# National Science Board > [!note] Stub > This is a short entry that hasn't been fully written yet. The **National Science Board** is the governing and oversight body of the [[National Science Foundation]], created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950. It sets the Foundation's policies, approves its budget request, and is the body through which outside scientists formally oversee the main federal funder of non-medical basic research. Its members are presidentially appointed to six-year terms. On 24 April 2026 all twenty-two sitting members were removed at once. No reason was given publicly. The removals drew condemnation from House Science Committee Democrats and were widely covered in the scientific press. **Why it matters.** The Board is a useful illustration of a structural point about federal advisory bodies: because Congress created it by statute, no executive action can abolish it. What happened instead was depopulation. The Board still exists in law, with no one sitting on it — a route that reaches a statutory body where termination cannot, and that publishes no notice when it is used. ## See also - [[Federal Advisory Committee Structure Tree]] — the five ways an advisory body stops functioning, and why depopulation is the only one that reaches a statutory board - [[National Science Foundation]] — the agency the Board governs - [[Federal Agencies Hub]] · [[Foundations Hub]]