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Science Returns to the House
The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology may finally live up to its name.
The Democratic control of the House means science will get higher billing in the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, which, despite its name, has been run by Republicans science deniers since 2010.
Texas Congressman Ralph Hall was chair for two years before Lamar Smith (R-Texas) took over in 2013. Hall was like a warm-up for Smith’s reign, telling National Journal in 2011, “I don’t think we can control what God controls” when it comes to climate and accusing scientists of manipulating their evidence. Smith took his chairmanship to new lengths, using subpoena power against scientists in order to uncover a smoking gun in what he referred to as the “extreme climate agenda.”
The committee would have been in for major changes next year no matter what party controlled the House, because 70-year old Smith announced his plans to retire earlier this year.
There will be radical changes coming, according to Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat who is a ranking member of the committee and likely to become the next chair. A former chief psychiatric nurse, she would be the first House Science chair with a STEM background since the 1990s, according to Washington Post reporter Sarah Kaplan.
Johnson has already laid out her priorities for the future of the committee, should she become chair. They include “defending the scientific enterprise from political and ideological attacks, and challenging misguided or harmful Administration actions.” Another priority will be to acknowledge climate change is real “and working to understand the ways we can mitigate it.” And, lastly, she called to “Restore the credibility of the Science Committee as a place where science is respected and recognized as a crucial input to good policymaking.” Democrats would have the power to investigate the EPA’s changes to its scientific advisory boards and its use of science in regulatory policy, for starters.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/11/eddie-bernice-johnson-science-returns-to-the-house/
The Democratic control of the House means science will get higher billing in the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, which, despite its name, has been run by Republicans science deniers since 2010.
Texas Congressman Ralph Hall was chair for two years before Lamar Smith (R-Texas) took over in 2013. Hall was like a warm-up for Smith’s reign, telling National Journal in 2011, “I don’t think we can control what God controls” when it comes to climate and accusing scientists of manipulating their evidence. Smith took his chairmanship to new lengths, using subpoena power against scientists in order to uncover a smoking gun in what he referred to as the “extreme climate agenda.”
The committee would have been in for major changes next year no matter what party controlled the House, because 70-year old Smith announced his plans to retire earlier this year.
There will be radical changes coming, according to Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat who is a ranking member of the committee and likely to become the next chair. A former chief psychiatric nurse, she would be the first House Science chair with a STEM background since the 1990s, according to Washington Post reporter Sarah Kaplan.
Johnson has already laid out her priorities for the future of the committee, should she become chair. They include “defending the scientific enterprise from political and ideological attacks, and challenging misguided or harmful Administration actions.” Another priority will be to acknowledge climate change is real “and working to understand the ways we can mitigate it.” And, lastly, she called to “Restore the credibility of the Science Committee as a place where science is respected and recognized as a crucial input to good policymaking.” Democrats would have the power to investigate the EPA’s changes to its scientific advisory boards and its use of science in regulatory policy, for starters.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/11/eddie-bernice-johnson-science-returns-to-the-house/
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