House Science Committee chairman accuses DOE of retaliation against scientist

The US Department of Energy fired a scientist who deviated from the agency’s official position when she briefed House Science, Space, and Technology Committee staff in October 2014, according to a 20 December report by committee Republicans.

The report alleges that Noelle Metting, former program manager for the Low Dose Radiation Research Program (LDRRP) in DOE’s Office of Science, was fired “for providing too much information” in response to staff questions. At the time of the briefing, the committee was considering legislation to authorize continuation of the LDRRP, which examines the health effects of low doses of radiation. The Low-Dose Radiation Research Act passed the House in 2015, but the Senate failed to act on it.

“Much has been revealed about how senior level agency officials under the Obama administration retaliated against a scientist who did not follow the party line,” House Science Committee chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) said in a statement about the report.

The Obama administration had proposed to terminate the LDRRP in fiscal year 2016 and provide $1 million for its “orderly closeout.” A small research effort was maintained until October 2016, when DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) advisory committee called for the program to be shut down. No funds were requested for the LDRRP in FY 2017, and BER is not currently funding any low-dose radiation research, a DOE spokesperson says.

The Science Committee report concludes that Obama administration officials sought to hide information and lobby against the LDRRP legislation. At a 21 September 2016 hearing, Sharlene Weatherwax, associate director of the Office of Science for BER, denied that she and her associates had lobbied. She said her office’s science portfolio has shifted toward bioenergy, biodesign, and environmental microbiology missions.

The report says Metting was fired for insubordination, after superiors who were present at the 2014 briefing accused her of advocating the continuation of her program. In testimony delivered at the September 2016 hearing, Metting said she had simply responded to staffers’ questions. She noted that the other DOE officials had made no attempt to interrupt or correct her during the briefing. The report also asserts that Metting had been fired for “her failure to confine the discussion at the briefing to pre-approved talking points” and that the other DOE officials were deliberately attempting “to squash the prospects of Senate support” for the LDRRP-authorizing legislation.

The DOE spokesperson said the agency would not comment on personnel matters. At the September hearing, Weatherwax said that a number of issues, including some that were unrelated to the briefing, contributed to Metting’s firing in February 2015. Metting appealed her termination and reached a settlement in which she was rehired to a job in DOE’s Office of Environment, Health, Safety, and Security.

The LDRRP was created in 1998 to assess the effects to human health of radiation doses of less than 100 millisieverts. The average person receives an annual dose of 3 millisieverts from natural sources. The program, which has received more than $250 million, has found no definitive evidence that there is a dosage threshold below which the risk of cancer is zero, Weatherwax said in September.

Republicans on the Science Committee have argued that the LDRRP is needed to understand the effects of the radiation that patients receive from computed tomography and positron emission tomography scans. They also say that the program’s research could help in assessing the impacts of a dirty bomb or a nuclear accident.