It's hard to keep up with the deluge of EOs, but this one, on "Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking," is a good one. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/memorandum-on-restoring-trust-in-government-through-scientific-integrity-and-evidence-based-policymaking/

The keyword here is "scientific integrity."

The EO establishes an interagency task force, run through the National Science and Technology Council, to "conduct a thorough review of the effectiveness of agency scientific-integrity policies."

It requires all federal agencies with scientific responsibilities to establish, implement, and report on their scientific integrity policies.

This part is very interesting: It requires all federal agencies that conduct scientific research to "designate a senior agency employee for the role of chief science officer, science advisor, or chief scientist (“Chief Science Officer”)."

A related bit (Sec. 7) encourages (but does not seem to require?) external scientific advisory committees.

The only part that gives me pause is Section 5, on "evidence-based policymaking." This gets tricky--as we've seen through the EPA's Transparency Rule, it's remarkably easy to weaponize what counts as "the best evidence."

But overall: This EO is a sweeping order to reassess and repair the role of scientific and technical expertise across the entire federal government. And wow, is that needed.

Several commentators have rightly pointed out the unusual emphasis on "behavioral science methods" and "evaluations" in the evidence-based section, e.g.: https://twitter.com/MattGrossmann/status/1354571228489658369?s=20

And here's a great specifically on the scientific advisory committee provision: https://twitter.com/Martha_Kinsella/status/1354613919332126725?s=20