clinton. “He has to know the conditions of his job.”
Each of the advisers said access to the president is critical. Through direct contact, the science adviser not only can discuss policy with the president, but he gains status as a true “insider,” an invaluable asset when dealing with the federal bureaucracy.
In addition to Gibbons, Physics Today spoke with former science advisers Neal Lane, D. Allan Bromley, Jay Keyworth, Frank Press, and Edward David. Here are some of the insights each offered.
Edward David (served President Richard Nixon, 1970–73). “He’s got to understand what political input to decision making in the science office is like,” David said of Marburger. “The science adviser has to stay apart from politics as much as possible.”
David became Nixon’s science adviser after the president’s anger about scientific opposition to an antiballistic missile system and a supersonic passenger aircraft forced physicist Lee DuBridge out of the post. “Those things had a political side, but you’ve got to keep the science office free of agendas and politics,” David said. “Ideology is the enemy of science.”
He noted the similarities between the antiballistic missile issue and the questions Marburger will encounter with the current missile defense controversy. “A science adviser shouldn’t say, ‘I’ll support going ahead with this [missile defense],’ ” David said. “Instead, you detail the science concerns with the program. You’re not advocating a position, you’re discussing the problems and options.”
Access to Nixon was “always an arm wrestle,” David said. “The people who control the president’s schedule are the people you have to convince that you have something to say that’s relevant and critical. You don’t just walk into the Oval Office.” Nixon abolished the science adviser position soon after his 1972 reelection.
Frank Press (served President Jimmy Carter, 1977–80). “All he [Marburger] can do is give the best advice he can, and whether or not it is followed is a political decision,” Press said. Carter, with his nuclear engineering background, understood science, Press said. But occasionally, “he made decisions contrary to my advice. I understood that he was making a political decision. Many issues that rise to the level of the president have significant scientific or technological elements. In the charged political environment of the White House, the best that can be hoped for is that the president’s political decision will be informed by consultation with the science adviser.”
Press worried that Marburger would have difficulty breaking into Bush’s inner circle. “This appointment is late in the game and a lot of assessments have been made and people have gotten to know each other. But Marburger is an experienced administrator and I’m sure he’s thought of that.”
Dealing with controversy
Jay Keyworth (served President Ronald Reagan, 1981–85). “I found it interesting that the president chose someone who has unusual skills in areas of public controversy,” Keyworth said. He cited global warming, stem cell research, and ballistic missile defense as the “big three” issues for which Marburger’s ability to “negotiate minefields” will be tested.
He noted that the “science adviser needs to view the world the same way Bush does.” That shouldn’t be difficult, he said, because the view of many scientists that Bush is running against the mainstream of scientific thought on the “big three” issues “is a gross oversimplification.” The problem isn’t with Bush, but with a “highly polarized” scientific community that is “out of phase” on such issues as missile defense, he said.
“If John Marburger serves the president well on issues that are highly controversial, then other issues of concern to scientists will get more attention,” he said. “The White House is a small, high-profile, high-risk organization. It is crucial that, if you’re going to succeed, you’re going to have to carry water for the president, take risks, and carry the agenda forward. That’s how you get things done.”
D. Allan Bromley (served President George H. W. Bush, 1989–93). “The entire success of any science adviser depends critically on a personal relationship with the president and, in this administration, the vice president, [and on] good relations with the Office of Management and Budget [OMB] and congressional leaders,” Bromley said. “He [Marburger] should spend substantial time talking to leaders in the House and Senate. And what is often forgotten is their staff members. It is a personal thing. You have to go around from office to office and meet them.”
Bromley also cited the “inner circle” problem Marburger is likely to face. “You have to spend time earning your way in, and you have to realize that some of them will help you and some will exploit you. One of the real problems is jealousy about how much publicity you’re getting. Most science advisers don’t appreciate how tightly coupled the White House public relations system is to everything you do. An off-the-cuff remark can raise hell with a carefully crafted presidential campaign. Everything you say is on stage.”
Marburger, who described himself as a “lifelong Democrat” after his nomination was announced, needs to be acutely aware of the partisan nature of working in Washington, Bromley said. Partisan perceptions matter, he said, and whether you are a Democrat or Republican, to survive as the science adviser “you cannot have your own agenda. And if you find you can’t support the president on a critical issue, then the only honorable thing to do is resign.”
Jack Gibbons (served President Clinton, 1993–98). “Politics is a very personal thing and you have to be a part of the community,” Gibbons said. His advice to Marburger, beyond making sure he has access to Bush, proper staffing levels in his office, and a standing invitation to cabinet meetings, is to get dining privileges at the White House cafeteria. “I told Neal Lane [who succeeded Gibbons as science adviser] to go over and eat at the staff table in the White House mess. It is the community you have to be a part of.” Fitting into that community at this point may be difficult, Gibbons said, because “the musical chairs are all filled, so if you’re going in there now, you’re going in standing.”
Marburger should be the White House representative for noncabinet-level science agencies such as NASA and NSF, he said, so it is important that he get to know the people in those agencies. Marburger should also participate in agency budget hearings at the OMB. “The OMB doesn’t like to be told what to do, so you have to be seen as on their side.”
Gibbons emphasized that the rank of the appointment is important. “You are the science minister of the United States and where you stand within the administration is where you sit in dealing with the outside world. If you don’t have the rank, others don’t pay attention to you.”
Making the connections
Neal Lane (served President Clinton, 1998–2001). “What you tend to find in the White House are people who are not scientists, who are extremely good at what they are doing, but who tend not to realize the important connections between science and technology and their areas of expertise. Getting them to realize those connections comes from establishing personal relationships.”
Clinton liked science, which made access less of an issue than in many other administrations, Lane said. “I used events to talk with the president. The John Glenn launch, the human genome first draft announcement, Nobel laureates coming in—all were opportunities. And President Clinton was a reader. All of his senior staff sent him reports—mine was two pages with bullets—every week. I’d tell him about the status of science and technology issues and about research breakthroughs in physics or astronomy and other fields.”
As science adviser, “you must be loyal to the president, but give him your best scientific advice,” Lane said. “Then you support the president even if you don’t like the decision. You deal with questions from the scientific community by explaining that there were other considerations. If the science is so overwhelming that it is hard to justify another direction in policy, well, that’s life in the White House.”
A high-energy position: John Marburger, standing beside a Brookhaven accelerator, should be confirmed by the Senate as President Bush’s science adviser. Brookhaven has begun a search for a new director.
A high-energy position: John Marburger, standing beside a Brookhaven accelerator, should be confirmed by the Senate as President Bush’s science adviser. Brookhaven has begun a search for a new director.
