Washington

Last week I mentioned an upcoming hearing by the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to "Examine Allegations of Political Interference with Government Climate Change Science." The hearing happened on Monday (19 March), and it even got a bit of media coverage in the process. The testimony of the witnesses can be downloaded here. I reported last week that a video would also be available on the site (as this is what I was told by the person who informed me about the hearing), and looking at past hearings, this seems to be the standard policy. Since no video has yet been…

First, the good news, though. Phil Plait (of the Bad Astronomy Blog) reports today at The Huffington Post that the House just passed HR 985, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. As he notes, scientists have plenty of reasons to be happy about this: Scientists in government agencies (NASA, NOAA, FDA, etc), laboring for years under the heavy cloud of scientific suppression, can now feel safer if they want to call foul. And call foul they will, since there has been cripplingly obvious, sweeping, and routine suppression of scientific findings for the past few years. There's no need…

(See update here.) The Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform--chaired by Henry Waxman--will hold part two of its "Hearing to Examine Allegations of Political Interference with Government Climate Change Science" on Monday, 19 March, at 10:00 am EST. The full witness list is supposed to be made available later today (Update: It looks like the list isn't going to be posted today, but hopefully it will be sometime soon). To see it (once it's posted), and to watch the video of the hearing (once the hearing has begun), go to the committee's schedule page. The witness list…

I've been openly skeptical of the shift to the right that we've seen lately by those vying for the Republican nomination for the presidency. Although my skepticism is targeted more at the inevitable swing to the center that their rhetoric will surely take after the primaries (despite the continued influence that the right wing voters courted now will continue to have if one of them is elected president), it's only fair to address the obvious question: should we be as skeptical of those on the Democratic side? Although we have not seen as stark a shift in the front runners on the Democratic…

Although the Bush Administration has already proven itself pretty effective at interfering with science and regulation through existing channels, yesterday's New York Times reports that this wasn't quite enough: President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy. In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political…

One of the primary goals of Congress since the Democrats' stunning November 2006 election victory has been restoring federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. President Bush first imposed the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in August 2001. After the House voted in May 2005 to overturn these restrictions, the Republican Senate stalled for over a year before finally voting in favor of reversing the funding ban as well in July 2006. Bush vetoed this legislation later that month, and both the House and the Senate were short the necessary 2/3 majority to override the veto.…

Mandatory sentencing laws are disliked by many, and for good reason. Judges often criticize these laws for taking away their judicial sovereignty, while others decry the inherent disparity in which they affect minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. They often lead to inordinately severe punishments for arguably minor, generally drug-related, crimes. The good news is that, as The New York Times reported yesterday, there is reason to believe that some of the more extreme of these mandatory sentencing laws may change under the new Democratic Congress. Examples of why these laws…

One of the most significant anticipated results for many--particularly within the scientific community--of a Democratic victory on Election Day was going to be a new-found ability to hold in check the Bush Administration and its penchant for political interference in science. It appears that the Democrats are looking to make good on their promise, and to do so in an impressively proactive way, by making oversight of the Bush Administration a top priority for the incoming Congress. This oversight will include taking on political interference in science and environmental issues, as Roll Call…

As the Republicans try to pick up the pieces of their Election Day loss last week, one of the things they have to do is select their new Congressional leadership. Most of their choices haven't been too surprising, including their choice for House Minority Leader, John Boehner (R-Ohio). As House Majority leader, Boehner had previously held the second highest Republican rank in the House, and he has now been elevated to the highest. Although most of the press coverage has painted him as a moderate choice, over the conservative Mike Pence (R-Indiana), a look at Boehner's record would…

With the election results almost completely finalized, it's time to reflect on what they mean. Make no mistake about it, Tuesday demonstrated a true mandate for the Democrats. The Democrats achieved a majority in both the Senate and the House, picking up 6 seats and 29 seats, respectively. The Democrats did not lose any seats in either house. In total votes, the Democrats had a 13.4% advantage over the Republicans in Senate races and 5.6% advantage in House races (this shows that, in the Senate in particular, the 2 seat advantage that the Democrats hold hardly does them justice). The main…

It has just been announced that unpopular Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is "stepping down". This is no doubt a positive step for the Bush Administration, the nation, and the world as a whole, but it comes as too little too late, as the disastrous Iraq war has already cost the lives of almost 3,000 troops and hundreds of thousands of others. What's interesting about this story, to me at least, is who President Bush has nominated to replace Rumsfield: former CIA Director (under George Bush, Sr.) and current Texas A&M University president Dr. Robert Gates. Gates has already turned…

There is so much to say about the importance of today's election, but not a great deal that hasn't already been spelled out time and time again. Most importantly, if you haven't already voted, go vote today! Hopefully you'll have time to research the individual races and find out where the candidates stand on the important issues, particularly those related to science. Either way, though, if you are concerned and disheartened with the direction our nation has taken lately, and if you want to ease the suffering that U.S. science has been forced to endure, you'll probably be voting…

Yesterday's Washington Post reported that several environmental groups have obtained strong evidence that Bush Administration political appointee and deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks Julie MacDonald has actively censored scientific information and given elevated and inappropriate consideration to non-environmental concerns in order to prevent the adding of new species to the Endangered Species list. The Union of Concerned Scientists, one of the original organizations to make the revelation, has detailed information on the actions of MacDonald and…

Over at Retrospectacle, Shelley reports on a Forbes article detailing the impressive degree to which various billionaires are picking up the slack left in the wake of restrictive Bush Administration regulations on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. From the original article: Since the ban, federal funding of embryonic stem-cell work has risen to all of $40 million a year, just one-fifth of the money for other kinds of stem cells and a pittance in the $20 billion research budget of the government's National Institutes of Health. But Eli Broad and a few other billionaires--some…

With a name like Ready.gov, the Department of Homeland Security's emergency preparedness website isn't particularly modest about its objectives. However, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) claims that the site isn't living up to its mission. Instead of just complaining about it, though, FAS has put its money where its mouth is: it made its own site, ReallyReady.org. Here's the best part. Instead of spending millions of dollars and involving who knows how many people, ReallyReady.org was created by one FAS intern, Emily Hesaltine, as a summer project. Whoa. Now, before I go on, I…

After it passed in the Senate on Tuesday, Bush proved he was as stubborn as promised and vetoed HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, on Wednesday. This was another step backwards for science in the US and a clear violation of the will of the American People. What a shame.

I'm on vacation right now, but I had to come out of hiding for this one. HR 810 passed in the senate today, 63-37. That was enough to meet the 60 vote mark for passage, but it won't be enough (four votes short) to override the presidential veto that Bush is still promising. The future of stem cell research in America still very much hangs in the balance.

It has been announced that the highly anticipated debate and vote in the Senate on HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, will take place on July 17th and 18th (next Monday and Tuesday). This is great news, but there's a catch. Although supporters of the bill (i.e. 70% of Americans) have already been troubled by Bush's continued stubborn insistence on vetoing the bill when it reaches his desk, there are now worries that HR 810 may not have the 60 votes it needs to pass, as Michael Stebbins reports at Sex Drugs & DNA. He's urging his readers to call their Senators' offices to…

Bush's plans to veto HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, after it is likely passed by the Senate sometime this year have generated quite a bit of notice over the last couple of days. If it were allowed to go through, the bill would effectively overturn Bush's currently standing restrictions that prevent federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Although this latest flurry of attention was sparked by Monday's report from the Denver Post that Karl Rove has reaffirmed Bush's veto plans, this is by no means a new finding, since Bush has been threatening this all along…

On the 29th of June, the Senate finally announced an upcoming vote on HR 810, a bill which would overturn President Bush's current prohibitions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. As I reported before, the announcement has been anticipated for some time, and many were disappointed when the one year anniversary of the passage of HR 810 in the House of Representatives (on May 24th) came and went without any progress in the Senate. The media coverage of this event has mostly been unexceptional, not particularly good or bad, although probably overly optimistic considering the…