the terms included a provision that if the PSF was found to have voilated that anti-DEI diktat, the NSF reserved the right to claw back any previously disbursed funds, Crary explained.

"This would create a situation where money we'd already spent could be taken back, which would be an enormous, open-ended financial risk," the PSF director added.

"Part of the problem here is all the uncertainties," Crary told us. "Even if we wanted to give up anything that might be considered [DEI] work - which we don't - part of the risk here is that all these restrictions are new, the language is very broad ... I had no interest in being the test case."

Sounds like a really awful deal; get some funding, but the unpredictable and corrupt US government gets opportunities to bankrupt you.