A Few Bills to Watch

On February 10, Rep. Michael McCaul [R-TX] introduced H.R. 957: Green Energy Education Act of 2009.  The Congressional Research Service offers the following summary:

Green Energy Education Act of 2009 - Authorizes the Secretary of Energy to contribute energy research and development funds to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program to support graduate education related to such energy projects.

Authorizes the Secretary to contribute funds for advanced energy technology research and development for high performance buildings to the NSF for curriculum development to improve undergraduate or graduate interdisciplinary engineering and architecture education related to the design and construction of such buildings.

 

This measure is still in the first stage of the legislative process; it has been introduced, and referred to the Committee on Science and Technology.   Interestingly, McCaul introduced the very same bill in 2007.  The bill passed the House with no opposition, but was never voted on in the Senate.  Will things be different this time?

 

There are several pieces of introduced legislation that relate to climate science, all of which will be tracked as they progress through the process.

H.R. 327: National Hurricane Research Initiative Act of 2009

H.R. 14: Federal Ocean Acidification Research And Monitoring Act of 2009

S. 173: Federal Ocean Acidification Research And Monitoring Act of 2009

H.R. 300: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Act

These bills have been introduced (the Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act, notably, in both the House and the Senate), but are still in preliminary stages.  Their fate may be instructive about this administration’s relationship with climate science.

An interesting counter-point:  H.R. 554: National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2009 , which essentially requires reporting ongoing projects to the public (assumedly in the interest of accountability) passed the House quickly, and awaits consideration by the Senate.     

Legislating for Science '09

This is an ambitious attempt to track important science policy relevant legislation as it moves through congress.  Govtrack is a great resource which I (Ashwin Ravikumar) will be using extensively to stay on top of what is happening in Congress.

Commentary will focus on the politicization of science, with frequent inclusion of analyses of congressmen and women's votes for and against bills.  In particular, it will be interesting to watch how legislation that is on the floor right now is shaping the new administration's relationship with science policy; what are the most salient considerations that shape governmental priorities for allocating funding and support?   

While the scope of science policy is very large, and I haven't selected any particular area to focus on yet, there is a very good chance that as this session of congress progresses, certain areas of policy will be more contenious, more important, and indeed more interesting than others.

Also, due to the way parliamentary procedure works, this blog may not track legislation in a way that follows any particular chronology.