Well, Republican New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg seems
intent on eliminating science from the climate change debate.
Gregg, the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce,
slipped in a last minute rider to the just passed CJS Appropriations bill that exempts the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from complying with the mandates
of the Data Quality Act. The DQA guarantees the use
of sound science in policy making by ensuring and maximizing the quality,
objectivity, utility and integrity of scientific information federal agencies
use. If approved, NOAA would be the only agency exempt from sound science.
NOAA's DQA regulations are available here.
NOAA, of course, oversees the National Climatic Data Center and is the lead
agency in conducting research into the existence and effects of climate change.
By exempting NOAA, this provision will prevent an honest evaluation of the
science of climate change from occurring and ensure that future policy
decisions are based not on sound science but rather on junk science.
The rider is on page 52 of the .pdf version of the CJSJ approps
bill as marked up 9-15-2004. It is included in the NOAA Operation, Research,
Facilities and Systems Acquisitions section of the bill.
Provided further, That section 515 of Public
Law 106-554 and any regulations and guidelines promulgated under such authority
shall not apply on or after the date of enactment to research and data
collection, or information analysis conducted by or for the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration.
This is a sad day for the truth.
UPDATE: Folks, this bill has actually
passed out of the full Appropriations Committee already. If you care about the
truth, if you care about future of our nation's economy, if you care about
beating George Soros and MoveOn.org at their tricky games, I urge you to call
your Congressman and Senators now and insist that they not vote for passage of
the CJS Appropriations Bill until this atrocious language is stripped out. You
can get the contact information for your senator here and
your Congressman/woman here
WELCOME to everyone from Kim duToit's. Please, please, please call your
congressman and Senators today and make sure this outrageous language is
stripped from the CJS Appropriations bill. Then, come back here
and browse around. I'll be on the Hill most of the day trying to
beat this ugly beast, and should have an update on the status and what happened
posted sometime this afternoon.
UPDATE: Thanks to Ed "What The" Heckman at Kim's site for
pointing out that my link didn't take you to the actual bill. Instead, it took
you to a matrix on the status of all the current approrpiations bills (that
included links to House and Senate versions of each bill and the relevant
Committee Reports). I've updated the link and you can review matrix here.
The House Bill is H.R. 4754 sponsored by my congressman Frank Wolf.
The Senate Bill is S. 2809 sponsored by Judd Gregg.
UPDATE: I've heard some indication that the wording was slipped in by
Fritz Hollings (D-SC) and his staff during markup. Hollings is the ranking
Democrat on the committee. Feel free to direct your anger at him too. What we
don't know is whether he snuck this in, placed it in with Greggs assistance
and/or blessings, or whhether the language was put in by Gregg alone. We also
do not know who gave the language to the subcommittee, though some
have speculated that its John McCain.