In frenzied vote, Mexico’s lawmakers pass controversial science reform bill | Science

A controversial effort by Mexico’s president to reshape the nation’s research funding and governance system has reached a chaotic conclusion that clears the way for the bill to become law. Many scientists strongly oppose the measure, saying it will tighten government control over science. But it was approved in a rapid-fire series of votes last week, including one on 29 April when senators from the ruling party abandoned their chamber because of a protest and passed the measure after just 14 minutes of debate, with no opposition lawmakers present.

The frenzied maneuvering could expose the bill to legal challenges, observers say. The process was “full of legislative procedural flaws” that will likely “be fought in the courts,” says Alma Cristal Hernández Mondragón, president of the Mexican Association for the Advancement of Science and a policy specialist at the National Polytechnic Institute’s Center for Research and Advanced Studies.

The Senate move capped several years of often fierce debate over the legislation, which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration has said is needed to streamline policymaking and bolster government support for basic and applied research. After many scientists objected to a first draft released in late 2020—in part because they said it gave too much power to Mexico’s central funding agency, the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt)—the administration said it would revise the plan. But that revision, presented to congress in December 2022, did little to quell many scientists’ concerns. And critics say the now-approved version retains a number of problematic provisions.

One that has drawn notice eliminates a semi-independent panel that helps the government set research priorities and includes a relatively wide range of representatives from the public and private sectors. It would be replaced by a new group with a narrower membership that sits beneath a new agency, the National Council for the Humanities, Sciences, Technologies and Innovation (Conahcti), which will replace Conacyt. Hernández Mondragón fears the new panel will exclude “voices that can contribute” to policy debates. And the Mexican Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has expressed concern that the law could restrict “freedom of research” by giving the new agency greater control.

Other researchers worry about provisions that make it harder for researchers at Mexico’s private universities to compete for government grants. The law favors public universities and will result in “discriminatory treatment” of researchers and students at private institutions, says David René Romero Camarena, a genome scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which is a public institution.

The law also abandons a goal, backed in previous legislation, of spending 1% of Mexico’s gross domestic product on research. Although the nation has never reached that goal, researchers worry the move signifies a rollback of Mexico’s scientific ambitions.

In a statement after the vote, Conacyt defended the measure, calling it “an historic milestone” that will protect “the human right to science and knowledge” and help address “urgent national problems.” It rejected charges that the law would centralize power and said “it does not disdain research done at private universities.”

Some scientists are encouraged by provisions that call for work on behalf of the environment and disadvantaged communities. “It will help many who were not privileged before,” says Martha Ileana Espejel Carbajal, a social ecologist who recently retired from the Autonomous University of Baja California. “It is the first time in 40 years of being a research professor that the law asks to do what my team has always struggled to defend: the work with the most marginalized communities, with women, with youth, with social and ecological systems.” The measure may have flaws, she adds, but “every law is perfectible.”

Science groups, however, fault lawmakers for breaking promises to consult with the public and scientists. They note that Mexico’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, held just two of seven promised public hearings before moving to rapidly approve the bill on 26 April by a vote of 257 to 209.

Researchers were still surprised—and ­angry—about that vote when the Senate took up the bill 2 days later. Initially, it appeared the Senate would not vote on the measure before it recessed on 30 April because opposition lawmakers seized the dais to protest actions by the ruling bloc. But senators from López Obrador’s Morena party and their allies moved to a nearby venue, where they passed the science bill and 18 other measures in a few frenzied hours.

The new law is likely to face court challenges. But whatever the outcome, Romero Camarena says he’s optimistic. “Mexican scientists have had to face a great number of obstacles,” he says. “This is one more obstacle that we will be able to overcome.”

A controversial effort by Mexico’s president to reshape the nation’s research funding and governance system has reached a chaotic conclusion that clears the way for the bill to become law. Many scientists strongly oppose the measure, saying it will tighten government control over science. But it was approved in a rapid-fire series of votes last week, including one on 29 April when senators from the ruling party abandoned their chamber because of a protest and passed the measure after just 14 minutes of debate, with no opposition lawmakers present.

The frenzied maneuvering could expose the bill to legal challenges, observers say. The process was “full of legislative procedural flaws” that will likely “be fought in the courts,” says Alma Cristal Hernández Mondragón, president of the Mexican Association for the Advancement of Science and a policy specialist at the National Polytechnic Institute’s Center for Research and Advanced Studies.

The Senate move capped several years of often fierce debate over the legislation, which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration has said is needed to streamline policymaking and bolster government support for basic and applied research. After many scientists objected to a first draft released in late 2020—in part because they said it gave too much power to Mexico’s central funding agency, the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt)—the administration said it would revise the plan. But that revision, presented to congress in December 2022, did little to quell many scientists’ concerns. And critics say the now-approved version retains a number of problematic provisions.

One that has drawn notice eliminates a semi-independent panel that helps the government set research priorities and includes a relatively wide range of representatives from the public and private sectors. It would be replaced by a new group with a narrower membership that sits beneath a new agency, the National Council for the Humanities, Sciences, Technologies and Innovation (Conahcti), which will replace Conacyt. Hernández Mondragón fears the new panel will exclude “voices that can contribute” to policy debates. And the Mexican Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has expressed concern that the law could restrict “freedom of research” by giving the new agency greater control.

Other researchers worry about provisions that make it harder for researchers at Mexico’s private universities to compete for government grants. The law favors public universities and will result in “discriminatory treatment” of researchers and students at private institutions, says David René Romero Camarena, a genome scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which is a public institution.

The law also abandons a goal, backed in previous legislation, of spending 1% of Mexico’s gross domestic product on research. Although the nation has never reached that goal, researchers worry the move signifies a rollback of Mexico’s scientific ambitions.

In a statement after the vote, Conacyt defended the measure, calling it “an historic milestone” that will protect “the human right to science and knowledge” and help address “urgent national problems.” It rejected charges that the law would centralize power and said “it does not disdain research done at private universities.”

Some scientists are encouraged by provisions that call for work on behalf of the environment and disadvantaged communities. “It will help many who were not privileged before,” says Martha Ileana Espejel Carbajal, a social ecologist who recently retired from the Autonomous University of Baja California. “It is the first time in 40 years of being a research professor that the law asks to do what my team has always struggled to defend: the work with the most marginalized communities, with women, with youth, with social and ecological systems.” The measure may have flaws, she adds, but “every law is perfectible.”

Science groups, however, fault lawmakers for breaking promises to consult with the public and scientists. They note that Mexico’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, held just two of seven promised public hearings before moving to rapidly approve the bill on 26 April by a vote of 257 to 209.

Researchers were still surprised—and ­angry—about that vote when the Senate took up the bill 2 days later. Initially, it appeared the Senate would not vote on the measure before it recessed on 30 April because opposition lawmakers seized the dais to protest actions by the ruling bloc. But senators from López Obrador’s Morena party and their allies moved to a nearby venue, where they passed the science bill and 18 other measures in a few frenzied hours.

The new law is likely to face court challenges. But whatever the outcome, Romero Camarena says he’s optimistic. “Mexican scientists have had to face a great number of obstacles,” he says. “This is one more obstacle that we will be able to overcome.”