The National Academies of Science faces mounting political pressure over a pending climate attribution report that could impact fossil fuel liability cases. Founded during the Civil War to advise government, the organization has historically avoided political controversy while producing authoritative scientific assessments.

Republican state attorneys general successfully pressured the Federal Judicial Center to remove a climate change chapter from the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, claiming bias from contributors involved in climate litigation. When the National Academies refused to follow suit, eleven House Republicans urged the Office of Management and Budget to investigate suspending the organization's federal funding.

The dispute centers on attribution science—the ability to link individual extreme weather events to human-driven climate change. Researchers now use sophisticated tools to determine whether disasters would occur without greenhouse gas influence, potentially making fossil fuel companies liable for damages. Oil companies have hired third parties to obtain committee members' emails from public universities.

President Marcia McNutt has largely ignored Trump-era attacks on science in her annual addresses, but this strategy hasn't shielded the Academies from Republican scrutiny. The escalating conflict threatens both the organization's credibility and science-based policy development in the US.