WHILE THE RIGHT IMAGINES A WAR ON CHRISTMAS, ITS WAGING ONE ON SCIENCE There used to be a few fringe members of the Republican congressional delegation who would regularly ignore scientific evidence when making public policy decisions. They were outliers in a party which could usually be counted on to reach some level of compromise on issues related to public health. That,however, is now just a quaint notion which has been completely abandoned by the GOP of today...and we got another example of it yesterday. The House voted 229-191 a bill which would change the rules for appointing members to the Science Advisory Board...with only four Democrats voting with the majority. The board is a group which gives scientific advice to the EPA Administrator. Also called the Science Advisory Board Reform Act, the bill would make it easier for scientists with financial ties to corporations to serve on the board, prohibit independent scientists from talking about their own research on the board, and make it more difficult for scientists who have applied for grants from the EPA to join the board. The Union of Concerned Scientists has come out strongly against the bill, particularly the portion that says SAB members can not participate in discussions that cite their own peer-reviewed research. Republicans say this would make scientists biased for their own work — but scientists say this makes no sense. “This [bill] effectively turns the idea of conflict of interest on its head, with the bizarre presumption that corporate experts with direct financial interests are not conflicted while academics who work on these issues are, the group’s director, Andrew A. Rosenberg, said in a letter to Congress. “Of course, a scientist with expertise on topics the Science Advisory Board addresses likely will have done peer-reviewed studies on that topic. That makes the scientist’s evaluation more valuable, not less.” Fortunately, Democrats still control the Senate and would not let such nonsense pass and the president says hell veto the bill if it reaches his desk. But fair warning... this is a harbinger of things to come next year when Republicans will control both houses of the legislature. Its one thing for individual members of congress to deny the value of science (whether out of sincere belief or because they are beholden to corporate donors with a vested interest in keeping scientific evidence out of policy considerations). It is quite another thing for all but one member of the Republican caucus to agree to prevent science from even being considered on Capitol Hill. Im in favor of funding a scientific study to find out how right wingers can breathe with their heads buried so deeply in the sand.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 18:28:19 +0000
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