How Republicans reshaped the House science committee

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Lamar Smith has made his mark on science. As chairman of the US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, the Texas Republican has launched dozens of investigations into alleged wrongdoing by scientists, environmental groups and government officials. And he shows no signs of slowing down.

Since 2013, Smith has probed everything from individual National Science Foundation grants to government air-quality regulations — issuing an unprecedented 24 subpoenas along the way. And although the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is foundering in the polls, the party is poised to retain control of the House of Representatives in the 8 November election. That means that Smith is likely to remain at the helm of the science committee for at least two more years.

“Members of the committee seem to be somewhat perplexed that we got to this point.”
Whatever the future brings, one thing is clear: the panel has shed its long-standing reputation as a bastion of collegial, bipartisan debate. “This committee is a microcosm of Congress as a whole,” says David Goldston, who served as chief of staff to former chairman Sherwood Boehlert (Republican, New York) from 2001 to 2006. “Things have gotten ever more polarized, and at some point, the science committee wasn’t going to be an exception.”

Although he won the chairmanship four years ago, Smith didn’t shift his investigations into high gear until 2015. That’s when the committee voted along party lines to grant him unilateral authority to issue subpoenas — a powerful tool to compel witness testimony or access to sensitive do ents.

At that point, the panel had not issued a subpoena since the early 1990s, when it probed safety and pollution violations at a US government nuclear-weapons facility in Colorado. But Smith has taken liberal advantage of his new authority, aided by an influx of staff recruited from another House committee that specializes in investigations.

“It’s just been one case after another,” says Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, the highest-ranking Democrat on the panel. “Members of the committee seem to be somewhat perplexed that we got to this point.”

But the panel’s Republican staff says that such complaints are sour grapes, and note that Smith has sought a role for Democrats in several probes. “There is a knee-jerk reaction — no matter what investigation it is — to criticize the majority,” says Mark Marin, the Republican staff director for two of the science panel’s subcommittees.

http://www.nature.com/news/how-repub...mittee-1.20829

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[boutons_deux]

Lamar Smith is old, white, born-wealthy San Antonio asshole. He's also Christian SCIENTIST. Christ the Scientist must be proud of Lamar.

Repugs up everything they can.