In case you didn’t hear, there was an election last week.
Now that we’ve all had a chance to cool off, or maybe celebrate, exactly what impact a Republican Senate majority will have,
besides not being forced to endure political ads for the next year and a half?
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Grumpy cat is obviously happy about the end of the election
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The bipolar trend of scientific issues
like
climate change,
nutrition,
and
energy is dangerous to our country, and even the world.
Despite the incredibly partisan politics in
the U.S., conservatives are not always bad for science, and Democrats are not always good for it. Overall, Democrats and
Republicans both support funding science and technology, but differ on which
science to fund, and how much money to give it.
As my first ever post outlined,
science
funding is necessary to keep the U.S. a world leader and to reduce the
budget deficit. Historically, Republicans and Democrats alike have supported
funding agencies like NASA and the NSF across the board. However, as congress
has become more polarized, science funding has been another victim of
Democrats
versus Republicans, instead
of Democrats
and Republicans. But
what are the implications of the newly elected Republican Senate?
A
new
majority means committees in the senate are shifted from Democratic chairs
to Republican chairs, and there is a new Senate Majority Leader. These
positions will become official in January. Who are they, and what will they do
for or against science?
Senate Majority
Leader: Mitch McConnell
The new Senate Majority Leader will be Mitch McConnell, a senator
from Kentucky. The Senate Majority
Leader is elected by his or her party, and serves as the chief Senate
spokesperson. He or she is also given priority to speak on the floor.
Mitch McConnell has vowed to fight Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) regulations, which have been a large part of the President’s
climate change agenda. McConnell wants to fight any EPA restrictions on
carbon dioxide, which could potentially prevent the shut down some coal-fired
power plants in his home state.
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| McConnell is making it his priority to limit the power of the EPA |
In addition, McConnell and his Republican senate majority
are demanding the approval of the Keystone Pipeline, which would transport oil
from Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries. McConnell is strongly in
favor of
fossil
fuel development over supporting the development of
biofuels
and other renewable energy, which could have lasting harmful environmental effects.
Appropriations
Committee: Thad Cochran
The Appropriations committee is responsible for passing
basically all Senate-approved science funding. They oversee the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), National Science Foundation (NSF), and NASA. Luckily,
Thad Cochran supports increased funding for NASA, and was one of few
Republicans who voted to protect ocean ecosystems.
The Appropriations Committee oversees a number of
subcommittees. Richard Shelby will head the NASA, NIST, and NOAA subcommittee.
Shelby is a self-proclaimed supporter of biomedical research after his wife
suffered from lupus. He believes funding the NIH will help the economy prosper.
Jerry Moran will chair the NIH subcommittee. Moran is also a self-proclaimed
supporter of increased science funding, and was recently awarded the Champion
of Science Award from the University of Kansas.
Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions: Lamar Alexander
This committee is in charge of federal education and
biomedical research policy. Lamar Alexander served as George W. Bush's secretary of education, and was largely criticized for offering more support to private universities than public. However, Alexander has a small, but positive record on science. The Science
Coalition awarded him the Champion of Science Award in 2008, and a species of springtail was named after him for his funding support for the research used in its discovery. He is considered
one of the most bipartisan republicans in congress.
Commerce, Science,
and Transportation: John Thune or Ted Cruz
This committee is in charge of all nonmedical civilian
science policy. It supports funding for green technology, space sciences,
atmospheric and weather sciences research and development.
Sources
are conflicting on which of these senators will be the new chair of the committee.
Many have speculated that Ted Cruz, a known and loud climate skeptic, will be the new chair. He has
questioned
scientists, claiming (he is not a scientist, but…) their data does not
support their argument He has pushed for a reduction in NASA funding. And perhaps most
notably, Cruz was the face of the government shutdown that continues to be
detrimental to scientific funding.
John Thune has been named by AAAS as the likely new chair. Thune is
slightly
friendlier on environmental issues than Cruz, as he is
one of
the eight Republicans who believe in climate change (out of 278). He has
mostly voted down climate change legislation, but some of his votes have been
against oil companies. Though he is not the ideal person to chair a committee
to fund renewable energy and climate research, he is better than Ted Cruz.
Environmental Public
Works: James Inhofe
The Environmental Public Works committee oversees the EPA
and its regulations as well as climate change legislation. Unfortunately, James
Inhofe is arguably the most adamant global warming skeptic in the entire
Senate. He wrote a book titled
The
Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.
While I would never recommend this book to anybody, I do recommend reading the
reviews on Amazon for some free entertainment.
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Stephen Colbert summarizes “The Republicans’ Inspiring
Climate Change Message”
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Ultimately, Inhofe taking over the chair of this committee
is the end of climate change legislation in the senate. He and Mitch McConnell
have made it their goal to limit any power the EPA has to help slow climate
change, which would devastate any progress we have made on the issue.
Energy and Natural
Resources: Lisa Murkowski
This committee oversees public lands and energy development
(think National Parks and the Bureau of Land Management). Murkowski has already begun making
plans
to permit drilling on federal lands and waters. She also would like to get rid
of federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing and leave those regulations up
to the states.
Murkowski has publicly endorsed the Keystone Pipeline and has
called for the Commerce Department to end a 39-year-old ban on crude oil
exports. In addition, Murkowski supports coal remaining as a key energy source
in the U.S., which contributes the most greenhouse
gas emissions of any fossil fuel.
Despite Murkowski’s plans to expand fossil fuel development,
she has acknowledged climate change and has endorsed incentive-based energy
efficiency programs instead of carbon reduction. She has also indicated that
she supports research and development of "technology neutral" energy storage technology to prevent
political favors to certain industries.
So, what does this
mean for the next 2 years of science?
Although some of these outlooks are grim, some of the new
Republican leaders will continue supporting science at or above the rates of
their Democratic counterparts. Scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) continue to hand out
reports
of the damaging
effects
of climate change and how we need continue to increase efforts to battle it over the next decade.
If there is enough public pressure to take action on such an
important issue, perhaps political party will have no influence over the
actions politicians will take on climate change. Contact your Senators, your
House members, and your President, demanding that this issue be taken more
seriously. As I have stated before, our future quite literally depends on it.
Although Senate probably won’t increase scientific research
funding, they also probably won’t make any more cuts to it with the current
Republican committee chairs. Committee members for non-environmental related
funding are strong supporters of biomedical funding, and will continue to
advocate for it.
The good news is more attention is being given to scientific
issues, and scientists are starting to
engage
more with policy makers and the public. If the trend continues, I believe
progress will be made before this congressional term is up in 2016, which is
something we can all look forward to… hopefully.
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| Slow clap for effort? |
Thanks for reading and cheers to your brain!
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